Debt: The First 5,000 Years

In Debt, Graeber repeatedly explores the dual nature of money. He begins to outline his position in Chapter 1 when he discusses the commonly held positions on debt: 1) all debt must be repaid; and 2) those who lend money are immoral. Throughout our lives, we are told that we owe people around us and society something. At the same time, we vilify anyone who lends us the very thing that we can use to repay these debts. Many religious traditions do not hold sympathetic views of moneylenders, especially when they go too far. Christian theology represents the Devil either as the evil lender or the shadowy figure behind the lender “biding his time until he can repossess the soul of a villain who, by his very occupation, has clearly made a compact with Hell” (11).

Graeber also explores how religious traditions frame relationships with God and morality using commercial terms, while at the same time showing that moral relations cannot be framed as such. Returning to Christianity, freedom in the Bible refers to the release of debts. The end of history and the true redemption of humankind will be when God wipes all slates clean and lifts all debts.