The article is devoted to the analysis of the Sacred Theory of money, which, in comparison with other theories, is quite seldom considered by foreign authors and in fact is not represented at all in the domestic scientific literature. Meanwhile, the sacred theory is one of the oldest attempts to explain the existence of money and monetary relations by their supernatural origin. In one case it was about the divine will, which had established such relations in favor of mankind, in another one – about their origin from the evil otherworldly forces, resulting in the demonization of money and their perception as the cause and embodiment of all evil. Modern authors (B. Laum, B. Lietaer, A. Semenova, etc.) note that the reasons for the appearance of money was probably not be needs of trade and exchange of goods (the inconvenience of barter and demand for a medium of exchange) but ritual practices of ancient religions. With the advent of Christianity, another side of the attitude to money, that is, the attitude as to a sacred phenomenon, showed more and more clearly, involving its condemnation and demonization, which was rooted in the moral doctrine of the apostles and early theologians.
At the same time, according to the author, the sacredness of money is, in fact, not of divine but of human origin, because money - despite all the claims of chrimatophobes ("haters of money") is not the cause and embodiment of all negative phenomena, but a reflection of relationships between people. And the quality of these relations depends only on people themselves, on their conformity to the sacred divine image.
Knowledge of the Sacred Theory allows a better understanding of the history and logic of the development of monetary theory, including its modern concepts.
Keywords:money, sacredness, demonization, Yin and Yang.
1. Evtukh, A. T. (2006) The sens of Money thought Modern Finance’s Prism. Finansy i kredit – Finance and Credit, 6(210),14-21 [In Russian].
2. Durkheim, E. (1915).The elementary forms of religious life. London: Allen and Unwin.
3. Zaleśkiewicz, T. (2012). The symbolic nature of money: psychological approach. Hideaway special volume , 109-121 [In Polish].
4. Belk, R. W., Wallendorf M. (1990). The Sacred Meaning of Money. Journal of Economic Psychology (North-Holland), 11, 35-67.
doi.org/10.1016/0167-4870(90)90046-C
5. Laum, B. (2006). Holy Money – A historical study of the sacred origins of money [In German].
6. Lietaer, B. (2000). The mystery of money: the emotional meaning and mode of action of a taboo. [In German]
7. Brzeski, T. (1928). Beginning of Money. Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny, 8 (2), 188-200 [In Polish]
8. Kwon, H. (Mar., 2007). The Dollarization of Vietnamese Ghost Money. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 13: 1, 73-90.
doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9655.2007.00414.x
9. Semenova, A. (2011). Would You Barter With God? Why Holy Debts and not Profane Markets Created Money. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 70 (2), 376-400.
doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2011.00779.x
10. Mutsopolus, E. (2016). Aristoteles on Moral and Economic Crises. Voprosy Filosofii – Philosophy’s Issues, 5, 128-136 [In Russian]
11. Bazulin, Yu. V. (2008). The origin and nature of money. Sankt-Peterburg: Izdatel’stvo Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta [In Russian].
12. Attali, J. (2002). Jews, the world and money. Paris: Fayard [In French].
13. Moscovici, S. (1998). Machine that Creates Gods. Moscow: Zakharov Press [In Russian].
14. Nikitin, A. P. (2014). Divine and Develish in Money. Vestnik Tomskogo universiteta – Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, 2 (26), 105-113 [In Russian]
15. Freud, Z. (1953). Character and Anal Erotism. Collected Papers, 2. London: Hogarth Press.
16. Seery, J. E. (1996). Political Theory for Mortals: Shades of Justice, Image of Death. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.
17. Khobzey, N. (2002). Hutsul mythology: Ethnolinguistic dictionary. Lviv: In-t ukrainoznavstva im. I. Krypiakevycha NANU [In Ukrainian].
18. Dźwigoł R. (2004). Polish folk mythological vocabulary. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Pedagogicznej [In Polish].
19. Belov O. V. (2013). Indispensable ruble in the beliefs and magical practices of the Slavs. Anthropological Forum Online, 8, 230-242 [In Russian].
20. Binswanger H. Ch. (1994). Money and Magic: A Critique of the Modern Economy in the Light of Goethe’s Faust Hardcover. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
21. Papa Francisco. (Febrero 28, 2015). Money is the devil’s dung. La Nacion. El Mundo [In Spanish].
22. Tamas, M. A. (2014). Money: The Evil Eye. René Guénon and Traditional Spirit. Toronto: Rose-Cross Books.
23. Guénon, R. (2004). The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times. Hillsdale, New York: Sophia Perennis.
24. Harrison, R. (1991). Eckbert of Schönau and Catharism: A Reevaluation. Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 22:1, 41-54.
25. Shulevitz, D. (2018). Following the Money: Cathars, Apostolic Povetry, and the Economy in Langedoc, 1237-1259. Journal of medieval Religious Cultures, 44: 1, 24-59.
doi.org/10.5325/jmedirelicult.44.1.0024
26. Skovoroda, H. (1995). Get to know a person in yourself. Lviv: Svit [In Ukrainian].
27. Marx, K. (1974). Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Marx K., Engels F. Works, 42. Moscow: Izd-vo politicheskoj literatury, XXIV [In Russian].
English
Ukrainian 
