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Luther and Economic Questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2009

John Alfred Faulkner
John Alfred Faulkner
Affiliation:
Professor of Church History, Drew Theological Seminary
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Extract

There are two facts to be borne in mind in regard to Luther's whole attitude to social and economic questions. The first is that ordinarily this was a territory to be confined to experts, in which ministers should not meddle. He believed that a special knowledge was necessary to deal with some of these matters, and that they had better be left to those to whom Providence had assigned them, whether the jurists, those clever in worldly knowledge, or the authorities. The other fact is that the Church after all has social duties, and that Church and clergy must fight flagrant abuses and try to bring in the Kingdom of God on earth. The Church must use the Word of God against sin and sinners, and so by spiritual ministries help the needs of the time. The authorities on their part shall proceed by strict justice against evil doers. But there is another fact here which it is necessary to mention to get Luther's whole attitude, viz., that the State's function is not simply to administer justice, but to secure the general weal. They shall do the very best they can for their subjects, says Luther. “The authorities shall serve their subjects and use their office not petulantly [nicht zu Mutwillen] but for the advancement of the common good, and especially for the poor.” The princes shall give laws which shall limit as far as possible social misery and national dangers. They should listen to the proposals of the Church to this end, and on the ground of wise counsels of churchmen, do away with old laws and make new ones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the American Society of Church History , Volume 2 , March 1910 , pp. 131 - 150
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1910

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References

page 133 note 1 Erl. Ausg. 23: 296; 24: 264.

page 133 note 2 38: 324.

page 134 note 1 Seeberg, , Luther's Stellung zu den sittl. u. sozialen Nöten s. Zeit in Neue Kirchliche Zeitschrift, xii. (1901), 851.Google Scholar

page 134 note 2 Ibid., 852.

page 135 note 1 Erl Ausg., 51: 422.

page 135 note 2 20: 272 f. 1

page 135 note 3 5: 93; 20: 284; 4: 330; 13: 95, etc.

page 135 note 4 4: 380, etc.

page 136 note 1 Erl Ausg., 1: 250; 52: 112. See further in Ward, , Darstellung und Wūrdigung der Ansichten Luthers vom Stoat u. seitten wirstschaftlichen Aufgaben, Jena, 1898, 47 ff.Google Scholar

page 136 note 2 Erl Ausg., 9: 319.

page 136 note 3 22: 28; cf. 57: 358; 20: 286. See also Erhardt, 's putting of this side of Luther in his article on “The Economic Views of the Reformers” in Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1880, H. 4, 677 ff.Google Scholar

page 136 note 4 Geschichte der Nationalōkonomik in Deutschland, Mūnchen, 1874, 68.Google Scholar

page 136 note 5 Erl Ausg., 57: 137. See Schmoller, , Zur Geschichte dernat. ökonom. Ansichten in Deutschland während der Reformationsperiod in Tiübinger Zeitschrift 1860, 474.Google Scholar

page 136 note 6 Erl Ausg., 57: 342.

page 136 note 7 57: 248.

page 136 note 8 61: 352–3.

page 136 note 9 21: 375.

page 137 note 1 See Schmoller, , 484 ff.Google Scholar

page 137 note 2 Erl Ausg., 20: 40.

page 137 note 3 62: 173.

page 137 note 4 22: 249.

page 137 note 5 22: 273, 279, 282, 284.

page 137 note 6 62: 173.

page 137 note 7 22: 73.

page 138 note 1 Erl Ausg., 20: 89–122.

page 138 note 2 22: 199–226.

page 138 note 3 23: 282–338. The second book (1524) has been translated by ProfessorCarruth of the University of Kansas in the Open Court (Chicago), January, 1897, 16–34 (vol. xi.).

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page 140 note 2 21: 356.

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page 140 note 4 20: 115.

page 140 note 5 57: 360.

page 141 note 1 Erl Ausg., 23: 27.

page 141 note 2 54: 277: 55: 11 f.

page 141 note 3 22: 181,201.

page 141 note 4 5:95; 57:359.

page 141 note 5 8: 283; cf. 21: 357; 57: 360–1.

page 142 note 1 Erl Ausg., 21: 357.

page 142 note 2 22: 223–4.

page 142 note 3 See among others the great book of the late Lloyd, Henry Demarest, Wealth against Commonwealth, New York, 1894.Google Scholar

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page 143 note 2 See Ward, , 74–5.Google Scholar

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page 144 note 2 57: 343.

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page 144 note 4 22: 216, 218.

page 144 note 5 31: 398–9.

page 144 note 6 2: 83; 50: 185–6.

page 144 note 7 Cf. 31: 299.

page 144 note 8 6: 97.

page 144 note 9 6: 96.

page 145 note 1 Erl. A usg., 23: 307.

page 145 note 2 Purcell, , Life Cardinal Manning, Lond., 1896, ii., 656.Google Scholar

page 146 note 1 See Paret, , Der Einfiuss der Reformation auf die Armenpflege, Stuttgart, 1896, 20–2.Google Scholar

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page 149 note 3 24: 281.

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page 150 note 1 Seeberg, , 855. Also in his Aus Geschichte, etc., 273.Google Scholar