Lutheran and Roman Catholic Interpretation of Salvation in the 16th century
Question 1:-
Explain the difference between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic interpretation of salvation during the 16th century. Why do you feel that the Protestant view would attract converts at the time?
Answer:-
In the sixteenth century, Lutheran Protestant reforms had strived to cleanse Christianity of all illogical extraneous influences, such as magic, and the intermediacy of the priests.
The Catholic religion had is absolution.
One could make a mistake, perform a sinful deed and yet hope for redemption by the simple act of a confessional.
The officiating priest then had the power to grant freedom from tensions arising from the said wrongful act.
Catholicism realized and implicitly accepted the fact that man (rather all men) was fallible, and often contradictory. Thus each deed merited a separate consideration for its value towards or away from salvation.
Provision had therefore to be made for each such deed to be redeemed, by some ritual, in order to “rectify” the mistake and absolve oneself from the negative value attached to it.
There was hope in Catholicism of redemption for one and all. Each soul could be saved.
In the Protestant movement specially under Calvinist thought, things took such a turn (as it was heavily influenced by the Augustinian tradition of Predestination), that only the predestined few would be ‘saved’, or reach salvation. Most of the rest would be deprived of salvation by divine predestination. Nothing, nothing could ever save a man predestined to doom. And nothing could prevent a man predestined for redemption, from reaching salvation.
This thought process took things entirely out of the hands of men, and even made confessionals and the chanting of holy things at burials meaningless, and indeed these things ceased in areas where Calvinist thought predominated.
“This, the complete elimination of salvation through the Church and the sacraments (which was in Lutheranism by no means developed to its final conclusions), was what formed the absolutely decisive difference from Catholicism”.
[refer:- Max Weber 1905, pp 46, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism].
How could Protestantism attract converts?
The harshness of the principle of predestination was subverted, in two ways.
1 – Believe from the start that one was from those predestined for salvation.
2 – Use ones ‘calling’ in life to affirm ones confidence in being one of the chosen, by performing well in it.
The attractive possibility that one indeed was from the chosen lot of god, and that nothing could ever change that, was a very great attraction for new converts.
Question 2:-
In light of an apostolic lifestyle, does the Protestant Reformation influence our understanding of how we should live? Why or why not? Explain.
Answer:-
The Apostles lived a lifestyle whereby little heed was taken of worldly (monetary) things as it was just a matter of them (his coming had been long predicted), so just continuing with ones calling was sufficient.
Post Christ, and after the Protestant reformation, when the issue of Predestination has become central in Protestant thought, it is all the more important (if one indeed does believe that is), to strive to better oneself in one’s calling, as there is always the chance (like winning a lottery), that one may after all be one of the chosen elite of god! Made out for salvation right from the outset!
In such a situation, why spoil it by being slack, when one may better it by working diligently.
Many people have indeed seen the connection between materialistic progress and Protestant thought.
And in that context, The echo of the reformation is all around us (like the echo of the Big Bang).
It is to be found in the all round economic progress and the way people remain attached to the grind stone for the better part of their lives, excelling in their work, doing it diligently and tirelessly.
In a sense the reformation and capitalism has become inextricably interwoven.
One may not know it, but even as one is indulging in ungodly pure business deals, one is bettering the world of god…”majorem gloriam Dei”..its all for his glory in the end!!!
[refer:- Max Weber 1905, pp 48-52, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]
Page 1 of 2Wednesday, January 23, 2019