The Protestant Reformation

1
The Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther

2
Renaissance and Reformation are inextrincably
interwoven with the birth and growth of the
modern national state. (E E)

• The Renaissance opened up the possibility for a
  new religious world
• Printing lies the material basis for Protestants
  reading and free interpretation of the Bible
  (deepening of the originally Jewish hermeneutic
  practices ? Foundation of postmodern
  hermeneutics).

3
Historical Context

• The Church taken over by corruption
• Failure of the 14th century Conciliar Movement
• Failure of the Christian Humanists (or the
  enlightened fusion of the ethics of early
  Christianity with the humanism of classical
  culture ( the main character in The Name of the
  Rose) Sir Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam.
• Failed reforms turned into a revolutionary
  movement, the Reformation
• 1516 Martin Luthers Theses
• However, the Reformation presents itself as a
  Return to the roots of Christianity
• The Reformation succeeded allied to the growth of
  national monarchies (religious dynastic,
  economic, and diplomatic interests)

4
Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• Born in Eisleben, Germany
• Emphasis on religion as a personal and inner
  experience
• Treatise on Christian Liberty
• Liberty is inside us and has no relation with
  political and social conditions ? Pessimism
• Faith rather than deeds ( Saint Paul)
• (Revolutionary?) Newness
• Equality
• Free interpretation of the Bible
• All Christians are priests (universal priesthood)
• Religious radicalism political conservatism
  (Christians must obey their king ( Saint Paul)
• Favored absolutism
• Favored crushing the 1525 peasant rebellion in
  Germany (paradoxically inspired on Luthers
  principles)
• Begins the German tendency of spiritual
  radicalism and political conservatism
• Martin Luthers 95 Theses (http//www.gty.org/phi
  l/history/95theses.htm)

5
On Secular Authority

• We must firmly establish secular law and the
  sword, that no one may doubt that it is in the
  world by Gods will and ordinance.() This penal
  law existed from the beginning of the world.
  (308)
• Saint Pauls Letter to the Romans
• Christians should not resist authority
• if any one strikes thee upon the right cheek,
  turn to him the other also (Matthew v)
• But, in matters which concern the salvation of
  souls nothing but Gods Word shall be taught and
  accepted. (314)
• Many German states became Lutheran

6
The Kingdom of God/the Kingdom of the World

• Two Kingdoms
• Two Laws
• Two classes of Adams children (313)
• Both are needed (one to produce piety, the other
  external peace)
• (but) every man is responsible for his own
  faith, and he must see to it for himself that he
  believes rightly. (314)
• Compare with Saint Augustine.

7
Luther

• True Christians need no secular sword or law.
  And if all the world were composed of real
  Christians, that is, true believers, no prince,
  king, lord, sword, or law would be needed. (309)
• The law is not given for the righteous, but for
  the unrighteous. (Paul, in Timothy i)
• because the righteous does of himself all and
  more than all that all the laws demand. (Luther)
• God has provided for non-Christians a different
  government outside the Christian estate and Gods
  kingdom, and has subjected them to the sword
  (310)
• Political legal institutions do not matter,
  because all of them appear equally wicked.
• Christianity vs. politics?

8

• We cannot trust the authorities
• We cannot trust the Church (priests and bishops
  are neither higher nor better than other
  Christians(318)

Who/What should we trust?
9
Pessimism

• It is indeed true that Christians, so far as
  they themselves are concerned, are subject to
  neither law nor sword and need neither but first
  take heed and fill the world with real Christians
  before ruling it in a Christian and evangelical
  manner. This you will never accomplish for the
  world and the masses are and always will be
  unchristian, allghout they are all baptised and
  are nominally Christian. (310)
• The world is too wicked, and does not deserve to
  have many wise and pious princes. (316)

10
The Sword

• You must know that from the beginning of the
  world a wise prince is a rare bird indeed still
  more so a pious prince. (316)
• Why must Christians obey secular authority? To
  what extent? (see p. 316)
• Should true Christians perform public service?

11
A sheperd among wolves?

• a man who would venture to govern an entire
  country or the world with the Gospel would be
  like a sheperd who should place in one fold
  wolves, lions, eagles, and sheep together and let
  them freely mingle with each other (310)
• Would Luther agree with Machiavelli, then?

12
True Christians are a few

• Christs rule does not extend over all, but
  Christians are always in the minority and are in
  the midst of non-Christians. (311)
• Considering its political consequences Is
  Luthers message aristocratic or democratic? Why?
• Compare with Paul and Augustine Is Luthers
  message as universal as theirs? Does it
  interpellate all of us?

13
John Calvin (1509-1564)

• Born in Noyon (France)
• Son of a lawyer, studied law at the University of
  Paris
• 1532 Institutes of the Christian Religion
• Had to go into exile to Switzerland due to his
  religious ideas, and stayed there until his
  death.
• Wide influence across the Netherlands,
  Switzerland, Scotland, South Africa, and the
  British colonies in North America (and also in
  parts of France)

14
Two Governments

• Man is under two kinds of government one
  spiritual, by which the conscience is formed to
  piety and to the service of God the other
  political, by which man is instructed in the
  duties of humanity and civility, which are to be
  observed in an intercourse with mankind. (319)
• the spiritual kingdom of Christ and civil
  government are things very different and remote
  from each other. (321)
• Spiritual temporal jurisdiction
• Soul . mans needs and social life
• For man contains, as it were, two worlds,
  capable of being governed by various rulers and
  various laws. (319)

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The Church

• has two principal ordersthe clergy and the
  people. I use the word clergy as the common,
  though improper appelation of those who execute
  the public ministry in the Church. (320)
• Christs ministers and pastors
• -Maintain discipline, and discipline is needed
  in the Church (as in the family)

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The Civil Government

• is designed, as long as we live in this world,
  to cherish and support the external workship of
  God, to preserve the pure doctrine of religion,
  to defend the constitution of the Church, to
  regulate our lives in a manner requisite for the
  society of men all of which I confess to be
  superfluos if the kingdom of God, as it now
  exists in us, extinguishes the present life.
  (322)
• -These aids are necessary to our pilgrimage on
  earth. (322)
• - I now refer to human polity the charge of the
  due maintenance of religion, which I may appear
  to have placed beyond the jurisdiction of men.
  (322)

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Three Branches of the system of civil
administration

• The magistrate, who is the guardian and
  conservator of the laws the laws according to
  which he governs the people, who are governed by
  the laws and obey the magistrate. (322)
• The magistrates must protect religion and promote
  a Christian life
• The people must love and honor their rulers,
  because the obedience which is rendered to
  princes and magistrates is rendered to God, from
  whom they have received their authority. (324)
• Private persons must obey even wicked rulers, and
  hope that other magistrates (i.e. tribunes) check
  the power of the ruler.
• Exception we cannot obey orders against God.

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How does Calvin present the political?

• Compare Luther and Calvins understandings of the
  political and highlight similarities and
  differences.
• How does the Jewish tradition reappear among
  Protestants?
• How should we understand religious wars? (And
  events such as St. Bartholomew?)
• Considering the authors we have reviewed so far,
  what are the consequences of Christianity for
  politics and the political?
• Is it possible to be both a good Christian and at
  the same time to be passionate about the Polis?