The Fathers on wealth: Basil, Chrysostom and Ambrose

Program / Course 22: Christian Ethics / Lesson 5.2

What you will learn

• Describe the teaching of Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom and Ambrose of Milan on wealth and the poor.
• Explain the patristic idea that surplus goods belong to those in need.
• Distinguish what these writers said from later claims made in their name.
• Compare how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions have used the Fathers on property.

The big idea

In the fourth century, three great preachers spoke with force about money. Basil of Caesarea, John Chrysostom and Ambrose of Milan taught that the earth is common by creation, that the rich hold wealth as stewards, and that keeping what the poor need is a kind of theft. They did not call for abolishing private property, but they judged luxury and hoarding harshly and urged almsgiving as a duty of justice. Their words are still quoted in debates about wealth, so it matters to read them in context.

Key terms

Church Fathers

Early Christian writers whose teaching was influential in shaping Christian doctrine and practice, especially from the second to the eighth centuries.

Homily

A sermon, usually on a passage of Scripture. Much of the Fathers’ teaching on wealth comes from homilies.

Surplus (superfluity)

Goods beyond what a person needs for living in a suitable manner. The Fathers held that the surplus is owed to the poor.

Stewardship

The idea that a person holds goods as a trust from God and must use them according to God’s purposes.

Universal destination of goods

A phrase from Catholic teaching that the goods of the earth are meant by God for the benefit of all.

Almsgiving

Giving to the poor, considered by the Fathers a work of mercy that also cleanses sin (Daniel 4:27; Luke 11:41).

Basileias

The large complex of hospital, hospice and poorhouse that Basil organized outside Caesarea in Cappadocia.

Background

In the fourth century the church changed from a persecuted minority to a body favored by the empire. Wealthy people joined it, and bishops had to speak about how they held their property. Roman cities had great gaps between the rich and the poor, and famines and wars multiplied beggars and refugees. The Fathers’ preaching on wealth was practical, aimed at actual landowners and merchants in their congregations, and many bishops also ran charities for the sick and the hungry.

Basil (about 330 to 379) was a bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, from a wealthy family, who gave up his inheritance. John Chrysostom (about 349 to 407), whose name means golden-mouthed, preached in Antioch and later served as bishop of Constantinople, where his criticism of luxury at court brought him exile. Ambrose (about 339 to 397) was a Roman governor who was made bishop of Milan by popular demand and who confronted emperors. All three used Scripture, the parable of the rich fool, the story of Lazarus, Naboth’s vineyard and the words of Jesus to the rich young man.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Basil

In a homily on the parable of the rich fool, Basil asks the rich man’s question, who is wronged by the storing up of what is his own? He answers that the rich are like a man who takes a seat at a public theater and then keeps others out, claiming as his own what is for everyone to share. He says that the bread kept by the rich belongs to the hungry, and the cloak in the closet to the naked, and the shoes rotting by the door to the barefoot. These images are often quoted. Their exact wording depends on the translation, and modern readers should check the source.

In a homily delivered during a famine, Basil rebukes grain merchants who hold back supplies to raise prices. Basil also acted. He organized a complex outside Caesarea, later called the Basileias, with care for the sick, lepers, travelers and the poor. His example shows that the Fathers joined preaching with organized charity.

Step 2: Chrysostom

Chrysostom preached constantly on wealth. In his homilies on Lazarus and on Matthew, he argued that not to share one’s goods with the poor is to steal from them, because the goods are held in common by God’s gift. He compared the Eucharistic altar, which people honor with gold, to the altar of the poor person, who is the living image of Christ, and asked how a church could adorn vessels while ignoring the hungry. He did not condemn riches in themselves but the use of them for vanity and cruelty, and he said that the rich who are generous are blessed.

He also taught that the poor have a task: not to envy the rich, and to be patient. He criticized the rich for justifying luxury by pointing to their duties. And he held that the church itself must be careful in its use of wealth. His preaching on this subject cost him support among the wealthy of Constantinople, and was among the causes of his fall from favor with the empress.

Step 3: Ambrose

Ambrose’s treatise On Naboth reads the story of Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21) as a parable of rich landowners who seize the poor man’s small property. He says that the earth was created for all in common, and that the rich claim for themselves what was given to everyone. When a rich person gives to the poor, he says, he is not handing over something of his own but returning what already belonged to the poor. In his work On Duties, Ambrose adapted Cicero’s ethics to Christian use and discussed justice, liberality and the use of church property to redeem captives.

