Christianity, Divisions, Fear Manipulation, and Post Modernist Theories

[genkaus]

From the link above:

For the record, simply finding a link to somewhere in the internet that says the same thing as you do does not make you correct.

"Capitalism was developed by the great monastic estates. Throughout the medieval era, the church was by far the largest landowner in Europe, and its liquid assets and annual income probably exceeded that of all of Europe’s nobility added together. Much of that wealth poured into the coffers of the religious orders, not only because they were the largest landowners, but also in payment for liturgical services—Henry VII of England paid a huge sum to have 10,000 masses said for his soul. As rapid innovation in agricultural technology began to yield large surpluses to the religious orders, the church not only began to reinvest profits to increase production, but diversified. Having substantial amounts of cash on hand, the religious orders began to lend money at interest. They soon evolved the mortgage (literally, “dead pledge”) to lend money with land for security, collecting all income from the land during the term of the loan, none of which was deducted from the amount owed. That practice often added to the monastery’s lands because the monks were not hesitant to foreclose. In addition, many monasteries began to rely on a hired labor force and to display an uncanny ability to adopt the latest technological advances. Capitalism had arrived."

I don't see any "Christian" principles involved here. All I see is solid profit motive. Actually, given your Jesus' attitude towards money-lenders, I'd say that the Church's behavior was decidedly unchristian. I'm also curious about why you'd cite Church's actions here where only a few posts back you thought that they - and I quote - "bore more resemblance to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah".

" Augustine, Aquinas, and other major theologians taught that the state must respect private property and not intrude on the freedom of its citizens to pursue virtue.

In arguments borrowed from their Greek predecessors.

In addition, there was the central Christian doctrine that, regardless of worldly inequalities, inequality in the most important sense does not exist: in the eyes of God and in the world to come.
As Paul explained: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor fee, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

That would be socialism. Class distinctions and inequalities are a part and parcel of capitalism.

And church theologians and leaders meant it. Through all prior recorded history, slavery was universal—Christianity began in a world where as much as half the population was in bondage. But by the seventh century, Christianity had become the only major world religion to formulate specific theological opposition to slavery, and, by no later than the 11th century, the church had expelled the dreadful institution from Europe. That it later reappeared in the New World is another matter, although there, too, slavery was vigorously condemned by popes and all of the eventual abolition movements were of religious origins.

Oh they were against slavery alright - when it came to enslaving other
Christians. They even had explicit legal justification when it came to enslaving muslims.

Free labor was an essential ingredient for the rise of capitalism, for free workers can maximize their rewards by working harder or more effectively than before. In contrast, coerced workers gain nothing from doing more. Put another way, tyranny makes a few people richer; capitalism can make everyone richer. Therefore, as the northern Italian city states developed capitalist economies, visitors marveled at their standards of living; many were equally confounded by how hard everyone worked.

The common denominator in all these great historical developments was the Christian commitment to reason.

That was why the West won."

Try doing a little more research next time before posting a right-wing propaganda piece. Mercantilism was the precursor to capitalism. The rise of capitalism as we know it, took place in Great Britain and with the Industrial Revolution. The existence of the feudal system meant that while there was free-labor, there was also tyranny.

The argument you are presenting here - that Christianity came into the world and Christians fought hard to free slaves everywhere and give private property rights to everyone and then all the free people worked together to get richer and thus the magnificent economic system called capitalism was born - that fictional history of capitalism would only be accepted in Tea-Party circles.