Managing Financial Resources in Late Antiquity - Greek Fathers' Views on Hoarding and Saving

Managing Financial Resources in Late Antiquity

Contents

Abbreviations

Chapter 1 Introduction and Acknowledgements

Chapter 2 Historical Background: Early Christian Conceptions of Hoarding

The New Testament World: Social and Economic Context

Intellectual Encounters: The Greek and Roman Literature on Household Management

Conceptualizing Hoarding

The Synoptic Gospels: Hoarding as Endemic to Human Acquisitiveness

The Excesses of Wealth Accumulation

Framing Early Christian Rhetoric on Hoarding

Hoarding Denounced: Wealth Employed to Perpetuate Injustice

Hoarding Mitigated Through Circulation of Surplus: Alleviating the Needy in Paul

Hoarding Abolished: The Ideal of Sharing Possessions

Hoarding as a Morally Perilous Practice

Hoarding as a Socially Detrimental Practice: Delivering Hoarders to Divine Judgment

Hoarding as the Corollary of Rapid Economic Growth: Endangering Faithfulness to Christ

Hoarding as a Form of Alienation from Fellow Believers: The Need for Benevolent Aid

Chapter 3 Justifying Savings but not the Pursuit of Wealth: Contradictions, Tensions and Accommodations in Early Patristic Texts

Economic Pursuits in the Graeco-Roman Urban Centres: The Social Setting

Glimpses of Hoarding and Saving in Graeco-Roman Literature of the Imperial Period

Justification and Distribution of Surplus

Work Ethic, Business Activities and Trade

The Justification of Moderate Prosperity

An Organicist View of Society

Welcoming the Rich

The Framework of Christian Discourse on Savings

Universalizing Moral Exhortations for Charity

Two Distinct Models of Almsgiving

Motives for Almsgiving

Chapter 4 Savings for Redistributive Purposes: Stewardship of Wealth in the Teachings of Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom

Sketching Out the Setting: New Responsibilities and Challenges

Aspects of Basil of Caesarea’s Views on Property and Wealth

Famine in Cappadocia, 368/9

Private Vs. Common Property, Hoarding Vs. Sharing

Institutionalizing Poverty Relief: Basil’s Pt?chotropheion and the Bequest of Gregory of Nazianzus

Delineating John Chrysostom’s Views on Hoarding

The Ideals of Self-sufficiency and Stewardship of Wealth

The Monastic Stewardship Paradigm

Hoarding as a Socially and Individually Inefficient Practice

A Call for Almsgiving

Usury in Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom

Chapter 5 Fifth-Century Patristic Conceptions of Savings and Capital: Isidore of Pelusium and Theodoret of Cyrrhus

Isidore of Pelusium

Pelusium

Isidore’s Attitude Toward Wealth: Benefaction vs. Accumulation and Luxury Consumption

Theodosius II Exhorted to Disperse Wealth

Mismanagement of Church Property: “Who Watches the Watchers?”

Eusebius, Bishop of Pelusium

Two of Eusebius’ Accomplices

Presbyter Zosimus

Martinianus the Oikonomos

An Assessment of Isidore’s Accusations of Ecclesiastical Mismanagement

Theodoret of Cyrrhus

Theodoret as a Civic Patron

Theodoret as a Mediator

Wealth, Poverty and Divine Providence

Economic Exchange Viewed as Social Cooperation

Theodoret’s Conception of Social Dynamics: An Appraisal

Chapter 6 Contextualizing Patristic Concepts of Hoarding and Saving

Economic, Monetary and Social Transformations

Debasements, Inflation and Reforms in an Age of Crisis

Shifting Gradually into the “Byzantine” World

The Constantinian Solidus: A Lever for Change

The Emperor as the “Lord of the Gold”

Imperial Reserves

The Formation of a “Golden” Elite

Melania the Younger: A Case Study of a Super-Rich Person’s Divestment

The First Steps of Divestment: Italy

The Role of Imperial Intervention in the Sale of the Couple’s Property

Melania’s “Poverty”

Coveted Patrons in Africa

The African Bishops’ Advice: A Turning Point in the Couple’s Benefaction

Transferring Monetary Capital in the Mediterranean

Chapter 7 Conclusions

Bibliography

Index