It's been a hell of a week for God and for Mammon. "The love of money is the root of all evil" Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York reminded City bankers on Wednesday, adding, rather presciently as it turned out, "We have all worshipped it. No one is guiltless".

Indeed, less than 24 hours after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York had ripped into global capitalism, decrying the greed of "City robbers," it emerged that the investments controlled by the Church itself were involved in short selling – because its stock was lent to enable short selling to happen and because it owned shares in Man Group, a large hedge fund manager. As a morality tale, it was almost worthy of Chaucer’s Pardoner. Radix Malorum est Cupiditas: the Root of all Evil is Money he preaches in The Canterbury Tales, making, in the process, a tidy profit.

Yet for all the justified charges of hypocrisy, this weeks’ battles between Church and City have, if little else, turned the spotlight on God and the question of what, if anything, the world’s main faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity have to say about finance, debt and spirituality.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Stock Market • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Other Faiths • Islam • Judaism

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