{"id":16794,"date":"2011-04-09T11:14:55","date_gmt":"2011-04-09T16:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?p=16794"},"modified":"2011-04-09T11:14:55","modified_gmt":"2011-04-09T16:14:55","slug":"is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages<\/em> I ran across a brief but intriguing passage:<\/p>\n

Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty derived from traditional patristic writings about justice as well as charity.\u00a0 Writers did not limit themselves to reaffirming the right of the poor to the rich man\u2019s excess or to a quarter or third of the income from tithes and church property.\u00a0 Nor were they content to remind princes and bishops of their duty to protect the poor\u2026.But the question arose whether the poor could legitimately insist that their rights be observed\u2026.Peter the Chanter maintained that the authorities had the power to force the wealthy to give alms.<\/em> (110-11)<\/p>\n

This was an important development in thinking about poverty.\u00a0 Prior to this period, the poor were always (usually?) viewed as the object, never the subject:\u00a0 they existed so that the rich might exercise charity, but were not seen as independent actors who had claims of justice.\u00a0\u00a0 It does not appear that Peter the Chanter\u2019s position became widespread.\u00a0 Mollat\u2019s discussion turns instead to the closely related question of whether a hungry man can steal to feed himself; by the end of the 12th century the consensus appeared to be that he could and this did not constitute theft.\u00a0 Given Anatole France\u2019s ironic observation that the law forbids the rich as well as the poor to steal bread, it would seem that this position no longer holds:\u00a0 in our capitalist society, private property is sacrosanct and so guarded against the depredations of the poor.<\/p>\n

But I am intrigued by Peter the Chanter\u2019s position, which seems consonant with (and indeed may demand) the social programs of liberal democracies.\u00a0\u00a0 These programs are often referred to as entitlement programs:\u00a0 the poor are entitled to these benefits, and government spending must rise or fall to meet the need.\u00a0\u00a0 To pay for them, the government (the \u201cauthorities\u201d) compel the wealthy to pay taxes; presumably then, taxes must rise or fall to meet the need as well.<\/p>\n

Accepting this position does not entail supporting every government welfare program; nor does it rule out \u201cprivate charity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 There is wide scope for discussing the roles of government and civil society and what implications subsidiarity has.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But what it does entail is recognizing that the poor are not simply objects\u2014the recipients of government or personal largess\u2014but are in fact subjects whose demands for food, clothing, shelter and medical care are legitimate and must<\/strong> be met.\u00a0 In particular, in the current political situation it calls into question the Republican budget proposal (as put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan) that Medicaid be converted from an individual entitlement to a block grant program.\u00a0 The inevitable effect of such a change would be a cost-shifting from the state to the poor, which in turn is a denial of their right to health care.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty derived from traditional patristic writings about justice as well as charity.\u00a0 Writers did not limit themselves to reaffirming the right of the poor to the rich man\u2019s excess or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2931,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,298,364,134,420,228],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-social-teaching","category-charity","category-justice","category-poverty","category-social-justice","category-taxing"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Almsgiving Charity or Justice?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vox Nova\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Cruz-Uribe\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Cruz-Uribe\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/\",\"name\":\"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/9bcc65650acbfbe6e808866fd691b55e\"},\"description\":\"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/\",\"name\":\"Vox Nova\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/9bcc65650acbfbe6e808866fd691b55e\",\"name\":\"David Cruz-Uribe\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a7d7c723b9a3c8b6077768782263e75?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a7d7c723b9a3c8b6077768782263e75?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Cruz-Uribe\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/author\/dcruzuribe\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?","description":"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?","og_description":"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/","og_site_name":"Vox Nova","article_published_time":"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00","author":"David Cruz-Uribe","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Cruz-Uribe","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/","name":"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-09T16:14:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/9bcc65650acbfbe6e808866fd691b55e"},"description":"As I was reading Mollat\u2019s The Poor in the Middle Ages I ran across a brief but intriguing passage: Twelfth-century thinking on the subject of poverty","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2011\/04\/09\/is-almsgiving-charity-or-justice\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is Almsgiving Charity or Justice?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/","name":"Vox Nova","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/9bcc65650acbfbe6e808866fd691b55e","name":"David Cruz-Uribe","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a7d7c723b9a3c8b6077768782263e75?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8a7d7c723b9a3c8b6077768782263e75?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"David Cruz-Uribe"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/author\/dcruzuribe\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2931"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}