Abstract
This conversation about theology and economics can tend to be a strictly contemporary discourse, with scholars often defaulting to a truncated sense of historical context and failing to look backward to pre-modern conceptions of political economy as a tool for contemporary reflection. This is, in my view, a tragedy, as some of the finest theorizing about economics in the ancient world was done, not by a professional class of empirically focused scientists, but by professional philosophers who were often also professional theologians and church leaders. In many cases, patristic reflection on economics and politics offered a tight integration between social ethics, driven by theological reflection and economic analysis. In seeking to share a small sample of this kind of Christian reflection on economics for this volume, I undertake a very specific look at one Patristic thinker in order to demonstrate that we might look back toward the ancient world with hope for creative solutions to what seem intractable problems today.
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Notes
For an extended account of this complexity, see Wendy Mayer, “Poverty and Society in the World of John Chrysostom,” in Social and Political Life in Late Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
Wendy Mayer, “The Audience(s) for Patristic Social Teaching,” in Reading Patristic Texts on Social Ethics: Issues and Challenges for Twenty-First-Century Christian Social Thought, eds. Johan Leemans, Brian J. Matz, and Johan Verstraeten (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2011), 87. For further, more generic analysis along these lines, see Pauline Allen’s essay in the same volume, “Challenges in Approaching Patristic Texts from the Perspective of Contemporary Catholic Social Teaching.”
Along these lines, see Wendy Mayer, “Poverty and Generosity Towards the Poor in the Time of John Chrysostom,” in Wealth and Poverty in Early Church and Society, ed. Susan R. Holman (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008),
and D. J. MacQueen, “St Augustine’s Concept of Property Ownership,” Recherches Augustiniennes 8 (1972): 187–229.
A classic text on the “ancient economy” is Moses I. Finley, The Ancient Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999 [1973]). For a summary of Fin-ley’s infuence and the development of this discourse,
see Jean Andreau, “Twenty Years After Moses I. Finley’s the Ancient Economy,” in The Ancient Economy, eds. Walter Scheidel and Sitta von Reden (New York: Routledge, 2002).
For an example, see Leslie Kurke, “Money and Mythic History: The Contestation of Transactional Orders in the Fifth Century BC” in The Ancient Economy, eds. Walter Scheidel and Sitta von Reden (New York: Routledge, 2002).
This is based on the work of Jonathan Parry and Maurice Bloch, “Introduction: Money and the Morality of Exchange” in Money and the Morality of Exchange, eds. Parry and Bloch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 23–30.
One recent study which highlights the complex layers of social stratifcation and related duties in the ancient world is Steven J. Friesen, “Poverty in Pauline Studies: Beyond the So-Called New Consensus,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 26, no. 3 (2004): 323–361.
Margaret M. Mitchell, “Silver Chamber Pots and Other Goods Which Are Not Good: John Chrysostom’s Discourse Against Wealth and Possessions,” in Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life, eds. William Schweiker and Charles T. Mathewes (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 89.
Along these lines, see Jaclyn LaRae Maxwell, Christianization and Communication in Late Antiquity: John Chrysostom and His Congregation in Antioch (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Cf. Douglas A Harper, Working Knowledge: Skill and Community in a Small Shop (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).
Jean-Marie Salamito, “Christianisme Antique Et Économie: Raison Et Modalités Dune Rencontre Historique,” Antiquité Tardive 14 (2006): 27–37.
Cf. George A. Akerlof and Rachel E. Kranton, Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
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© 2015 Jeremy Kidwell and Sean Doherty
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Kidwell, J. (2015). Radical or Realist? An Inquiry into the Social Ethics of John of Chrysostom as a Model for Resourcing the Tradition in Reflection on the Common Good. In: Kidwell, J., Doherty, S. (eds) Theology and Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137536518_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137536518_9
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