Towards a metaphysics of usury

This paper charitably develops a possible metaphysical argument against usury, as a common ground on which theology and economics can consider the issue. The metaphysical framework is derived from Anselm's Augustinian-Platonist metaphysics of participation whereby all goods are good through the one supreme good which alone is good through itself. Two arguments for the charging of interest are considered, namely the argument from time preference and the argument from opportunity costs. In both cases, these arguments show a problematic tension in light of the full presence, in the present, of the highest good through which any good or action is at all good, thereby indicating a possible metaphysical ground for the moral intuition against usury. It is most closely related to the historical argument against usury as a "theft of time.