Mine Rescue, by Fletcher Martin, 1939. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

Philanthropy

Volume VIII, Number 3 | summer 2015

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Preamble

Pennies from Heaven

By Lewis H. Lapham

The word philanthropy first appears in Western thought in the fifth century BC to denote an act of rebellion and name the crime of treason.

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Treasure in Heaven

By Peter Brown

St. Augustine and other early Christians challenged the Roman idea of charity by invoking the ultimate authority—God.

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Map

Money Trails

Where the UN, the World Bank, and eleven nations send foreign aid.

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Miscellany

Kings of England extorted money from their subjects in taxes concealed as gifts—a practice first used in 1473 by Edward IV. These were known as benevolences.

c. 1250 | France

Overhead Costs

“The clergy is assured salvation and the knights will go to damnation.”More

1906 | Chicago

Edifice Complex

There’s no such thing as a free library.More

1757 | Paris

Intentional Fallacy

“Generally it is found to be easier to found new establishments than to reform the old.”More

Charts & Graphs

Clean-Up Crews

How charitable is charitable enough for atonement?

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American writer Eudora Welty.

Pastel drawing of George Eliot.

Portrait of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Black and white photograph of American writer and exponent of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Portrait of Alexis de Tocqueville wearing a black suit and standing in front of a chair.

French man of letters Denis Diderot.

Unfortunately, humanitarianism has been the mark of an inhuman time.

—G.K. Chesterton, 1932

Edward III & Carol Liu

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