Gottesblog

For the next several parts of our series we will be discussing the early church fathers, whose collective witness on the question of usury is both extensive and strikingly unified. Given the breadth of their engagement with this topic, our survey must necessarily be selective. To illustrate the remarkable consistency with which these theologians opposed usury, I will present brief representative excerpts from a curated group of fifteen influential figures: Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hilary of Poitiers, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, and Leo the Great.

A name is not just an accident; neither is it a convention which can be repealed by majority vote at the next meeting; once a thing has been given a name, it appears to have a certain autonomous right to that name, so that it could not be changed without imperiling the foundations of the world.

In the previous part of this series (Pt. II), I noted that in the centuries following Luther, certain theologians began to interpret the Old Testament prohibition against lending at interest as pertaining to civil rather than moral law. This view, however, stands in contrast to the prevailing consensus throughout most of church history, and it was not shared by many faithful voices in the early years of the LCMS. Nonetheless, admittedly, some respected Lutheran theologians adopted this position (the rationale for which will be examined later in the series).