Pratique et idéologie chrétiennes de l’économique (IVe-VIe siècles)

The originality of the Christian language on economics does not lie in its being mainly ideological rather than technical, since that was equally the case for the language of the classical educated élite. Its originality rather lies in its superimposing a transcendent, eschatological discourse on top of economics, a discourse which had practical implications by calling to behave in given ways in everyday economic life. Christianity sets up the sphere of economics in the very heart of the individual practices of salvation and redemptive strategies. For that same reason, economics become the main metaphorical resource of the Christian language. Consequently, the Christian discourse on economics is part of the general process of “democratization of culture” as well as it upsets the social imagination and self-understanding of the classical world, and establishes a new typology of connections between political power and institutional religion.