BOOKS IN REVIEW

What Hath God love of money is the root of all evil."

Wrought?
T H E VICTORY O F REASON:
H o w CHRISTIANITY L E D T O
FREEDOM, CAPITALISM, AND
WESTERN SUCCESS
by RoDNKY STARK
Random House, 280pages, $25,95
Reviewed by Algis Valiunas
" A N D HAVING FOOD and raiment let
us be therewith content For the
ALOIS VALIUNAS is a literary joumalist
and the author of Churchill's Military
Histories.
St. Paul's admonition to Timothy
rings with the hard ascetic fervor that
one has come to think of as distinc-
tively Christian. Of course, certain of
Paul's successors have recognized the
extremity, not to say the impossibili-
ty, of his ideal and have proven more
accommodating than he to the world
and the flesh. Pure-hearted, other-
worldly intransigence has its place
among the Christian virtues, but so
does the acknowledgment that the
great world takes part in defining the
terms for a well-lived life.
The title of a notable new book by
Rodney Stark (a professor at Baylor
University, specializing in the social
science of religion) indicates how far
the tide of secular values has
advanced upon the shore of religious
virtues: The Victory of Reason: How
Christianity Led to Freedom, Capi-
talism, and Westem Success.
Stark proclaims reason tri-
umphant in Christianity; Paul asserts
the pnmacy of faith, "the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen." Stark celebrates
freedom; Paul calls himself "the pris-
oner of Jesus Christ for you Gen-
tiles" and instructs, "Let every soul
be subject to the higher powers."
Stark extols the creation of wealth;
Paul preaches contentment with the
bare minimum. Stark honors earthly

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44
APRIL 2006
dominion; Paul asks, "Hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this
world?" For Stark, Christianity is the
means, while liberty, prosperity, and
power are the ends. Is his the foolish
wisdom of this world, or is Chris-
tianity colluding with social science
to present an essential teaching for
our time?
Some of the greatest social scien-
tists have addressed the intimate
exchanges between Christian spirit
and modern flesh. In the most
famous and influential of such stud-
ies. The Protestant Ethic and the
Spirit of Capitalism (1905), Max
Weber writes that, although men
have always and everywhere been
driven by "unlimited greed for gain,"
capitalism is a development of West-
ern modernity that seeks "forever
renewed profit, by means of continu-
ous, rational, capitalistic enterprise"
and that religious belief established
the foundation for this "tremendous
cosmos of the modern economic
order."
Beginning with the observation
that Protestants predominate in the
ranks of both capitalist masters and
skilled industrial laborers, Weber dis-
misses the commonplace that
Catholics direct their attention to
eternity while Protestants take plea-
sure in earthly life; rather, he con-
tends. It IS the Protestants'specifi-
cally, the Calvinists' terrified
obsession with salvation and damna-
tion that produces the capitalist
virtue of "worldly asceticism." Cal-
vin's doctrine of predestination, in its
"extreme inhumanity," compels
believers desperately to seek evidence
that they are among those marked
for heaven, and the most convincing
evidence they can find is their devo-
tion to and prosperity in a worldly
calling. Stnpped of what Weber calls
the "magic" of Catholic sacrament,
which dispenses "atonement, hope
of grace, certainty of forgiveness,"
Calvinism demands "a life of good
works combined into a unified sys-
tem." In that system hope of spiritu-
45
al election meshes with unflagging Rodney Stark has little use for
effort in the business at hand. Weber or Tawney. He presents him-
In Religion and the Rise of Capi- self explicitly as the anti-Weber, who
talism (1922), the English economic shall redefine the field so badly
historian and Labor party official skewed by his unworthy predeces-
R.H. Tawney expands and modifies sor. Stark concedes that Weber was
Weber's thesis. In Tawney's view, right in saying religion influenced the
capitalist lndustnousness does not nse of capitalism but insists that
emerge directly from spiritual agony; Weber got the places, dates, and
rather, he sees that secular economic denominations all wrong. Citing
individualism and Puntan regard for such distinguished authorities as
business as a godly calling are sepa- Hugh Trevor-Roper, Henri Pirenne,
rate, powerful streams of thought and Femand Braudel, Stark declares
whose confluence in seventeenth- that, long before the Reformation,
century England marks an epoch. capitalism was already underway in
"To such a generation, a creed which the medieval Catholic and republican
transformed the acquisition of cities of Venice, Genoa, and Florence.
wealth from a drudgery or a tempta- Political freedom was indispensable
tion into a moral duty was the milk to capitalism's emergence, and Chris-
tian theology prepared the way for
of lions The good Christian was
freedom.
not wholly dissimilar from the eco-
nomic man." Economic self-interest, Indeed, Stark argues, Christian
or the law of nature, comes to be theologians, among whom he favors
identified with the workings of Prov- St. Augustine and St. Thomas
idence. Aquinas, invented reason and cleared
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46 FIRST T H I N G S

