Religion and Commerce in Early Modern Europe Essay -- European History

Class discussions about religious history inevitably turn to the question of whetherreligious ideals throughout history remain unquestioning or are relative to the social, political andeconomic trends of the time. For example, students are sometimes disturbed to learn that in earlyChristian history, conversion was often in response to economic or political benefits rather thanreligious fervor. Naturally, at the Catholic prep school where I teach, students want to believereligious ideals and empty words are absolute. Yet, when studying the role of religion in shapingsocieties, one cannot help but be struck by the fluidity of religious rhetoric. Although much(prenominal)(prenominal) adiscovery may be obvious to some, it is authoritative for students to understand that we still live in aworld where people make important social and political decisions based on moral absolutes, withan insistence on traditional and unchangeable religious values. It is essential, therefore, thatteachers o f religious history promote discussion on the possible flexibility of religiousideologies is religious rhetoric part of an unwavering, scriptural tradition, or do those whopractice religion create the rhetoric? Moreover, do gracious self-interest and socio-economicchange always trump religion? Are social ideologies always stronger than religious tradition?After studying the creation of a unexampled industrial economy in Europe for these five weeks, I amconvinced that analyzing the evolution of religious rhetoric in early modern Europe, which issuch a transitional phase of history, can illuminate how social, political, economic and culturalchange can guide or completely alter the morals and ideologies of a society.Eric Hobsbawm and Keith Wrightson both argue th... ...New Press, 1999.Lynn, Martin. British Policy, Trade, and Informal Empire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.In The Oxford History of the British Empire, the Nineteenth Century, vol III, edited byAndrew Porter, 101-121. Oxf ord, New York Oxford University Press, 1999.More, Thomas. Utopia. Translated by capital of Minnesota Turner. London Penguin Books, 2003.OBrien, Patrick. Inseparable Connections Trade, Economy, Fiscal State, and the Expansion ofEmpire, 1688-1815. In The Oxford History of the British Empire, The EighteenthCentury, vol. II, edited by P.J. Marshall, 54-77. Oxford, New York Oxford UniversityPress, 1998.____. Mercantilism and Imperialism in the skip over and Decline of the Dutch and BritishEconomies 1585-1815. De Economist 148, no. 4 (2000) 469-501.Wrightson, Keith. Earthly Necessities. New Haven and London Yale University Press, 2000.