Світло та тінь сакральної теорії грошей

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the Sacred Theory of money, which, in comparison with other theories, is quite seldom considered by foreign authors and in fact is not represented at all in the domestic scientific literature. Meanwhile, the sacred theory is one of the oldest attempts to explain the existence of money and monetary relations by their supernatural origin. In one case it was about the divine will, which had established such relations in favor of mankind, in another one – about their origin from the evil otherworldly forces, resulting in the demonization of money and their perception as the cause and embodiment of all evil. Modern authors (B. Laum, B. Lietaer, A. Semenova, etc.) note that the reasons for the appearance of money was probably not be needs of trade and exchange of goods (the inconvenience of barter and demand for a medium of exchange) but ritual practices of ancient religions. With the advent of Christianity, another side of the attitude to money, that is, the attitude as to a sacred phenomenon, showed more and more clearly, involving its condemnation and demonization, which was rooted in the moral doctrine of the apostles and early theologians. At the same time, according to the author, the sacredness of money is, in fact, not of divine but of human origin, because money - despite all the claims of chrimatophobes ("haters of money") is not the cause and embodiment of all negative phenomena, but a reflection of relationships between people. And the quality of these relations depends only on people themselves, on their conformity to the sacred divine image. Knowledge of the Sacred Theory allows a better understanding of the history and logic of the development of monetary theory, including its modern concepts.