Editing Interest (section)

=== 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"/>}}