Of the many recent articles about the credit crunch, few have brought a biblical perspective. But if ‘everything under heaven belongs to’ God, would he have remained entirely silent on so major a human activity?
The poverty of wealth
The obvious biblical theme to consult is that of money. Scripture portrays wealth as a blessing when it is the fruit of covenant obedience, but the lust for money readily overwhelms justice and oppresses the poor, with a particular ability to inspire idolatry.
For Paul, the lust for money is the root of all kinds of evil#. Jesus singles out the service of wealth as incompatible with the service of God#. Wealth has an affinity with idolatry in a way that work, for example, does not. The value of labour is widely acknowledged in Scripture, and is at the root of what theologians call the ‘cultural mandate’ — to have dominion and care for the earth. But whereas labour can produce value, Scripture is very suspicious of money’s ability to produce extra value by earning ‘interest’. Indeed, ‘lending at interest’ was explicitly banned within Israel#. Thus Calvin insisted that the charging of interest must serve the common good, and forbade it where it oppressed the poor. Modern banking has moved very far from these principles. Most of us have little idea what our investments are used for, although recently ethical banking has emerged.
