We never hear the word “usury” anymore. The early Christian Fathers taught that usury was a sin for which one could be damned to Hell. It was considered to be equivalent to robbery. Usury, of course, is the lending of money for interest.
The charging of interest is basic to modern capitalism. Capitalists refer to it as “the time value of money.” But, as Aristotle pointed out long ago, money itself doesn’t do anything over time. It cannot naturally reproduce itself. The concept of “the time value of money” was invented by people who wanted to make a profit, not by working, but by sitting back and “lending.”
Usury has traditionally been considered a sin because it is a way to exploit the poor. Those with money lend to those without money and expect back, not only the principal amount, but an additional amount (the interest) of what the poor person did not have in the first place. Collecting interest literally takes from the poor and gives to the wealthy.
The ancient laws against usury did not prevent investment. The rule was that for an investor to share in the profit of a venture, he must also share the risk. Simply investing money and expecting a full return (plus interest) regardless of the outcome of the venture is to profit from simply having money. No work, or effort, or sacrifice is being made at all.
Religious opposition
The Jewish Law as presented in Leviticus is quite clear that usury is not to be charged to any poor person, even to the stranger (Leviticus 25:35-38). However, when the Deuteronomists rewrote the scriptures (and the Tetrateuch became the Pentateuch), the Jews were allowed to charge interest on loans to non-Jews (Deuteronomy 23:19-20).
Islam still prohibits fixed interest-based transactions. Their banks have had to create complex work-around arrangements based on “investments” or “services” rather than “loans” in order to make a profit.
Changing the rules
Because the term “usury” has a centuries-long history as a negative or derogatory term, its use has been quashed and the word itself has been redefined. While “usury” used to refer to any loan made for profit, many dictionaries now define it instead as “excessive” profit on a loan.
So the lesson appears to be that if one really wants to commit a certain sin there are two ways to approach the problem. The first approach is to announce that the behavior is all right to do to strangers, but not to one’s own people. The other approach is to redefine the sin so that it is only a sin if done “excessively” (while deliberately keeping “excessively” undefined).
Our modern money lenders have two standards for setting “not excessive” interest rates: 1. The low bar standard of “is it legal?” and 2. The common capitalist standard known as “whatever the market will bear.” In other words, these well-dressed, comfortable, well-respected, scoundrels live by the standard of “whatever we can get away with.”
Gadianton would be impressed.
Sources: Usury, Wikipedia.
Dave Armstrong, “Why Jesus Opposed the Moneychangers in the Temple,” National Catholic Register, September 26, 2019.
Hilary Osborne, “Islamic finance – the lowdown on sharia-compliant money,” The Guardian, October 29,2013.
Artwork: Carl Bloch (1834-1890), “The Cleansing of the Temple.”