ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the clash of ideals and realities in the depiction of the poor in the Hebrew Bible and in European culture. Poor Law, responding in part to the economic disruptions and distress caused by surges of capitalist growth, tends to divorce itself from the biblical image of the poor, often while hypocritically leaning on Scriptural authority. In the Bible, the poor as a class are never reprimanded for their poverty, for laziness or criminality, nor is there a conception of class conflict, of strife between masters and laborers. History has shown that the qualities needed to achieve fair distribution of wealth are not the same as those needed to gain the power to do so. In medieval Europe, the reaction against the poor was part of an increasingly critical view of the Church and of biblical ideas and stories.
