» Saturday, 11 October A.D. 2008
no interest finance
I recently read Islamic finance and the possibility of rebirth. Quotes: “We've never really grounded our financial culture in solid principles, other than the sole one of making as much money as possible,” and ”Perhaps there's another way. A shining example that has come out in the past fifty years, one that casts serious doubt on the Western no-holds-barred style, is the recent development of the principles of Islamic Finance.” Hands up: how many people think that this would have been seriously considered if it had said “Christian finance” or even “Judaic finance”? At least the commenters have some sense and are pointing out that the no-interest prohibition goes back farther than Islam.
I remember flipping through a historical treatment of this issue (not charging interest) in the church, but I couldn't find any examples of how it actually worked on in practice, e.g. what the transactions looked like. I remember it being mostly about to what extent the church permitted interest to be charged, depending on who was doing the borrowing and the lending. Perhaps I read too quickly. It's too bad things like this don't get much play in Christian theories of economics. Or maybe I just haven't read the right Christian economists yet.
posted by Nate @ 3:36PM