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The great religious texts, of both Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism and Islam, are dotted with references to the concept of debt. But what exactly do they say, the anthropologist David Graeber asks in the series "Promises, Promises: A Debt Story".
The generalized notion is that these religions teach us that we must pay our debts.
But the truth is that financial metaphors in religious texts are particularly ambivalent.
Our father's original translation of 1381 says, "Give us our daily bread today, forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," says Graeber.
But forgive our debtors Most, no
What is surprising is that does not know exactly what this prayer means.
Family Payment
S & # It is true that the great religions speak more of forgiving debts than of paying them, and that the deepest teachings speak of the cancellation of all debts, it is important to understand the historical context in which these works were written
In this context it is explained why in the ancient world the institutionalized pardon debts was a common phenomenon.
The economy always tells us that 39, there was first the barter, then the money e and finally credit. But, in fact, it was the opposite: credit came first, then physical money.
Although in theory the ancient Sumerians used money as money, in reality they did not have scales accurate enough to weigh the necessary quantities. to buy everyday items such as a shirt, hammer or vegetables on the market.
What they did, is buy on credit. And then every six months to a year, especially at the time of harvest, the customers paid their debt with bags of grain, for example
When the harvest was bad, they were late and paid even more.
And if they also lost these badets, the creditors took a member of their family whom they could use as a servant, or if they were a woman turn him into prostitute, or sell it abroad as a slave.
Debt Cancellation
Faced with this situation, many debtors fled to the desert where they joined nomadic groups who threatened to flood the cities
. generated a situation of malaise
To avoid this situation, many leaders – like Nehemiah when he returned to Judea – canceled debts (that of consumers, not commercial debts) and free pions donated who could return to their place of origin and their families.
For the leaders, this represented a kind of cosmological gesture : they created a new world.
In Judea, this practice was institutionalized. Martin Palmer, historian of religion, explains: "In Judaism, we expect that every seven years, debts will be erased. they erase all debts. "
The Three Debts of Hinduism
In Hinduism, for example, religious texts speak of three forms of debt.
" These three debts are with the gods, the prophets and teachers, and the ancestors, "says Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, professor of religion and comparative philosophy at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
" Debt to the gods is paid to the men of the higher caste, by the sacrifice, the debt with the prophets is canceled by learning the secret texts (Vedas) and the debt towards the ancestors, having children, especially males. "[19659003] In other words, they are not paid in the traditional sense.The last two are annulled with the debtors becoming creditors themselves : one becomes a teacher by inspiring books of wisdom, and becomes an ancestor of the generations future by becoming a father.
And the father my debt, debt to the gods?
"It is, in a way, one that sums up our relationship with reality and the cosmos as a whole ," says Chakravarthi.
"In this sense, debt to them is a debt for our mere existence, which means that the very fact of our existence is something we owe to the Universe."
One with the cosmos
The text suggests that it is absurd to imagine that it is possible to pay our debt to the cosmos, which means that the man and the cosmos are equal parts of the same thing.
And only when we realize that we are one with the cosmos, the idea of the own loses its meaning and its debts disappear.
Again and again, says the anthropologist, the ancient religious texts begin by saying that morality is simply to pay our debts. And then, immediately, they reject this idea
If we go back to the Bible, we will see that the notion of absolute debt to the cosmos is behind the ambiguity that we see in the heart of our father's original version .
Martin Palmer says, "You can argue that morality pays your debts, but there is also a greater morality of forgiving those who have debts with you to give them more opportunities." [19659003saveyourselfandreconcilewithhimandhecleansesyourdebtsifGoddiditwithyouthenyoualsohavetheobligationtodoit(withtheothers)"
" This is not to say that you should not be paid your debts, but you should know that sometimes you have to let them go. "
This discussion of debt is also present in ancient Greek religious texts.
But, the most important reflection that emerges from all these texts is that " the debt is an illusion and the annihilation of the debt is, ultimately, something divine. "
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