Editing Interest (section)

==In religious contexts==

===Judaism===
{{main|Loans and interest in Judaism}}
Jews are forbidden from usury in dealing with fellow Jews, and this lending is to be considered [[tzedakah]], or charity. However, there are permissions to charge interest on loans to [[Gentile|non-Jews]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Robinson|first=George|title=Interest-Free Loans in Judaism|url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/practices/Ethics/Business_Ethics/In_Practice/Business_Ethics_and_Jewish_Law/Usury_and_Moneylending/Interest-Free_Loans.shtml|access-date=12 March 2015|archive-date=5 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305180632/https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/interest-free-loans-in-judaism/|url-status=live}}</ref> Several historical rulings in [[Halakha|Jewish law]] have mitigated the allowances for usury toward non-Jews. For instance, the 15th-century commentator [[Isaac Abarbanel|Rabbi Isaac Abrabanel]] specified that the rubric for allowing interest does not apply to Christians or Muslims, because their faith systems have a common ethical basis originating from Judaism. The medieval commentator [[David Kimhi|Rabbi David Kimchi]] extended this principle to non-Jews who show consideration for Jews, saying they should be treated with the same consideration when they borrow.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moneylending|title=Encyclopedia Judaica: Moneylending|date=2008|website=Jewish Virtual Library|access-date=October 16, 2017|archive-date=October 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016152612/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moneylending|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Islam===
{{Main|Riba|Islamic banking and finance}}

The following quotations are English translations from the [[Qur'an]]:

{{quote|Those who charge usury are in the same position as those controlled by the devil's influence. This is because they claim that usury is the same as commerce. However, God permits commerce, and prohibits usury. Thus, whoever heeds this commandment from his Lord, and refrains from usury, he may keep his past earnings, and his judgment rests with God. As for those who persist in usury, they incur Hell, wherein they abide forever.|Al-Baqarah 2:275}}
{{quote|God condemns usury, and blesses charities. God dislikes every sinning disbeliever. Those who believe and do good works and establish worship and pay the poor-due, their reward is with their Lord and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. O you who believe, you shall observe God and refrain from all kinds of usury, if you are believers. If you do not, then expect a war from God and His messenger. But if you repent, you may keep your capitals, without inflicting injustice, or incurring injustice. If the debtor is unable to pay, wait for a better time. If you give up the loan as a charity, it would be better for you, if you only knew.|Al-Baqarah 2:276–280}}
{{quote|O you who believe, you shall not take usury, compounded over and over. Observe God, that you may succeed.|Al-'Imran 3:130}}
{{quote|And for practicing usury, which was forbidden, and for consuming the people's money illicitly. We have prepared for the disbelievers among them painful retribution.|Al-Nisa 4:161}}
{{quote|The usury that is practiced to increase some people's wealth, does not gain anything at God. But if people give to charity, seeking God's pleasure, these are the ones who receive their reward many fold.|Ar-Rum 30:39}}

The attitude of Muhammad to usury is articulated in his Last Sermon:

{{quote|O People, just as you regard this month, this day, this city as Sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. Allah has forbidden you to take usury, therefore all usurious obligation shall henceforth be waived. Your capital, however, is yours to keep. You will neither inflict nor suffer any inequity. Allah has Judged that there shall be no usury and that all the usury due to Abbas ibn 'Abd'al Muttalib (Prophet's uncle) shall henceforth be waived&nbsp;...<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/lastserm.HTM|title=IslamiCity.com - Mosque - The Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) Last Sermon|website=www.islamicity.com|access-date=2019-01-24|archive-date=2019-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190129193339/http://www.islamicity.com/Mosque/lastserm.HTM|url-status=live}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=July 2017}}}}

