Commercial Society and Christian Virtue

From earliest apostolic and patristic times, Christian writers have generally been suspicious of the common human desire to improve one's economic status. In Britain, however, by the end of the seventeenth century, this suspicion had all but vanished as most Christians began to accommodate themselves to the exigencies of an increasingly dynamic commercial society. This article takes up the early eighteenth-century controversy over the compatibility of traditional Christian moral virtues with the demands of economic and material progress as reflected in the writings of the two most important antagonists in the controversy, Bernard Mandeville and William Law. Although both Mandeville and Law spoke the language of Christian rigorism and perfectionism, and proclaimed attachment to the full austerity of the Christian Gospels, Mandeville, it is explained, was really a hedonist in disguise who feigned attachment to traditional Christian and Stoic ascetic principles merely to be able to discredit those principles. Law, it is explained, was a man of uncommon piety and devoutness who was shocked by the increasing secularism and materialism of his age, and who sought to recall his contemporaries to a life of true Christian holiness. The article concludes with an evaluation of the relative merits of the positions of each of the two thinkers

Asceticism · Flourishing · Materialism · Piety · Political science · Politics · Secularism · Theology · Virtue · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

• The dark side of recognition

  Open Access•Robin Douglas•British Journal for the History…•2024

  Incluir item

• Liberty, Poverty and Charity in the Political Economy of Josiah Tucker and Joseph Butler

  Open Access•Peter Xavier Price•Modern Intellectual History•2017

  Incluir item

• Religion et Etat

  Open Access•Nicolas Garant, Jean-François Lehoux et al.•Social Compass•1993

  Incluir item

• Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

  C Delisle Burns, R H Tawney•Journal of the Royal Institute of…•1930

  Incluir item

• Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism

  A V Judges, Α V Judges et al.•Economica•1934

  Incluir item

• Eine Geschichte der Wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung Englands

  M Epstein, Lujo Brentano•The Economic Journal•1928

  Incluir item

• An Economic History of the British Isles

  W H B Court•The Economic Journal•1937

  Incluir item

• The Social Thought of Bernard Mandeville

  Open Access•Thomas A Horne•Social Thought of Bernard…•1978

  Incluir item

• The Ambivalence of Bernard Mandeville

  Malcolm Jack, H Monro et al.•The Philosophical Quarterly•1976

  Incluir item