Tianna Browne
December 11, 2014
MA311 Essay: Usury
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, usury is the lending of money with exorbitant interest rates. “If you lend money to any of My people, even the poor with thee, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor, neither shalt thou lay upon him interest.” (Exodus 22:24) When it comes to religious beliefs and usury it is seen as something negative. The early teaching of the Church clearly prohibited usury and yet now it seems that this position has changed somewhat. In today’s society, usury is a part of everyday life. People take out loans for school, to purchase cars, houses, etc. For all the money borrowed, ample amounts of interest is placed upon it.
From the beginning of time, many Jews were merchants. This provided a base as they began expanding into money lending activities, including usury. In medieval times, it was disapproved of and an immoral act by the Christian church. The act of usury was believed to be a mortal sin, and those who practiced such greed were understood to end in eternal damnation in Hell. The idea of profiting from someone else’s' need for money was believed by medieval Christianity to be the antithesis of compassion, generosity, and charity. Christ was upheld as an example of poverty, non-materialism, and abstinence. Those who had a large quantity of money to lend were obsessed with extreme greed for material things and didn’t need any of those things. Making money for doing absolutely nothing went against Christian medieval understandings of decency, justice, honest work, and morality. In essence, usury was perceived as an insensitive system of exploitation by which the already wealthy could get increasingly wealthier when in fact they already have more than enough wealth.
In Islam interest rates are prohibited. The Islamic perspective on interest rates is that they are a kind of