To understand the modern wealth gap, we must first understand the institutional framework we inherited. This project is a 23-month inquiry into a specific turning point in Western history: the 8th century, when the Church transitioned from a community of faith into the primary administrative engine of the West.
As we move toward the eventual publication of the book, I am inviting you into the research process. The following texts represent the foundational library for this study. They provide the historical, theological, and economic data we will analyze to map the transition from the “moral mandates” of the early church to the “managerial realities” of the modern world.
The Theological Foundation
St. Basil the Great, On Social Justice: The original moral mandate; a radical 4th-century demand that wealth and resources belong to the community.
Justo Gonzalez, Faith and Wealth: A comprehensive history of how the early Church’s moral stance on economics met the practical realities of the Roman and Medieval worlds.
Eberhard Arnold, The Economy of the Early Church: A detailed study of how the first Christian communities lived out their faith in concrete, sharing-oriented ways.
Helen Rhee, Loving the Poor, Saving the Rich: Wealth, Poverty, and Early Christian Formation: Examines how the early church maintained a countercultural identity regarding money, challenging the Roman civic model of competitive giving with a focus on care for the poor.
The Historical & Geopolitical Framework
Peter Brown, Through the Eye of a Needle: Our guide to the “Braided River” of late Roman wealth and how it began to flow toward the Church.
Henri Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne: The seminal thesis on the “Broken Highway”—how the closing of the Mediterranean in the 8th century forced the West to turn inland.
Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam: Essential for understanding the sophisticated economic and social pressure the Islamic expansion placed on the 8th-century West.
David Nirenberg, Neighboring Faiths: An analysis of how Christianity, Judaism, and Islam defined their own identities and economies through centuries of interaction.
Janet Nelson, King and Emperor: A detailed study of Charlemagne’s court and the exact moment the administrative “Machine” of the West was born.
Robert Lopez, The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages: Tracing the economic shift from the 10th century forward as the West re-entered the global market.
The Philosophical & Social Inquiry
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age: The primary source for understanding the shift from the “Porous Self” of the 8th century to the “Buffered Self” of the modern secular world.
Eugene McCarraher, The Enchantment of Mammon: A study of how modern capitalism is not truly secular, but a migration of religious energy into the marketplace.
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: The classic analysis of how religious formation and “calling” became the engine of modern capital.
David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years: A necessary examination of the human history of credit, debt, and the moral obligations that underpin our social institutions.
The change in moral views of wealth has been dramatic since the words, example, and teachings of Jesus. I appreciate this list of sourced information.