Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'usury'

May 04, 2016

Christianity and the Rise of Capital

“Money has not only the character of money,” says Samuel Gregg in this week’s Acton Commentary, “but it also has a productive character which we commonly call capital.” Like all medieval clergy, Olivi and Bernardine fiercely opposed usury. Continue Reading...

May 03, 2016

Now Available: ‘On Sale, Securities, and Insurance’ by Leonardus Lessius

In his famous work, History of Economic Analysis, economist Joseph A. Schumpeter gives a favorable nod to the works of Leonardus Lessius (1554–1623), sparking a fair amount of interest in the 16th-century Jesuit moral theologian. Continue Reading...

March 08, 2016

Alabama Church Pays Off Payday Loans

About twenty years ago I made some terrible choices and found myself in a serious financial bind. The amount I needed wasn’t much — about $200 — but without it I wouldn’t have been able to pay my rent. Continue Reading...

February 25, 2015

How Churches Can Protect the Poor Against Predatory Lending

Near the top of the list of things I despise is companies that take advantage of the plight of the poor and desperate. But just above that on my list is something I hate even more: being poor and desperate. Continue Reading...

February 25, 2015

Keeping The Poor Impoverished And Incarcerated

While payday loans can help some people out of a financial jam, they tend to prey on the poor and create a usury situation. Now that same predatory financial monster is moving into a new territory: bonds, courts fees and fines. Continue Reading...

February 10, 2015

Now Available: ‘A Treatise on Money’ by Luis de Molina

CLP Academic has now released A Treatise on Money, a newly translated selection from Luis de Molina’s larger work, On Justice and Right (De iustitia et iure). The release is part of the growing series from Acton: Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law. Continue Reading...

December 18, 2014

Now Available: ‘On Exchange’ by Martín de Azpilcueta (Doctor Navarrus)

CLP Academic has now released On Exchange, a new translation of a key section in Martín de Azpilcueta’s Manual de confesores y penitents, his most influential work. Originally published in 1549, the section was included as one of four appendices to the Manual, offering commentary on Gregory IX’s prohibition of nautical usury. Continue Reading...

December 08, 2014

Did the Catholic Church Change Its Doctrine on Usury?

Usury is the practice of making immoral monetary loans intended to unfairly enrich the lender. But what, for Christians, counts as an immoral loan? For much of church history, any interest was considered immoral. Continue Reading...

July 08, 2014

David Brat’s Religious Virtues

In a piece today for the NYT Magazine, economics reporter Binyamin Appelbaum examines David Brat’s fusion of faith and free-market economics. Appelbaum finds that mixture problematic, to say the least, but it’s hard to sort out whether it is the religious faith or the free-market sympathies that Appelbaum finds more troubling. Continue Reading...

May 06, 2014

Now Available: ‘On Exchange and Usury’ by Thomas Cajetan

Christian’s Library Press has released a new translation of two treatises on exchange and usury by Thomas Cajetan (1469-1534), a Dominican theologian, philosopher, and cardinal. Although best known for his commentaries on the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, Cajetan also wrote dozens of other works, including short treatises on socioeconomic problems. Continue Reading...

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