How did post-Reformation theologians deal with economic matters? Was the domain of the unjust Mammon a filthy place for them, or did they try to make friends with it? In their volume on "Money in Early Modern Christianity", Karla Boersma and Herman Selderhuis share a number of insightful contributions on these matters. Reformed perspectives are predominantly presented, but there is also significant input from the Catholic and Lutheran side.
Our colleagues Joost Hengstmengel and Ard Jan Biemond have contributed through chapters on the Heidelberg Catechism expositions and the Reformed view of trade, respectively. In his chapter, Joost Hengstmengel studies the Dutch Reformed expositions of the Heidelberg Catechism on the eight commandment: "Thou shalt not steal". He investigates whether these expositions do lend any support to the Weber thesis. He does not find any support, but rather brings us an overwhelming number of continuities with the medieval Christian teaching on wealth and justice.
In his chapter, Ard Jan Biemond investigates how the dedications of books of Dutch Reformed theologians to the Dutch East and West India companies view the subject of trade. Traditionally, theologians have seen trade as a two-faced phenomenon: on the one hand, as an opportunity for brotherhood and mutual advantage, but on the other hand as an instrument of greed and corruption. Remarkably, these theologians focus on the positive face of trade, dismissing its negative side.