Pathogens blocking the growth of the economic body. The story of a long-lasting metaphor

Between the Middle Ages and modern times, European and Christian economic discourse was established using a conceptual syntax based on the systematic interconnection of the lexicon of trade and profit with the theological lexicon of salvation. In this framework, the economic growth of markets and the health of the Christian Mystical Body - as mirror images of each other - are represented by a language that is both providential and medical. Those who seem to impede the salutary, life-saving movements of the Christian Economic Body will therefore increasingly be described as morbid elements that need to be fought and eliminated.