Divine Currency by Devin Singh

Author:Devin Singh [Singh, Devin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2018-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

6

Of Payment, Debt, and Conquest

It is a truism that the early modern colonizing project worked part and parcel with a missionizing impulse, as the expansion of European empires coincided with efforts to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth.1 While this allegiance was certainly agonistic, and while examples can be multiplied of both missionary support for and opposition to certain forms of colonial conquest, rarely was there much question about their overall compatibility. Nor was there a question that the very sites and populations receiving religious instruction would also benefit from the political and economic impact of such annexation by the imperial center. From the graciously civilizing processes of education, to the benefits of market exchange and infrastructural improvement, to the glories of imposed Western forms of governance, colonial presence brought its own purported blessings to the benighted races, those who were simultaneously receiving the good news of the savior.

Whether or not accompanied by overt proselytization, the global extension of markets bears a salvific patina, even in its more secular contemporary manifestations. Globalization as the spread of capitalism is hailed as the “rising tide to lift all boats.” It is touted as a necessary handmaiden to the expansion of democratic impulses around the world. Political freedom and free markets must coincide. Authentic liberation must include the liberation to produce, trade, and consume.

In incipient globalization, we hear transmuted echoes of the ancient Christian celebration of the unitary Roman Empire that brought enforced peace and stability across diverse lands, enabling the effective transmission of the gospel. As capitalism was hailed in Europe as the saving means to bring stable and “gentle” relations among new nation-states, it was extended globally as that method by which to bring salvation to those further behind on the path of human progress. The underside of the gospel proclamation that markets bring benefits like civilization and democracy, of course, is that imposing markets requires force—whether the force of law, the constraints of structural adjustment programs, or even military and police presence, for instance.

The last chapter highlighted the redemptive and pacifying nature of economy as it was lauded as a source of amity in society. This chapter considers the other side of the coin, the uses of economy in conquest and victory over opponents as a mode of extending reign and control. The two dimensions work together, for aggressive insertion of economy into foreign territory is justified by the peace and salvation it is said to bring. In revealing how Gregory of Nyssa’s ransom account does not succumb to ancient critiques that it constrains God or puts God and Satan on equal footing, I draw out the implicit claim, required by the logic of the narrative, that God in Christ has imposed a counterloan upon the devil. What is more, attending to the political language in Gregory’s account, I show how his ransom narrative emerges as a theopolitical tale of competing sovereigns engaging in economic struggle. God can be seen as annexing and colonizing satanic territory through a commercial transaction that employs Christ as the coin of God, the chief currency of the kingdom.

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