All Riches Come From Injustice: The Anti-mammon Witness of the Early Church & Its Anti-capitalist Relevance

by Stephen D. Morrison

All Riches Comes From Injustice examines the anti-mammon witness of the Early Church and its relevance for today. Stephen D. Morrison analyzes six critical insights from the Patristic First, why they questioned the salvation of the rich; second, the commonality of the earth (and what it meant for common vs. private ownership); third, the injustice of hoarded riches; fourth, contentment and the sin of luxury; fifth, usury; and sixth, the tyranny of mammon. Morrison then argues that the witness of Scripture and the Early Church points toward anti-capitalism today. This is a radical book—fitting for radical times. Our situation is marked by unprecedented inequality, where eight men hoard more than half of humanity’s wealth. This book calls the Church back to its radical critique of mammon, which the first Christians considered essential to the message of Jesus, not secondary. Our declaration must again be, “Jesus is Lord, not mammon!”

Genres: Nonfiction, Theology, Religion, Politics, Christian

204 pages, Paperback

Published April 7, 2023

About the author

Stephen D. Morrison (MA, Luther Seminary) is a prolific author and theologian whose work online and in print focuses on making modern theology accessible. He is known for the Plain English Series, which includes his latest work, "Paul Tillich in Plain English."

Stephen is currently a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen studying Karl Barth’s theology of resistance. He is the author of fifteen books, as well as several academic articles and book reviews. He is also a video essayist on YouTube with over 5k subscribers and 320k lifetime views. For a full CV and to learn more about Stephen, visit his website: SDMorrison.org.

Reviews

[Elizabeth Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots to think about here...was refreshing to read a popular level Christian book which primarily engaged with writings of the apostolic/ante-Nicene Fathers (plus a few later figures as well). Though, given that a general audience would likely not have much exposure to these men and their writings, the central argument would have benefited from more explicit engagement in these text's roles in modern expression of Christian faith, and especially tradition's role alongside scripture (I could see someone raising the question, why is what some guy named Ambrose said about money relevant to me?). Further, some strange translations and somewhat questionable sources used for the primary source material included. I also didn't love how the chapters focused on these texts were structured--by theme (except for the usury chapter for which this worked well)--the Fathers rarely wrote with a singular guiding theme/image/metaphor/etc., and so the thematic distinctions felt fairly arbitrary, and led to the analysis of the texts getting a bit samey. I wonder if doing the chapters one figure at a time chronologically could have led to more interesting engagement with the development of Christian approaches to money. The opinions of the Fathers were also fairly blindly accepted as good, with little to no engagement with the more questionable and problematic aspects of their theology on other points. But all in all, I'm really pro more Christians being made aware of these writings.

The real strength of this book lies in the last few chapters, where the author reads Marx and the Fathers together. I learned a lot from these chapters and found the summaries of Marx's critique of capitalism incredibly helpful. Well worth the read, and what it lacks in clear and interesting engagement with the primary source texts of the Fathers it well makes up for in articulating challenging and timely questions for the Western Church today.

[Nikayla Reize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very compact and concise argument - hoarded wealth is theft - common ownership versus "possession". His exploration of early church fathers was super interesting. He brought these themes together in scripture and then showed how the first christians really believed that one couldn't serve God and mammon.

[Jarrod Dillon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful.

The majority of this book is a collection of sermons that the world needs to hear. But there is a kind of unforced error by his promotion of Marx and Marxist thought. One can be against capitalism without having to be a Marxist. Most of what is said in these pages are in line with Catholic social teaching. But they are not discussed. Catholicism is a critic of capitalism and could have been a help in guiding the author away from defending so called “scientific Marxism.” His later chapters are still worth reading. I just happen to disagree with them. But that shouldn’t prevent you from grappling with the ideas yourself.

The book is well worth reading. I have personally recommended it to over a dozen people I know. The research on the church fathers is superb. He did a wonderful job. And hopefully his writing helps the church combat the tyranny of mammon in the future.

[Alexandru Croitor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit repetitive, but overall good. Great "handbook" on patristic thought concerning `hoarding` wealth, the commonality of earth, the oppressive relationship between the rich and the poor ...

[Derek Kreider · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me about 2 chapters to roll into this one because the author came out of the gate with a clear ideological position (informed position or bias?). By the end, I still think he’s ideologically idealistic, because socialism has plenty of flaws, especially when implemented by government. However, I think he is theologically spot on.

The tipping point for me in accepting non-violence was the position of the antenicene church. There are like 50 quotes from ~30 Fathers, and it’s all against violence. The author of this work lays out quote after quote on wealth, extending wellwell beyond the antenicene era. The early church position on wealth is pretty clear, and we water it down to homeopathic picoparticle levels. So whether you agree with the author’s assessment of capitalism, you can’t deny that we are extremely unorthodox when it comes to wealth today in the American church.

