First, Protestant thinkers all continued to make the old medieval argument about interesse: that “interest” is really compensation for the money that the lender would have made had he been able to place his money in some more profitable investment. Originally, this logic had only been applied to commercial loans. Increasingly, it was now applied to

Conwell summarized the links between wealth and godliness: “To make money honestly is to preach the gospel.”34 Wealth was no longer a means of liberating oneself from labor (or from the necessity for instrumental or market-based reasoning). Instead of allowing one the leisure to cultivate one’s self and serve one’s community, wealth became, in and

The Talmud (Nidda 70b) says it simply. It asks: What should you do to become rich? It answers: Work hard and behave honestly. But, says the Talmud, many have tried this and did not become rich. Back comes the answer: You must pray to God from whom all wealth comes. In which case, asks the Talmud, why work hard? Because, answers the