Online ISSN 2286-0266
Print ISSN 1223-0685
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Mihai-Vladimir TOPAN
Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
The present paper tackles two broad theses. According to the first, in the Eastern Orthodox view wealth, riches, material prosperity and whatever these things presuppose (the extended division of labour, trade, money, profit oriented entrepreneurship etc.) are not evil or condemnable in themselves; condemnable is only the passion, the unnatural desire for these things which sows the seeds of missing, eroding or deliberately avoiding the love for God and fellowmen or, more problematically, leads to the doing of evil – first unknowingly or due to weakness, then deliberately and even with a hint of satisfaction, to end somewhere on the verge of madness. According to the second thesis, much more controversial, and with important consequences (yet insufficiently debated even by theologians, let alone scientists in general or economists), within the teachings of (Eastern) Orthodoxy one cannot find a positive sanction of honest wealth and riches. A Christian’s orientation must always be towards salvation and eternal life; concerns over “what he cannot take with him on the other side” are rather a sign of spiritual weakness and precariousness, while the attitude towards such (too worldly) concerns is one of patience, of tolerance or – to use the specific spiritual language of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity – economy.

ŒCONOMICA no. 4/2013
Keywords: Eastern Orthodoxy, economics, wealth, division of labour, profit, salvation
JEL: B13, P10, P50, Z12
Orthodoxy and the Extensive Social Division of Labour [Ortodoxia şi diviziunea socială extinsă a muncii]