978 - 1 - 107 - 04300 - 8 - Money as God ? : The Monetization

Over the centuries, time and again, theologians, philosophers, poets and even sociologists have proposed that money should be regarded as a “god-term” (Kenneth Burke). They have spoken of the omnipotence of money (Georg Simmel) and pondered whether we should not organize religious faith like money (Niklas Luhmann). They propagated a “pantheism of money” (Falk Wagner) and called it the “all-determining reality.” This treatment of money as a god-like phenomenon stands in sharp contrast to another tradition which, in the European context, goes back at least to Luther’s polemical use of the phrase, “You cannot serve God andmammon” (Matt. 6:20, Luke 16:13) and his explanation of the first article in his Great Catechism which puts God and Mammon in strong opposition to each other: “Many a one thinks that he has God and everything in abundance when he has money and possessions; he trusts in them and boasts of them with such firmness and assurance as to care for no one. Lo, such a man also has a God, Mammon by name. It is money and possessions on which he sets all his heart and which are also the most common idols on earth. He who has money and possessions feels secure, and is joyful and undismayed as though he were sitting in themidst of paradise. On the other hand, he who has none doubts and is despondent, as though he knew of no God. For very few are to be found who are of good cheer, and who neither mourn nor complain if they have not Mammon. This care and desire for money sticks and clings to our nature, even to the grave.” Luther thus demonizes money as an idol trapping humans by promising them a false security and luring them into putting their trust in material goods rather than the living God. This tension between a tradition of deification and a tradition of demonization of money is the starting point of the research project on which this book is a report. The chief goal of this project was to bring