Ambrose melted down church plate to ransom prisoners, and defended the act against critics who said the vessels were sacred. He held that the church’s true treasure is its people. This lesson, that wealth and sacred things must serve the living, is a thread in all three Fathers.

Step 4: What they did and did not teach

Some modern writers claim the Fathers as supporters of communism or as opponents of private property. Historians caution against this. The Fathers did not propose abolishing property or creating a new economic order. They spoke of the rich as stewards and of surplus as owed to the poor, and they assumed that private ownership would continue. Chrysostom explicitly said that he was not asking all to give up everything, though he held the rich to a high standard. Augustine, a little later, also affirmed private property under human law while teaching that superfluous goods are owed to the needy.

Others use them to argue that charity is only an individual matter. This too goes too far, since the Fathers criticized structures such as price speculation and land seizures, and urged bishops and rulers to act. A fair reading holds that they combined a high doctrine of the common destination of goods, a call to personal generosity and a willingness to rebuke institutions, with no worked-out economic theory. Their language is rhetorical and pastoral, and should not be read as a policy proposal.

1. What does the Father say the rich owe, and on what ground?
2. Does he treat wealth as evil, as a trust or as a gift to be used?
3. Is the passage preaching to a congregation, writing a treatise or reporting an action?
4. How does his teaching connect to a text of Scripture?
5. What practical steps did he take or recommend?
6. How would a defender of property rights read him, and how would a critic of inequality?

Examples

Different perspectives

Catholic

Catholic social teaching quotes the Fathers often. The Catechism cites Gregory the Great, saying that when a person gives to the poor he gives what is theirs, and Pope John Paul II drew on Ambrose and Chrysostom. The church teaches that private property is legitimate but that the universal destination of goods stands before it, and that almsgiving is a work of mercy and of justice.

Orthodox

Orthodox tradition holds these three Fathers in the highest honor. Basil and Chrysostom, with Gregory the Theologian, are the Three Holy Hierarchs, and Chrysostom’s liturgy is the Divine Liturgy most used. Orthodox teaching takes from them the view that the Eucharist and care for the poor cannot be separated and that wealth must be held with detachment.

Protestant

The Reformers honored the Fathers selectively. Calvin quoted Chrysostom often and praised him as a preacher. Protestants have drawn on the Fathers to support charity and to criticize greed, and some Protestant social movements cited them. Protestants also worry that late patristic teaching on almsgiving could seem to make giving a way of earning favor, and they stress that giving flows from grace.

Scholarly

Historians such as Peter Brown have studied the Fathers’ preaching on wealth, noting how the shift of the church’s position in society changed its teaching and how the idea of the poor as a special class developed. Scholars debate how far the Fathers’ rhetoric matched practice and how much it reflected the bishops’ interests in building their own authority.

Why it matters

The Fathers show how Christians thinking in a very different economy applied the Gospel to money. Their words are still quoted in sermons, encyclicals and political arguments, often loosely. A student who has read them in context will be better able to use them honestly, and to see what they did and did not claim. They also give a model of a Christian leader who preaches and acts.

Common misunderstandings

Knowledge check

Think it through

1. What do you think of Basil’s claim that the surplus belongs to the poor? What follows from it?
2. How could a modern parish apply Chrysostom’s idea of the altar of the poor?
3. Why do you think preachers in the fourth century spoke so strongly about money?
4. Which later writers use the Fathers to support their own economic views? Are they fair?

Independent assignment

Reading a Father in context

In your notebook, write 400 to 600 words. Find one passage by Basil, Chrysostom or Ambrose on wealth from an English translation in a library or a reliable edition. Copy a short extract, note the work and date, and explain who was being addressed and what they were being told. Then explain how the passage has been used in modern debate and whether that use is fair. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.

Further study

• John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood Read selectively to see Chrysostom’s view of pastoral duty and the care of the poor.
• J. B. Lightfoot, ed., The Apostolic Fathers Read the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache for early teaching on giving.
• Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of St. Benedict Read the chapters on goods held in common and on the reception of the poor and pilgrims.
• Augustine of Hippo, The City of God Read selectively on property, order and the use of earthly goods.
• Luke 12:16 The rich fool.
• 1 Kings 21:1 Naboth’s vineyard.
• Luke 16:19 The rich man and Lazarus.
• Matthew 25:40 Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these.