Chrysostom: Wealth, Poverty, Government, and Ideals

Saint John Chrysostom has several things to say about wealth and poverty. His sayings have been collected into a booklet titled “On Wealth and Poverty” which you can get at Amazon. Most everyone who is into the whole subject of wealth and poverty sadly only quotes one paragraph of multiple things that he said on the subject. I am going to quote only a couple myself. But, the one that everyone into social justice quotes is:

“If you cannot remember everything, instead of everything, I beg you, remember this without fail, that not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth but theirs. If we have this attitude, we will certainly offer our money; and by nourishing Christ in poverty here and laying up great profit hereafter, we will be able to attain the good things which are to come, by the grace and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom (be glory, honor, and might,) to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.” — St. John Chrysostom, On Wealth and Poverty

But, that is not all that he says. The paragraph above is addressed to individuals. But, he then turns around and speaks to the whole issue of governments. As you read the paragraphs below, he is concerned that revolutionaries will take what he is saying and apply it too precipitously to the government. He warns the revolutionaries:

“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm.

Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. Worse still, the rich whose gold was taken away would feel bitter and resentful; while the poor who received the gold from the hands of soldiers would feel no gratitude, because no generosity would have prompted the gift. Far from bringing moral benefit to society, it would actually do moral harm. Material justice cannot be accomplished by compulsion, a change of heart will not follow. The only way to achieve true justice is to change people’s hearts first — and then they will joyfully share their wealth.” — St. John Chrysostom, On Living Simply

I can just see all the politically conservative Christians cheering and saying, “You see, government should not be involved.” But, that is not what Saint Chrysostom says either. Read the three paragraphs that I quoted, and read them very carefully. You might actually be surprised at what you read.

• First, there is no mercy given to those who are rich and refuse to give to the poor in a sacrificial manner. They are simply stealing from the poor. The money that the rich have is not really their own. The Scriptural references for this would be the parable of Lazarus and Dives and the statement in the Epistle of James that the money withheld from laborers cries out to the Lord of Hosts. Notice that Dives is ended up in hell because of his lack of care for the poor. Notice that the reference in the Epistle of James sounds much like what was said in Genesis when the blood of Abel cried out to the Lord.
• Second, the reason that governmental force does not work is NOT because it is wrong or immoral. Rather, the argument of Saint Chrysostom says that it is correct to insist on something closer to equality. The reason to not get the government involved is because the rich will simply figure out another way to get rich, and the old rich will only give way to the new rich. This is not an argument for a free market laissez faire government, but an argument that the rich have ways to coerce government.
• Third, Saint Chrysostom espouses a rather radical thought. If you look at my second quote, it is obvious that Saint Chrysostom consider that material justice involves a basic equality between peoples. Those who make significantly more money should donate significantly more to those who do not. This is the Marxist idea that from each according to his capacity and to each according to his need. There should be no real difference between those who are more capable and those who are not. Having said that, Saint Chrysostom acknowledges that the current reality is that this cannot be put in to practice.
• Fourth, Saint Chrysostom does not deal with the idea that you can sufficiently tax the rich in order to take care of the poor without triggering them to negative action. That is an open option.
• Fifth, short of the Kingdom we will not see anything like the equality that is demanded by the Gospel. We will simply need to live with what is. That does not mean that we need to be satisfied with what is or be subject to the whims of the rich.
• Sixth, government has limitations. Those limitations are that the rich will rebel, not that government should not be involved in the care of the poor. It is a false statement to say that because the rich will effectively opposed any government that tries to bring about a certain equality that this means that the government should not try to do what it can, or that the government is not supposed to be involved in a certain area of the economy.
• Seventh, the reason the government should be cautious in its actions is not because its actions are wrong, but rather because the rich will rebel and undo the good that government has done. This is a long way from saying that government should not be involved.

You get the idea. Please read Saint Chrysostom and see that what he is saying is significantly closer to socialism than what modern Christians are willing to admit.