In Charging Interest: Medieval Wisdom for a Modern Financial Crisis, Michael Grzonka translates Martin Luther’s treatise "Exhortation to the Clergy to Preach Against Usury." Grzonka approaches Martin Luther’s original text from the perspective of the modern reader. In this manner Luther’s original work is modified to include section headers and is disaggregated into chapters, each of which is followed by a summary, review questions, and study questions, making the text adaptable for courses as well as self-study and reflection. Grzonka ends the text with “leader’s notes,” which are intended to assist in directing responses to chapter questions, along with a section devoted to additional resources.
The basic points of discussion in the text are the impact of interest rates on social welfare and the normalization of greed. Luther’s discussion focuses on usury, defined as the charging of excessive interest, and the pervasiveness of monetary gain as a means of establishing an individual’s sense of status. The discussion highlights the difference between status that is achieved by doing work aligned with God’s commandments and status achieved by exploiting the vulnerability of those in need. Building on this, Luther articulates a connection seemingly relevant today, where social status is based on financial gain and implicitly associated with religious or moral virtue. As addressed in the text, though financial gain may be based on exploitation, the exploiter seeks affirmation of their status, and both actively promotes regulation legitimizing their exploitation and at some time, seeks to redistribute a portion of their gains through philanthropy. The desire is to appear good rather than to be good, with good being understood as conformity to prescriptions of scripture. Further, the exploiter reaps the worldly benefits of exploitation and seeks to obscure their hypocrisy through gaining favor with their clergyman. With money as a lure, even the clergy fall prey, performing actions inconsistent with their station. To this point, Luther urges the clergy to speak against usury and condemn the exploitive behavior that reduces society to a hierarchy, creating and normalizing marginalization of the vulnerable.
The book distinguishes itself by connecting moral constraint, economic activity, and social welfare, a combination of factors that is arguably overlooked due to the siloed status of academic disciplines. In this manner, Luther’s work implicitly surfaces the need for interdisciplinary evaluation, as well as how academic bureaucracies limit cross disciplinary communication and collaboration. Specifically, Luther highlights that religion and economics are interdependent, and social outcomes are simply the manifestation of religion and economics in practice.
Grzonka notes in his introduction three points of relevance for Luther’s comments on usury in the present period: economic reality is an outcome of manmade activity, no economic system descends from God, and the church needs to take an active role in economic discourse. These points are easily accessible in the text. However, another even more significant connection between the past and present, which Grzonka alludes to, can be found in the remarks of Seneca who noted even centuries before Luther that every vice is an addiction such that the more it is allowed, the more insatiable it becomes. In other words, restraint is necessary for human welfare. Interestingly, when looking at the current teachings and behaviors of the socially constructed economic framework that shapes our global market culture, insatiability and greed are normalized. As understanding how we have come to the present day defining of “normal” is arguably important in promoting any modification, Grzonka’s contribution via translation of Luther is relevant to understanding that human nature is far less based on intrinsic characteristics and more aligned to accepted social norms.
Madhavi Venkatesan is an associate teachihng professor in the Department of Economics at Northeastern University.
Madhavi Venkatesan
Date Of Review:
September 1, 2023