Religion and Commerce in Early Modern Europe Essay -- European History

Class discussions about spiritual history unavoidably turn to the question of whether ghostlike ideals throughout history remain tyrannical or are relative to the social, political andstinting trends of the time. For example, students are sometimes disturbed to learn that in earlyChristian history, conversion was often in response to economic or political benefits rather thanreligious fervor. Naturally, at the Catholic prep school where I teach, students want to rememberreligious ideals and rhetoric are absolute. Yet, when studying the role of religion in shapingsocieties, one cannot help but be struck by the fluidity of religious rhetoric. Although such adiscovery may be obvious to some, it is important for students to understand that we still live in aworld where people make important social and political decisions base on moral absolutes, withan insistence on traditional and unchangeable religious values. It is essential, therefore, thatteachers of religious history promote discussion on the possible tractableness of religiousideologies is religious rhetoric part of an unwavering, scriptural tradition, or do those whopractice religion create the rhetoric? Moreover, do human expedience and socio-economicchange eternally trump religion? Are social ideologies always stronger than religious tradition?After studying the creation of a advanced(a) industrial economy in Europe for these five weeks, I amconvinced that analyzing the evolution of religious rhetoric in early advanced Europe, which issuch a transitional phase of history, can illuminate how social, political, economic and culturalchange can guide or completely substitute the morals and ideologies of a society.Eric Hobsbawm and Keith Wrightson both argue th... ...New Press, 1999.Lynn, Martin. British Policy, Trade, and Informal empire in the Mid-Nineteenth Century.In The Oxford History of the British Empire, the Nineteenth Century, vol III, edited byAndrew Porter, 101-121. Oxford, New York Oxf ord University Press, 1999.More, Thomas. Utopia. Translated by Paul Turner. capital of the United Kingdom Penguin Books, 2003.OBrien, Patrick. Inseparable Connections Trade, Economy, financial State, and the Expansion ofEmpire, 1688-1815. In The Oxford History of the British Empire, The EighteenthCentury, vol. II, edited by P.J. Marshall, 54-77. Oxford, New York Oxford UniversityPress, 1998.____. Mercantilism and Imperialism in the Rise and Decline of the Dutch and BritishEconomies 1585-1815. De Economist 148, no. 4 (2000) 469-501.Wrightson, Keith. Earthly Necessities. New Haven and London Yale University Press, 2000.