Franciscan Wealth: The Roots of Franciscan Economic Thought

Giacomo Todeschini
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Giacomo Todeschini: Independent researcher

A chapter in Rethinking Economics Starting from the Commons, 2023, pp 61-70 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The Franciscan conception of poverty (that is the Franciscan interpretation of Christian perfection) has been an intrinsically economic language. Therefore, it has formed some basic categories in the economic way of thinking of western civilization, starting from those of western Protestants. It was not a chance that Franciscan advocates of the absolute poverty were also authors of writings on commerce, prices and value of things, and credit transactions. Nevertheless, Franciscan economics was not at the origins of the invention of the “spirit” of capitalism in a Catholic key, or the anticipation of the date of birth of economic science. Perhaps it was something more disconcerting. In fact, the Franciscans’ approach to market economy reveals that it was the most rigorous Christian religiosity, namely the voluntary choice of being poor and waiving the right of property, that formed a large part of the vocabulary in western economics.

Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-031-23324-1_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-23324-1_5

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