{{anchor|Scholastic theology}}

=== Christianity ===
{{Main|Usury#Christianity}}
The [[Old Testament]] "condemns the practice of charging interest because a loan should be an act of compassion and taking care of one's neighbor"; it teaches that "making a profit off a loan is exploiting that person and dishonoring God's covenant (Exodus 22:25–27)".<ref name="Considine2016">{{cite web |last1=Considine |first1=Kevin P. |title=Is it sinful to charge interest on a loan? |url=https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201603/it-sinful-charge-interest-loan-30591 |publisher=[[Claretians#Publications|U.S. Catholic]] |access-date=4 June 2020 |language=en |date=2016 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729220743/https://www.uscatholic.org/articles/201603/it-sinful-charge-interest-loan-30591 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first of the [[Scholastic theology|scholastic]] Christian theologians, [[Saint Anselm of Canterbury]], led the shift in thought that labeled charging interest the same as theft.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}} St. [[Thomas Aquinas]], the leading scholastic theologian of the [[Roman Catholic Church]], argued charging of interest is wrong because it amounts to "double charging", charging for both the thing and the use of the thing.<ref>Thomas Aquinas. [[Summa Theologica]], "Of Cheating, Which Is Committed in Buying and Selling". Translated by The Fathers of the English Dominican Province. pp. 1–10 [http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ECON301-2.1.2-2nd.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221333/http://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ECON301-2.1.2-2nd.pdf|date=2016-03-03}} Retrieved June 19, 2012</ref> Outlawing usury did not prevent investment, but stipulated that in order for the investor to share in the profit he must share the risk. In short he must be a joint-venturer. Simply to invest the money and expect it to be returned regardless of the success of the venture was to make money simply by having money and not by taking any risk or by doing any work or by any effort or sacrifice at all, which is usury. Thus a banker or credit-lender could charge for such actual work or effort as he did carry out, for example, any fair administrative charges. The Catholic Church, in a decree of the [[Fifth Council of the Lateran]], expressly allowed such charges in respect of credit-unions run for the benefit of the poor known as "[[montes pietatis]]".<ref>{{cite conference | url = http://www.intratext.com/ixt/ENG0067/_PE.HTM | title = Session Ten: On the reform of credit organisations (Montes pietatis) | conference = [[Fifth Lateran Council]] | publisher = [[Catholic Church]] | date = 4 May 1515 | access-date = 2008-04-05 | location = [[Rome]], [[Italy]]}}</ref>

In the 13th century [[Henry of Segusio|Cardinal Hostiensis]] enumerated thirteen situations in which charging interest was not immoral.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Roover | first = Raymond | title = The Scholastics, Usury, and Foreign Exchange | journal = Business History Review |date=Autumn 1967 | volume = 41 | doi = 10.2307/3112192 | pages = 257–271 | jstor = 3112192 | issue = 3 | publisher = The Business History Review, Vol. 41, No. 3 | s2cid = 154706783 }}</ref> The most important of these was ''lucrum cessans'' (profits given up) which allowed for the lender to charge interest "to compensate him for profit foregone in investing the money himself".<ref>{{Harvnb|Rothbard|2001|p=46}}</ref> This idea is very similar to opportunity cost. Many scholastic thinkers who argued for a ban on interest charges also argued for the legitimacy of ''lucrum cessans'' profits (for example, [[Pierre Jean Olivi]] and [[St. Bernardino of Siena]]). However, Hostiensis' exceptions, including for ''lucrum cessans'', were never accepted as official by the Roman Catholic Church.

The [[Westminster Confession of Faith]], a confession of faith upheld by the [[Reformed Church]]es, teaches that usury — defined as charging interest at any rate — is a [[sin in Christianity|sin]] prohibited by the [[Ten Commandments|eighth commandment]].<ref name="Cox1853">{{cite book |last1=Cox |first1=Robert |title=Sabbath Laws and Sabbath Duties: Considered in Relation to Their Natural and Scriptural Grounds, and to the Principles of Religious Liberty |date=1853 |publisher=Maclachlan and Stewart |page=180 |language=en}}</ref>

The Roman Catholic Church has always condemned usury, but in modern times, with the rise of capitalism and the disestablishment of the Catholic Church in majority Catholic countries, this prohibition on usury has not been enforced.

The [[Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary]], a Catholic Christian [[religious order]], teaches that:<ref name="Considine2016"/>
{{quotation|It might initially seem like little is at stake when it comes to interest, but this is an issue of human dignity. A person is made in God's own image and therefore may never be treated as a thing. Interest can diminish the human person to a thing to be manipulated for money. In an article for The Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day articulated this well: "Can I talk about the people living off usury . . . not knowing the way that their infertile money has bred more money by wise investment in God knows what devilish nerve gas, drugs, napalm, missiles, or vanities, when housing and employment . . . for the poor were needed, and money could have been invested there?" Her thoughts were a precursor to what Pope Francis now calls an "economy that kills." To sin is to say "no" to God and God's presence by harming others, ourselves, or all of creation. Charging interest is indeed sinful when doing so takes advantage of a person in need as well as when it means investing in corporations involved in the harming of God's creatures.<ref name="Considine2016"/>}}