…Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24 KJV
In the affluent Triangle Region of North Carolina, you will find no shortage of complaints on issues ranging from grocery prices, to job pay, to traffic, to housing costs, to crime, to education; the list goes on as long as you’d like. Amongst all of the issues to complain about, the most often raised ones involve the spending or getting of money and all of the problems it causes. This place surely bears no truly unique mark in this regard; rather, this has suggested to me we are very much like ancient men--long dead on the other side of the world.
Mammon and money often get conflated, though they are not used interchangeably by a precise writer post New Testament. The etymology of this word, “mammon,” has an interesting development throughout history. Originally in the Hebrew, this word meant from accumulation (of money), written as mihamon; this word in Aramaic māmōnā would be the word Christ spoke. With the teachings of Christ, mammon became associated negatively with the pursuit of accumulating money, provided it is the highest aim of life. Over time, several theologians and church teachers began to suggest that Mammon itself was a kind of demon.
Mammon, oil on canvas by George Frederick Watts, 1884–85; in the collection of the Tate, London.
The issue of money’s innate vice pricks the human heart throughout history, likely since the concept came to be. Whether it is gold or the fiat dollar, money’s allure tempts the soul to worship it in scarcity or excess. As seen above, Mammon, either spirit or obsession, dominates and destroys those who bow to it. It subdues man and woman alike through their envious and greedy desire; ultimately it rules over them and they are made into its slaves. He cares not for them; his eyes focus elsewhere. The supplicant receives no love from his master.
“Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly, but don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today”-- Money, Pink Floyd 1973
Returning to our modern age, Mammon has not lost this power. However, the nature of why this may or may not be a problem changes quite strongly depending on who you are talking to. A Buddhist or similarly inclined person may describe money as an attachment that should be removed or discarded because of its distracting and ultimately ephemeral nature. A Leftist will tell you it isn’t shared evenly enough. A Right winger will declare that too many people want someone else’s. An Austrian school styled libertarian will tell you that our money is worthless and fake, handled by bureaucrats to the benefit of a few power players. A Keynesian will assure you that all of the levers of supply and demand of money must be handled precisely, keeping our monetary situation stable and safe. Clearly, disparate opinions vie for narrative control on the almighty dollar to a particularly strong degree.
Money is a good thing, rather than a crime, but only in regards to its use. Should we think of money as the athlete thinks of his body, we may find that there are strategies and philosophies to better place this powerful entity within our personal hierarchy. The athlete watches his health, what he eats, monitors his exercise, and learns to wield his abilities excellently. Unlike a true athlete, we are not so serious about our bodies mostly. Instead, our imagination usually is much more consumed by Mammon or money, so that is our challenge. Wordsworth has an apt poem describing the way in which this misaligns our perception of reality.
“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”
-- The World is too much With Us, William Wordsworth 1807
“Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;” is there a better description of our current predicament? Are we Economic Man, Natural Man, Spiritual Man, or Complete Man? We must ponder this question if we are to find a deeper consolation in the real world around us.
As Mammon has ruled for centuries over the hearts of men, men have served him willingly and with a full heart. Christ’s warning for this is not that this is infeasible, rather that it will blind us to pursuing life in abundance. It would be better, according to Wordsworth, that we worshiped the pagan gods of the earth, sky, and sea so that we would at least find some beauty in the world that is right in front of us, freely available. At least in that case, we would not be so miserable.
The issue is not that we desire money, but that our virile desire for it gives it too much power. David Foster Wallace once claimed that we may not think we worship anything, but in reality, if we believe that, then something else has already made us a slave. Man cannot serve more than one master, but he also cannot serve no master. There must be a prime directive, motivator, or guide by which we pilot our fate.
If the religious thinkers like St. John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nyssa are correct, that Mammon is truly a demonic force, we should not expect that worshiping the pursuit of wealth is just another neutral decision because of “the importance of the economy.” The human heart is not an stubborn paragon of virtue. It is easily led and we are like slavering, hungry dogs before a raw steak when our desires are peaked.
Materialistic conservatives and progressives both choose to make money and its use the chief issue of their platforms. A nation bereft of a higher guiding principle other than politics will follow suit and make that its own guide. We should be wary lest many important things be sacrificed to this master. Ideology gives you all the excuses you could ever need. A cursory reading of communist history should convince you of that.
Wordsworth’s poetry reminds us that we lose everything meaningful if we focus on this god. He suggests that should we wield our power to see and experience the world outside of our human endeavors, we might begin to see a more engaging and purposeful reality. The stewardship of our resources and capital is a good task we must do well. Asceticism is not the chief alternative we must pursue, rather it is to have life in abundance. That pursuit means all things will be ordered under our master’s direction and command. The choice of master makes all the difference.