기독교 신앙과 경제적 번영

본고는 기독교 신앙이 협조적 태도와 신뢰 문화 형성을 도와 분업과 교환의 이익을 극대화하는 데 일조했으며, 또 종교개혁 이후에는 개인의 회복과 재발견을 유도하여 물질적 축적과 기술혁신에 매진할 수 있는 분위기를 마련함으로써 산업혁명과 이후 ‘거대한 번영’의 과정이 시작되는 데 일조했다는 논지를 전개한다.

This paper contends that Christian faith helped increase the benefits of specialization and exchange carried out in the market through its effects on the Christian social attitudes, which in turn helped enhance the trustworthiness of the European society, and that Christian doctrines promulgated during the Reformation period had enhanced the freedom and dignity of those individuals who were engaged in commercial activities, which in turn helped transformed the economic narrative in a way that is favorable toward innovation and accumulation. These two strands of effects are combined to help explain that Christian faith had contributed to economic prosperity through its effects on the Great Enrichment process started by the Industrial Revolution.