Mark Valeri

Religion, Discipline, and the Economy in Calvin's Geneva

Based on Genevan Consistory records from 1542 to 1564, this article argues that Calvins teaching on the body social informed ecclesiastical restrictions on usury and other commercial innovations.The tendency of Genevan entrepreneurs to adopt new market strategies in order to profit from French refugees and other newcomers turned Calvin against the most salient instruments of the market. He feared especially for the fate of truth-the reliability of language as a means of social communication-in the midst of entrepreneurial ventures and schemes to commodify credit.Against temptations to individualism, Calvin promoted public admonition and excommunication as forms of corporate discipline.Throughout, he insisted that Genevans identify themselves as members of the body social. This combination of religious discipline and moral theory, grounded in the notion of communication and directed against the market, should cause us to rethink the Weberian formulation of the ethos of Calvinism and its relation to capitalism.

Law and providence in Joseph Bellamy's New England : the origins of the New Divinity in revolutionary America

This study of religious thought and social life in early America focuses on the career of Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), a Connecticut Calvinist minister noted chiefly for his role in originating the New Divinity-the influential theological movement that evolved from the writings of Bellamys teacher, Jonathan Edwards. Tracing Bellamys contributions as a preacher, noted controversialist, and church leader from the Great Awakening to the American Revolution, Mark Valeri explores why the New Divinity was so immensely popular. Set in social contexts such as the emergent market economy, the war against France, and the politics of rebellion, Valeri shows, Bellamys story reveals much about the relationship between religion and public issues in colonial New England.

The Economic Thought of Jonathan Edwards

On 16 March 1742, Jonathan Edwardss church in Northampton adopted a new covenant of faith. Written in the heat of the Great Awakening, the document began, predictably, by acknowledging “the blessed manifestations and fruits of [Gods] gracious presence in this town” during the recent spiritual revivals. It then plunged into more worldly matters. It called on every church member to deal honestly and justly in secular business: they were not “in any matter” to “overreach or defraud” their “neighbor…and either willfully or through want of care, injure him in any of his honest possessions or rights.” The oath became more explicit. Debtors were to pay their creditors, so to avoid “willfully or negligently” wronging others. Indeed, debtors promised to forego “rest till … that restitution, or …that satisfaction” were effected. Likewise, creditors pledged to eschew “wordly gain, or honor, or interest…or getting the better” of their “competitors” as the “governing aim” of their business. Those who managed public affairs also were to forsake competitiveness. They agreed to relinquish their private interests for the sake of equity, especially “concerning any outward possessions, privileges, rights or properties.” Although the covenant dealt with other matters, it sustained its striking focus on commerce. Even as it neared its conclusion, it used economic metaphor to urge piety, presenting life as capital “to be laboriously spent in the business of religion: ever making it our greatest business.”