Also, isn't most important stuff older than Jesus? Like, he's a bit of a best-of compilation, right? Not to denigrate the story, I'm a big fan.
There's a lot of other baggage with that one particular culture.
I forgot to stipulate a lot of other things besides just lack of usury that I would like to have in a culture.
It might just be that lack of usury leads to economic stagnation.
This reminded me how some municipalities with homelessness issues will often spend homeless-related funds toward subsidizing living expenses for people who are not homeless, but are living on the edge and would end up losing their homes if not for some extra help. It's much easier and better (and cost-effective!) to help keep someone in a home, than it is to wait until they are on the streets before helping them.
I also am not religious, but there is a hebrew tradition of Tzedakah mentioned by another poster below, but here are the levels instead of a link.,
Maimonides defines eight levels in giving charity (tzedakah), each one higher than the preceding one.
On an ascending level, they are as follows: