Many a person may find comfort in religion for all manner of life’s gifts and woes.
And in regard to personal debt, which affects a great majority of individuals in our world, debt is a controversial subject – except when viewed in terms of religion.
DEBT IS EVIL
French philosopher, Simone Weil, argued that debt is evil. His view is that debt leads individuals to false beliefs. Specifically, in regards to past and present. He states that if an individual is hoping for a right to a certain future (whether falsely or not at the time), then in the future, that individual is falsely stuck in the past (via a past promise to pay later). Hence, his life is not in harmony with God’s will, which would not be living a true life. Per Weil, God wants people to remain in the present, to be in His presence. Hence, the burden of debt is something that moves debtors away from the proximity of God’s presence in the now.
The Biblical books of Deuteronomy (23:20) and Leviticus (25:37) explicitly prohibit lending at interest, and are the source of two of the 613 mitzvot (Maimonides #534 & #535), the commands of God to the Jewish people.
According to Proverbs 22:7, “The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender” (NRSV).
Christian philosophy has historically also been concerned with these very issues, and the Catholic Church prohibited lending at interest throughout most of the Middle Ages.
The words sin and debt are the same in Aramaic, and the Lord’s Prayer can be read as “redeem us from our debts, as we redeem our debtors.”
In Islamic tradition, Allah intends the misfortune to fall on all those involved in debt transactions, since, as the argument goes, to leave the debtor obligated and the creditor with recourse to the state for collection, is to defy God.