the ground for modern science; the Medieval Europe, commonly and rups and the high-backed saddle
Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese, erroneously described as mired in the made heavy cavalry possible; the
the Muslims, and the Jews were all Dark Ages, was the matrix of that sternpost rudder and the round ship
woefully deficient in that respect. civilization. Then and there techno- opened the high seas to navigation;
Christian reason stood for progress logical innovations proliferated: brakes and pivoting front axles
in understanding the word of Cod overshot waterwheels, post wind- smoothed land transport consider-
and developing civilization in accor- mills, the horse collar, and horseshoes ably; the latest medieval conve-
dance with His will. harnessed unexampled power; stir- niences, such as chimneys, clocks,
and eyeglasses, made one glad to be
living in the thirteenth century.
compiled by H I G H CULTURE ALSO flourished. The
SAM & BETHANY TORODE invention of polyphony, adequate
musical notation, and complex
instruments such as the pipe organ,
harpsichord, and violin enlarged and
refined the scope of music; the flying
buttress made possible the towenng
glories of Cothic architecture; Dante,
Chaucer, nameless troubadours, and
monkish hagiographers inaugurated
vernacular literature; universities
AFLAME sprouted like mushrooms through-
out Europe during the twelfth and
Ancient Wisdom on Marriage thirteenth centunes. The Copernican
revolution of the sixteenth century
built on the insights of Jean Buriden
"Sam and Bethany Torode have plumbed the ancient writings of (1300-1358) and Nicole d'Oresme
the early church on marriage and i?roughr back a treasure trove (1325-1382), who made the case that
of wisdom, insight, and vision." the earth turns on its axis, and of
C H R I S T O P H E R AND RACHEL MCCLUSKEY Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), who
argued that wherever m the universe
"In one luminous volume, contemporary Christians now have a man might stand, he will suppose
ready access to the sustaining beauty of an embodied faith." himself at the motionless center, so
S c o n CAIRNS that despite all appearances the earth
(ust might not be stationary and the
"A lovely volume to own and to browse, it will be further valuable sun not revolve around it.
as a wedding or anniversary gifu for years to come."
FREDERICA M A T H E W E S - G R E E N
As for capitalism, it originated in
mnth-century monasteries, where
the life of contemplative withdrawal
40 black-and-white photograph'. from the world did not extinguish an
interest in economic well-being. St.
Benedict had certified the virtue of
ISBN 0-8028-2903-1 work in the sixth century, instructing
133 pages his monks to "live by the labor of
hardcover their hands, as our fathers and the
$15.00 apostles did." Such diligent labor
built and secured thriving monastic
estates.
LWM. B . EERDMANS Economic theory followed prac-
PUBLISHING C O . tice. Prudent loopholes pierced the
255 JEFFERSON AVE. S.E./ ORAND RAPTm, Ml 4y5O.i
Church's traditional prohibition of
At jour bookstore, or f.ill 800-253-75^^ ' www.cerdmaiis.com
usury, as many monasteries took up
banking and grew their wealth by
APRIL 2006 47

lending money to the nobility. Even- sopher," in need of no further identi- ly controverts the teaching of these
tually the more prosperous monks fication. And Stark inanely traces theologians and their intellectual
would leave the manual labor to a direct hnes of descent from the sev- father, Aristotlein The New
hired work force and limit their own enteenth-century innovators of the Organon.
work to executive oversight and say- New Science to Thomas Aquinas About the greatest Muslim
ing Masses, for a fee, to ease the pain and the scholastics, evidently un- philosophers Stark is similarly mis-
of souls in purgatory. aware that Francis Bacon, the fore- leading. He finds them fruitless, and
This "religious capitalism," most such innovator, contemptuous- blames their blind devotion to Aris-
though of limited scope, did furnish
the template for the private enterprise
that developed in the northern Italian
city-states and that would dominate
trade, banking, and manufacturing in
Western Europe. In due course Ital- Take your faith
on vacation!
ian banks would establish a foothold
in the north, streamlining the chaotic
Flemish and English woolen indus-
tries, then turning first Antwerp and
later Amsterdam into Europe's ship-
ping and financial centers.
Stark's argument that the medieval
founders of capitalism embodied
the Protestant ethic without being
Protestant is quite cogent, although
his high-handed dismissal of Weber
sounds churlish and self-regarding:
Weber did, after all, discover the
territory that Stark is bent on re-
mapping, and he deserves all due
respect.

