< 1 min read

This history of philanthropy and charity claims that the Greek origin of philanthropy with its Roman and humanistic development purportedly had an untimely demise due to Christian charity.

"The distinction between “philanthropy” and “charity” is not just a current and arbitrary semantic quibble; it has a rich history not commonly understood by either scholars or practitioners, going back far beyond the turn of the 20th century and the creation of large American foundations, to the ancient subject of Gibbon’s “madeleine” moment on Rome’s Capitoline Hill, when he first realized the significance of hearing “barefooted friars singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter” and decided to write a history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Charity succeeded philanthropy, as it were, when the friars took over the Temple of Jupiter, 1500 years ago—in the so-called “Dark Ages” following the collapse of Rome and its economy, and with the rise of monasticism leading to the Middle Ages."--George McCully, HistPhil.org


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *