It's Christmas. For Christians, it is the celebration of Christ's birth, although most Christians agree that Christ probably was born in the spring, most likely in April. The early church chose Dec. 25 to take the holiday celebrating the winter solstice and the lengthening minutes of sunlight each day away from the pagans. It worked.
So, why am I writing an economics column linking Christianity and capitalism? Because it is the premise of many acknowledged scholars that Christianity created capitalism. I subscribe to that thesis. In fact, I think a review of the history can lead to no other conclusion.
And you don't have to be a believer in Christ to accept that history. The economic historian David Landes, who calls himself a nonbeliever, agrees. "The main factors in this great economic achievement of Western civilization are mainly religious," he says.
In fact, the link between Christianity and capitalism has been generally accepted for some time. What is new is that until as recently as the late 1700s, the link generally was considered to be between Protestantism and capitalism.
The basis for that is what's usually described as the Protestant Ethic. In layman's terms, it says that it is your moral obligation to work as hard and as efficiently as possible. If you make money, it is not a sin. But, you must do good deeds with that money.
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Now, more recent historical research moves the link as far back as the 1100 to 1300 A.D. time period. Today, several historians credit the founding of capitalism mostly to the Cistercian religious order.
In the May and June 2000 edition of Religion and Liberty, Michael Novak writes that, "the Cistercians created the preconditions of capitalism, especially: the rule of law and a bureaucracy for resolving disputes rationally; a specialized and mobile labor force; the institutional permanence that allows for transgenerational investment and sustained intellectual and physical efforts, together with the accumulation of longterm capital; and a zest for discovery, enterprise, wealth creation and new undertakings."
They did so because they were few in number and realized that to have the money to create and sustain their order, both at the time and over time, they would have to do just what they did as described above. The Cistercians broke with the feudalism of the Benedictines out of necessity, and that necessity created capitalism.
Historian Randall Collins writes the Cistercians had "the Protestant ethic without Protestantism."
Historian Jean Gimpel wrote in his 1976 book, "The Industrial Revolution of the Middle Ages," that the Cistecian monasteries "were the most economically effective units that had ever existed in Europe, and perhaps in the world, before that time."
In fact, canon law at the time enshrined as a legal principle that communities such as the Cistercians, like cathedral chapters and monasteries before them, could act as legal individuals.
A more complete study of Christianity's founding of capitalism can be found in Rodney Stark's book "The Victory of Reason. How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success." This book demonstrates that it was the Church that created the institutions of capitalism, and these creations were pre-Reformation.
It was not capitalism as we know it today. In fact, it was not the capitalism of the Protestant Ethic. It was, however, the basis of capitalism.
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This also does not mean that the Protestant Ethic was not important to capitalism. It was. In fact, it was the Protestant Ethic (with its requirement that all must work as hard as possible) that brought capitalism to the masses. It was the Protestant Ethic that broke feudalism and freed the serfs.
The capitalism of the Cistercians was important to their organization, and it began the concepts of ownership, property rights and all those things that created our society. However, without the Protestant Ethic, capitalism, with all its individual freedoms and rights, would not exist. The Protestant ethic brought capitalism out of the church.
On this Christmas Eve, I am writing about the relationship between Christianity and capitalism because it was Christianity-based capitalism that created the wealth and individual freedom we have today.
Kingsbury can be contacted by emailing to kae@invisimax.com , or phoning 738-0028. Comments are always welcome.
