Le don chrétien et ses retombées sur l’économie dans l’Antiquité tardive

The Christian gift is a response to religious demand, but it is realized in the domain of material exchanges. In this respect it is at the heart of an enquiry concerning the relations between religion and the economy. This article takes into account the Christian gift in all its forms, whether alms, gifts made to the Church for the support of clergy or the poor, sums to be distributed by the churches themselves, or gifts made by Christians for the construction of new buildings. It seeks to understand why it is so difficult to value the economic repercussions of practices which are very widespread. After noting the importance and the limits of a quantitative approach, it considers the gift, first from the point of view of the giver, and, secondly, that of the beneficiary. The economic repercussions of Christian practices of giving are limited; in the first place, on account of the relatively small amounts involved, but also because a large proportion of Christian giving is a substitute for other ways of distributing riches, whose characteristics it shares. In only two domains does Christian giving show any signs of innovation: direct support of the poor, albeit on a scale such that it can have only indirect and limited social effects, and no economic effect at all; and in new practices of communal collection, particularly visible in church construction. The economic repercussions are not negligible, but they are delayed as long as the gift keeps its voluntary character, as it does throughout Late Antiquity.