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Pick your vice
By Gary Macy
Many moralists would argue
that materialism is the greatest temptation in the United States. Occasionally
I have even heard people argue that this form of greed is natural
and all societies have the same problem. Not so! In the Middle Ages in Western
Europe, greed was socially unacceptable. The aristocracy spent lavishly to
prove its generosity, noble spirit and indifference to wealth. The church
encouraged a similar generosity out of charity to the poor. The two ideals
worked together to make avarice the least tempting of medieval vices. To quote
historian Bernard Hamilton: The acquisitive instinct is strong and many
medieval people shared it, but medieval society seems to have viewed it rather
as Victorian society viewed sex, as something which was unavoidable but
distasteful. In discussing good works in medieval society, Hamilton adds:
Consequently, it was not considered socially acceptable to adopt a
patronizing attitude toward the poor and destitute, for that would have been
taken as evidence of retarded spiritual growth. This, perhaps, is the best
measure of the churchs success in making people understand what the
virtuous life, as conceived in Christian terms, was about. Of course,
medieval people had other problems, particularly sex and violence, but they
arent alone there.
Gary Macy is a theology professor at the University of
San Diego. He may be reached at macy@pwa.acusd.edu |