St. John Chrysostom and the problem with wealth.

Hyperekperissou is a patristics/Church Fathers blog I really enjoy. I thought this post about St. John Chrysostom and wealth is a very good one. He says in part:

St. John is uncompromising about his attitude to wealth. That is, of course, part of what got him into trouble in Constantinople, when he castigated the rich of the imperial capital for their excesses even to the point of attacking the empress. That didn't win him friends, but I doubt if he was interested in doing that. His attitude to wealth is not the reflexive assumption that anyone who is rich is corrupt which is the implication of many poverty activists out there. Rather St. John insists that any wealth we have we hold in trust for God and for doing God's service. That is, if we are spending more than we need on ourselves and not helping those who are in poverty, we are being truly bad stewards

I think that is true. There needs to be a balance and I think his attitude strikes the right balance between those that say THE RICH ARE EVIL AND REDISTRIBUTE ALL THE MONEY to those that that think their wealth is of no ones concerns.

While you are at his blog check out his Patristic Carnival which is a collection of last months links and post from bloggers(both Catholic and Protestant) that talk about Patristics. I am going to be linking to a couple of those I think in the coming days.