Paradox, People, and Project
Paradox, People, and Project
Accompanying the development of market capitalism were the obvious vices of competitiveness and pride, and the traditional republican bugbears of luxury and greed. These social pathogens threatened first the virtue of individual Christians within the market mechanism, and by extension the stability of the republic itself. Some believers therefore reasoned that the “principles of trade are immoral and unchristian,” and that “no prosperous merchant can be a good Christian.” In this Manichean view of things, the structure of the modernizing economy was so rotten and its temptations so irresistible that it simply could not be reconciled with Christianity's principles and practices. There was apparently no way to be both moral and successful, and given the choice, some Christians were conceivably prepared to forsake business altogether.
Keywords: capitalism, competitiveness, pride, Christianity, trade, modernizing economy, luxury, greed
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
