The Loathing of Commercial Capitalism Has Ancient Roots

From FEE.org:

The Ancient World

Consider the following examples.

Hesiod, the Greek poet who lived in 8th century BC, believed that human history could be divided into golden, silver, bronze, heroic and iron ages. The defining characteristics of the golden age, he thought, were common property and peace. The defining characteristics of his contemporary iron age were profit-making and violence.

In Homer’s Odyssey, which was probably written in the 8th century BC, the Greek hero Odysseus is insulted for resembling a captain of a merchant ship with a “greedy eye on freight and profit.” According to 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus, the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great dismissed his Spartan enemies by saying,

“I have never yet been afraid of any men, who have a set place in the middle of their city, where they come together to cheat each other and forswear themselves. Cyrus intended these words as a reproach against all the Greeks, because of their having market-places where they buy and sell….”

Writing in the 4th century BC, Plato envisaged an ideal society ruled by “guardians,” who had no private property, so as not to “tear the city in pieces by differing about ‘mine’ and ‘not mine.’” He observed that “all the classes engaged in retail and wholesale trade...are disparaged and subjected to contempt and insults.” In the ideal state, Plato averred, only non-citizens should engage in commerce. Conversely, a citizen who becomes a merchant should be punished with imprisonment for “shaming his family.” Even the hyper-rational Aristotle agreed that “exchange [of goods for profit] is justly condemned because it involves … profiting at others’ expense.”

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The Christian Age

The hostility of Roman Catholic theologians to commerce is well known. Consider the Decretum Gratiani, which was the standard compilation of canon law from the time that Gratian published it in the mid-12th century AD until 1917. Accordingly, “Whoever buys something … so that it may be a material for making something else, he is no merchant. But the man who buys it in order to sell it unchanged … is cast out from God’s temple.”

Protestant theologians agreed. According to the economic historian R. H. Tawney, Martin Luther “hated commerce and capitalism.” In Das Kapital, Karl Marx approvingly quotes Luther as saying, “Great wrong and unchristian thievery and robbery are committed all over the world by merchants.” And John Calvin noted that the life of the merchant closely resembles that of a prostitute, for it is “full of tricks and traps and deceits.” [read more]

It’s sad the early Christians held negative attitudes toward the free-market system because Jesus never said anything negative about the free-market system. Yes, He said “love of money is the root of all evil” but a lot anti-capitalists seem to forgot the “love of” part. Money by itself is neither good nor bad. The free-market system like all other social systems isn’t perfect and never will be. Actually, love of power is far worse than love of money if you think about it. And of course, there is the verse that goes “It is easier for a heavy rope to pass through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (That, by the way, is the correct translation. It isn’t “camel.”) Some might say the verse means that the rich never get to heaven. Not true. He just means you can’t buy your way into heaven.

As for Karl Marx quoting Luther, the Left always coopt the Bible and other Christian authors when it suits their purposes. Marx doesn’t really admire Luther or any Christians for that matter. He was anti-Christian. Actually, John Calvin’s quote sound like a politician than like a businessperson.