{"id":11248,"date":"2012-04-03T05:50:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T09:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=11248"},"modified":"2012-04-03T05:50:42","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T09:50:42","slug":"luther-and-the-euro-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/04\/luther-and-the-euro-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Luther and the Euro crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From Lutheranism to its depths to Lutheranism in its shallows. . .<\/p>\n

The BBC, of all media, has a feature on the influence of Luther and Lutheranism on Germany\u2019s reactions to the current economic crisis in Europe.\u00a0 This is at best a cultural influence, to be sure, not a theological one, but it\u2019s worth noting, especially for a nation whose word for \u201cjob\u201d is \u201ccalling\u201d (Beruf<\/em>), a legacy of the doctrine of vocation:<\/p>\n

Exactly 500 years ago, one of Europe\u2019s greatest thinkers was getting increasingly worried that good German money was being wasted.<\/p>\n

Cash was heading to the Mediterranean, subsidising a bunch of badly behaved foreigners.<\/p>\n

The 16th Century German thinker was Martin Luther and he was desperate to stay part of that great European project known as the Roman Catholic Church, but equally desperate not to support those who were ripping off German believers to pay to build St Peter\u2019s in Rome.<\/p>\n

\nThe unfairness of the abuses fed popular resentment until German patience finally snapped. Luther broke away from his beloved Catholic Church, \u201cprotesting\u201d in that great rebellion we know as the creation of Protestant-ism, the Reformation.\n

Nowadays, Germans \u2013 even those who are Catholic or non-Christian \u2013 cannot escape the Lutheran past.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the Lutheran present. The most powerful woman in the world, Angela Merkel, is a Lutheran believer, the daughter of a pastor. The new German president, Joachim Gauck, is a former Lutheran pastor.<\/p>\n

And that cliche of \u201cthe Protestant work ethic\u201d \u2013 hardworking German taxpayers, even if they are not actually Protestant, continue to bail out the euro while being caught in a squeeze as acute as Luther in the 16th Century.<\/p>\n

In their hearts, from Merkel to the car worker on the Volkswagen assembly line, the German people are desperate to be good Europeans, just as Luther was desperate to be a good Catholic.<\/p>\n

But in their heads, most Germans suspect there may be something wrong \u2013 something morally wrong as well as economically dangerous \u2013 about giving money to those who, in the German view, have been at best reckless and at worst dishonest. . . .<\/p>\n

[After describing an interview with Chancellor Merkel.]\u00a0 I was struck by Mrs Merkel\u2019s political genius \u2013 quiet, cautious, the Hausfrau of her nation, so unlike the noisier, catastrophic male German leaders of the first half of the 20th Century.<\/p>\n

The puzzle now is when her political decision to be a good European collides with her Lutheran conscience not to reward bad behaviour or be reckless with money.<\/p>\n

I wondered whether for Frau Merkel, like Martin Luther, another reformation in Europe might be on the cards \u2013 not tomorrow, perhaps, but one day.<\/p>\n

HT:\u00a0 ABC3Miscellany<\/a><\/p>\n

And yet, the reason Luther started the Reformation was NOT economic, though arguably the economic issues made people more receptive to the Reformation.\u00a0\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t Germans be tight with their money even if they aren\u2019t Lutheran?\u00a0 Don\u2019t Catholic Germans feel the same way?\u00a0 Or Reformed or \u201cEvangelical and Reformed\u201d members of the state church?\u00a0 And does ANY European country really want to bail out the irresponsible Greeks?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Lutheranism to its depths to Lutheranism in its shallows. . . The BBC, of all media, has a feature on the influence of Luther and Lutheranism on Germany\u2019s reactions to the current economic crisis in Europe.\u00a0 This is at best a cultural influence, to be sure, not a theological one, but it\u2019s worth noting, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13,23,38],"tags":[722,779,918,1344,1350,1386,4359],"class_list":["post-11248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-economics","category-international","category-reformation","tag-economic","tag-euro","tag-germany","tag-lutheran-cultural-influence","tag-lutheranism","tag-martin-luther","tag-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\nLuther and the Euro crisis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From Lutheranism to its depths to Lutheranism in its shallows. . . 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