The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce

god’s deal 447humans will accept an extended exchange relationship with Gods,” and “onlyGods of great scope offer rewards so valuable as to justify a demand for anexclusive exchange relationship.” 14The very forms of the attacks by Jesus and his followers on worldlywealth use prudential metaphors: “Lay up for yourselves treasures inheaven.” They use the rhetoric of the profane to recommend the sacred. Therewards may be heavenly, but they are rewards nonetheless. It is a commonrhetorical device. Epictetus in The Enchiridion criticizes envy of power asfoolish, because the power is “paid for” by attendance on the mighty. 15 Oneshould no more envy the power thus paid for, he says, than someone whobuys a head of lettuce. The one who does not buy the lettuce at least keepshis money, and is therefore no worse off than he who buys it. An economistwould quibble that Epictetus is ignoring what is known as “surplus,” thegain from trade; or the “rent,” as economists call profit, that comes frombeing first in attendance at the mighty’s door. Still, Epictetus’s rhetoric isclose to that of Jesus in the parable of “render unto Caesar” (Matt. 22:21;Mark 12:17;Luke 20:25). The rhetoric uses commercial notions of ownershipand trade and power to undermine the glorification of ownership and tradeand power.You can persuade yourself of Jesus’ prudent rhetoric by examiningThrockmorton’s Gospel Parallels. The book gives all versions of each episodein the first three of the four gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke.Therefore each episode of the teachings can be coded without doublecounting into four categories. The episode is eitherPrudent, that is, recommending worldly self-interest, though always ofcourse in aid of the otherworldly, for example, “You are the salt of the earth;but if salt has lost its taste,...it is no longer good for anything” (Matt. 5:13;Luke 14:34; Throckmorton uses the New Revised Standard translation of1989) or “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise the skinsburst” (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22).Or it is Imprudent, recommending the opposite of self-interest, a holyfoolishness hostile to the world’s reasons, for example, “Follow me, and Iwill make you fish for people. Immediately they left their nets and followedhim” (Matt. 4:19; Mark 1:17) or “We have nothing here but five loaves andtwo fishes” (Matt. 14:17; Mark 6:38; Luke 9:13).Or it is Mixed, using the rhetoric of gain, but modestly, such as “Give usthis day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11; Luke 11:3); or using the rhetoric of