Page 4 - Valentino Cattelan - Credere is credit and creed: trust, money, and religion in western and islamic finance

VALENTINO CATTELAN

righteously invested will be multiplied. Moreover, just as any story of credit is a story of risk and uncertainty
(debtors may not be able to return money, and credit institutions are always, after all, risk managers), any
story of faith is a story of hope in redemption and grace, which clearly goes beyond human control – hence,
uncertainty here reappears again. The originality of this article lies in the understanding of money as
connected to religious belief. For this purpose, it takes a comparative perspective on the notion of trust
(credere) in Western and Islamic finance, and how trust differently shapes the interaction between money
(credit) and religion (faith) in their moral economics. Moving from the relationship between credere (‘to
trust’) and credit that interconnects finance, economics, morality, and religion as if they were the corners of
a ‘money kite’ (section 1), the article delves into the theological backgrounds of Western and Islamic finance,
so to interpret their alternative models of credit and risk management (interest-based capitalism vs risk-
sharing, mutuality, and cooperation) as specific manifestations of their respective religious creeds, also in
relation to the nature of socially oriented investments (sections 2, 3 and 4). To conclude the discussion, final
considerations are proposed on the relationship between trust, money, and religion according to Weber’s
interpretive outline of capitalism and in Islamic finance conceptualisation, and how they testify to the
persistence of a differentiation culture of modernity (section 5).

Summary:

1. Credere (‘to trust’): the ‘money kite’ of finance, economics, morality, and religion
2. Credit: money and Life
3. Christian creed and the morals of capitalism: from The Merchant of Venice to risk-sharing in
Islamic finance
4. Does risk-sharing imply social impact? Finance, moral economy, and Islamic creed
5. The spirit of capitalism and the ghost of Orientalism: trust, money, and religion in the differentiation
culture of modernity

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