Usury and Catholic Social Thought: Where Do We Go from Here?

Abstract

This article argues that Catholic scholarship on usury is held back by a continued focus on scholastic titles to gain such as lucrum cessans, which do not add up to a robust theory of either justice or injustice in lending. Instead, it proposes that usury be understood as the exploitation of the poor through lending, and that this be identified and measured with reference to the true end of finance, integral human development. This account of usury is in keeping with the underlying principles animating the scholastic titles and with recent magisterial references to usury, which do not define the sin but do consistently emphasize its impact upon the poor. This approach offers a way to let the principles of CST inform scholarship on usury, on the one hand, and on the other to connect this scholarship with wider reflections on economic justice in CST, including on international debt relief. It also broadens the implications of the usury prohibition beyond legislation. Finally, focusing upon the impact upon the borrower directs attention to usury's impersonal and structural dimensions, and the role that social institutions such as bankruptcy law play today in perpetuating the exploitation of the poor through lending.