WHILE STARK'S technological and

economic history seems sound, at
least to a nonspecialist, the intellectu-
al history that undergirds the argu-
Magdalen College
ment IS shot through with preposter-
ous assertions and glanng omissions.
Summer Youth Program
If you are 15-18, this is an ideal opportunity to study the Catholic
To declare reason the invention of catechism and philosophy, acquire new skills in music, drama,
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speak slightingly of classical Greek campus for two weeks, study and pray each day, and visit the
"learning" and "lore" without mak- mountains, lakes, and ocean beaches of New Hampshire!
ing clear that the signal Greek
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to understand the world by reason
alone, is a travesty. Stark makes Ans-
totle and Plato sound like bumpkins Magda en NEW; A two-week
Catholic liberal studies
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whom no truly reasonable man
would think of taking seriously.
Accordingly, Stark maintains cun-
College School Juniors and
Seniors.
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ning silence about the immeasurable 511 Kearsarge Mountain Road
debt that his beloved Thomas Warner, New Hampshire 03278
MAGDALEN 603-456-2(S56
Aquinas owes to Aristotle, whom St. COLLEGE
Toll FreL-877-49-1723
Thomas and numerous other www.magdalen.edu
Scholastics named simply "the Philo-
48
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totle. In fact, however, such thinkers
as Alfarabi (ca. 87C>-950) and Aver-
roes (1126-1198) attempt to under-
stand Islam, as Aquinas attempts to
understand Christian teaching, in the
light of philosophy and thereby to
show the pious that their faith is sup-
ported by universal reason.
Of course, reason can be subtly
subversive of revelation. In The
Attainment of Happiness, Alfarabi
teaches that religion is an imitation of
philosophy and is thus a lower activ-
ity; religion moves the imagination,
while philosophy demonstrates the
truth by force of reason. In The Deci-
sive Treatise, Determining What the
Connection Is Between Religion and
Philosophy, Averroes indicates that
there is a way of knowing God that is
superior to the approach through
Islamic law: "If the jurist infers from
the saying of the Exalted, Reflect, you
have vision, the obligation to acquire
a knowledge of juridical reasoning,
how much more fitting and proper
that he who would know God
should infer from it the obligation to
acquire a knowledge of intellectual
reasoning!" These Muslim philoso-
phers are exponents of reason no less
than Thomas Aquinas is, and they
acknowledge the same philosophic
pedigree as he.
To make out such intellectual free-
dom and boldness, beholden princi-
pally to reason, as the dominant ten-
dency in Christianity requires some
selective editing. For theology must
cleave to revelation more closely than
to reason: Christian intellect is free
only within limits. In 1277, at the
direction of Roman authonty, the
Bishop of Paris, Etienne Tempier,
issued his Condemnation of 219
Propositions. These errant proposi-
tions were the progeny of Ans-
totelianism, Greek and Arabic alike,
which was on the upsurge at the Uni-
versity of Paris and which threatened
orthodoxy; some twenty of the
propositions clearly represented the
doctrine of St. Thomas, who had
died two years before.
FIRST T H I N G S
Reason had to be taught its proper
place. Thus, for instance, the bishop
declares that philosophy cannot
question "the resurrection to come,"
though reason has no way of proving
or disproving its coming: "Even a
philosopher must hring his mind into
captivity to the obedience of Christ."
St. Thomas would, of course, make a
long and distinguished return, but
even he had had to concede that cer-
tain unphilosophical truths are given,
such as the miracles in the New Tes-
tament. Reason must accept them on
faith, and explain them as fully as it
can, the way Aquinas does the Virgin
Birththe example Stark adduces as
evidence of Chnstian reason at its
acme. But here it is plainly faith that
has precedence over reason.
PROBABLY WITHOUT thinking about
It much. Stark ultimately sides with
the world and the flesh, which value
reason over faith and esteem the
Christian teaching only so long as it
comes through with the goods. The
ascetic otherworldliness of Chris-
tianity has almost no place in this
book, which like most products of
the democratic intellect judges by the
standard of physical well-being.
It IS Weber and Tawney who
express misgivings about the victory
of economic rationality that Stark
celebrates. Weber sees modern men
trapped in "an iron cage" where
material desire consumes them.
Tawney scorns an age for which "the
attainment of matenaJ nches is the
supreme object of human endeavor
and the final critenon of human suc-
cess"a far cry from the apprecia-
tion of business as a sacred vocation.
"What IS certain is that [this modern
dispensation] is the negation of any
system of thought or morals which
can, except by a metaphor, be
described as Chnstian." Reason of a
philistine sort is indeed victorious in
our world, and the spint can only
conduct a rear-guard action that is
brave and noble but may neverthe-
less be doomed.