The Hinge is Moving: A Research Dispatch
From the Library of Pete Hamm
To the first subscribers of The Moral Hinge—thank you. You are joining me at the start of a two-year inquiry into the “business of religion.”
My desk is currently a collision of three worlds: the economic realism of Peter Brown, the geopolitics of Henri Pirenne, and the deep philosophy of Charles Taylor. As I dive into these texts, a singular theme is emerging: The 8th century was the moment the world’s “social imaginary” fractured.
The Ledger: When Capital Entered the Church
In Through the Eye of a Needle, Peter Brown captures the “vulgar” reality of the early Church’s transition. He writes:
“It was the sudden, massive entry of the wealthy into the Christian churches that changed the history of the West. It forced the Church to develop a new language of wealth and a new theology of giving—one that would eventually provide the bedrock for the economic structures of the medieval world.”
This wasn’t just a spiritual shift; it was a management crisis. The Church had to learn to handle the “moral cost of capital,” a challenge that sits at the very root of modern income inequality.
The Hinge: Without Mohammed, No Charlemagne
But this economic shift didn’t happen in a vacuum. Henri Pirenne’s Mohammed and Charlemagne provides the geopolitical pivot. He famously argues:
“The cause of the break with the tradition of antiquity was the rapid and unexpected advance of Islam... It is therefore strictly correct to say that without Mohammed, Charlemagne would have been inconceivable.”
When the Mediterranean “highway” was severed, the West was forced to look inward and northward. This isolation codified the distinct “Western” and “Islamic” identities we navigate today.
The Synthesis
As I move into Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, I am looking for how these physical and economic separations created the “buffered self” of the modern world. How did we move from a world where every coin was a moral choice to a secular era of disenchanted finance?
I’m currently halfway through Taylor’s first chapter, and the climb is steep—but the view is worth it.
Full synthesis coming on March 14th. Back to the books.
— Pete