1st century AD

Economic principles of Christianity

The New Testament, written in the second half of the 1st century AD and in the early 2nd century AD, as well as the writings of the Church Fathers, incorporated many of the economic teachings of the earlier Jewish texts. In particular: the duty of charity (from the Latin caritas, meaning love) towards those in need and the ban on loans at interest (which the Church maintained for several centuries, while allowing certain exceptions). Christianity placed particular emphasis on the spirit of poverty: money was seen as a distraction from the essential, which is man's relationship with God and with his fellow men. Similarly, Christianity also stressed that there should be a separation between the spiritual and the The New Testament, written in the second half of the 1st century AD and in the early 2nd century AD, as well as the writings of the Church Fathers, incorporated many of the economic teachings of the earlier Jewish texts. In particular: the duty of charity (from the Latin caritas, meaning love) towards those in need and the ban on loans at interest (which the Church maintained for several centuries, while allowing certain exceptions).

Christianity placed particular emphasis on the spirit of poverty: money was seen as a distraction from the essential, which is man's relationship with God and with his fellow men. Similarly, Christianity also stressed that there should be a separation between the spiritual and the material (as when Jesus drove the merchants from the Temple).