Elye Kehat L&S Social Sciences
The Dynamics of Religious Co-production in the Concept of ‘Usury’
Bans against lending with interest, or ‘usury,’ are found in the earliest texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. While shared origins are acknowledged by many scholars, the subsequent histories of religious conceptions of usury are treated as unambiguously divergent. This study seeks to complicate traditional accounts of financial and religious history by reframing usury as “co-produced”: rather than developing independently within each religion, ideas and practices pertaining to lending with interest were created and continuously transformed by inter-religious polemics, commercial partnerships, adaptive exegesis, and majority-minority relations. I trace this dynamic through time and space, grounding the project in four case studies across Roman Judea, 7th-century Arabia, 12th-century Egypt, and 13th-century England. Through these diverse contexts, I demonstrate the complex dynamics of co-production; at times fostering tolerance and coexistence, at others stigmatization, segregation, expulsion, or violent destruction. I hope this study will provide insight into the dynamics of religious co-production – and to greater mutual understanding between Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Message To Sponsor
I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to the donors, who‘ve given me the chance to combine two passions of mine – economics and religion – into what I hope will be a fruitful study. This research fellowship, and the generous grant, will surely advance that goal. Thank you for making such pursuits possible – your contribution to my own project, to student researchers more generally, and to the wider UC Berkeley community is immeasurable.