Commentary
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church, reflecting Plato and Aristotle, considered money lending charging interest to be a grave evil, for reasons ranging from the metaphysical to practical concerns regarding exploitation of the poor and personal responsibility.
While there was never an absolute prohibition of providing credit stated in either the Old or New Testaments, or even in medieval doctrinal pronouncements, any practice or condition that mitigated the integrity of the concept of private property was viewed as problematic.
“Lending money at interest gives us the opportunity to exploit the passions or necessities of other men by compelling them to submit to ruinous conditions,” observed the Belgian Jesuit moral theologian Fr. Arthur Vermeersch. Such a description of the practice of loaning may conjure the image of heartless, miserly bankers like Lionel Barrymore’s character Old Man Potter in the film “It’s a Wonderful Life.” …