[Adam Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summary: A look at the early church's view of wealth.

I would not have picked this up except it was part of a book group. I was not completely new to the topic. I have read Peter Brown's book on the early church's view of wealth. And I have read a bit of the early church fathers and general Christian histories and was broadly aware of the early church's teaching against wealth.

The oversimplification of the early church's teaching was that if you had wealth, it was for the purpose of caring for others. So if you hoarded wealth, then it was a misuse of wealth, and therefore sin.

The main task of the book is to document that not only hoarded wealth, but many of the aspects of our modern capitalistic system were viewed as either sin or at least it was viewed skeptically by the early church. I think broadly that point is well made. Although it is a bit repetitive because it uses the same or similar quote multiple times to make slightly different points.

The author is an democratic socialist who started out to write a Christian book against capitalism and thought it better to separate out the early church's view into its own book. While I have read socialist and marxist arguments before, I think those aspects were less successful. The last two chapters were a defense of using marxist analysis and the need for creating a new imagination about the possibility of alternatives to capitalism. I think The Economics of Good and Evil does a better job looking at the different ways that economics and morality have been understood to work together over time and that type of book would be more helpful for a skeptical audience than this one.

I also think Tom Holland's Dominion makes a good case for why care for the poor and vulnerable is an important feature of Christianity without needing to bring in marxist theory. (Rodney Stark also makes similar arguments in several of his books as well.)

I also think that part of the problem with the framing of this book is that more work needs to be done to look at the differences in how our economics works from the early church. The economics of the Roman era did not tend to charge interest except in predatory ways. So the early church's opposition to interest and usury isn't exactly the same as taking out a loan to buy a house or get student loans. Interest can absolutely be predatory and inappropriate. But interest is also a means of cooperation and there is little nuance here to understand how the different economics systems impact the way the economic morality works.

I am all for a more highly regulated economy that is designed to more explicitly protect the vulnerable and the poor. I would not consider myself a neo-liberal globalist. But I also know that we live in a capitalist system and there are ways to think about how to act with Christian morality in that system.

A project like this that helps to recover Christian origins of understanding the morality of economics can be helpful. I am glad that I read it, but I also think it is a bit dry and repetitive so I won't strongly recommend it.

I posted this on my blog originally at https://bookwi.se/all-riches-come-fro...

[Benjamin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books definitely provides a challenge to our western notion of wealth and prosperity. It was incredibly well researched and cited, but I guess I was looking for something different. I am NO economic scholar and so I'm not here to argue one system vs another, but I do wish the author would have spent more time in the scriptures analyzing passages from both OT and NT that would have to be explained in order to fully embrace his Marxist views. He quotes many, many Christian historical fathers and a few passages of scripture rather than the other way around. There are def examples of OT patriarchs who did very well for themselves but their wealth is not really explored outside of Job. Besides the rich young ruler, what about the angle of the vineyard master's wealth and the character with many talents who is given even more. Just wondering about them.... Overall, this book provides a challenge to those of us who live in a capitalistic sysytem to share our abundance.

[Ron Kastner · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would feel better about this book if the quotations from the Early Church Fathers were discussed more in the context of the works in which they appeared; otherwise they read like one "proof text" after another. And perhaps the Marxism materials might have been more credible if they showed more awareness of scholarly criticism of Marxist analysis of capitalism and human nature.

Having run across the comment on the People's Republic of China having moved 800 million people out of poverty under "communism"; it was rather stated that this occurred once the PRC had thrown off the Marxism of Chairman Mao and could scarcely be considered communist at all.

[Graydon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is sure to challenge and offend American readers, but I thought it was a fascinating read. Morrison quotes many early church leaders who openly and passionately rebuke hoarded wealth, and he uses those quotes and Scripture to critique today’s economic disparity and the system of capitalism. Due to the subject matter and quotes, it can be repetitive but it’s always interesting. You’ve got to be willing to get uncomfortable to read this book, but he’s asking questions and making observations that deserve deep reflection. Whatever you think about these subjects, we ought to wrestle with what the first Christian leaders said.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reframing of charity through a Justice model was amazing! This book helped deepen my understanding of anti-capitalist politics as core to the disability justice movement. I appreciated the connections to Christianity and the call to action. I don't give it 5 stars mainly because once the concept is delivered, the chapters feel quite repetitive.

[Ashley Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Great message about the Church and capitalism but kind of makes the same point about 11 times. Highlighted a lot of good points and will be returning to this though. It just was a bit too long.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb look into Early Church opposition to Mammon, does get repetitive however.

[April Shippy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking and informative

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thought provoking. He does not hold back punches. Pretty convincing theological argument for Christians being against wealth disparity. But I also found it very repetitive.