A Protestant Christendom? The World the Reformation Made (Davenant Retrievals)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Our world is obsessed with stories about Protestantism and modernity.
Are Protestant societies dynamic, progressive, and free? Or are they godless, Erastian, and libertine? Thinkers and theologians once argued we should rejoice in Protestantism’s creation of societies grounded on reason, freedom, and the individual; now, many are quick to pin the blame for modernity’s ills squarely on the Reformation. But these are two sides of the same coin, united by a shared assumption: that Protestantism necessitates revolution, and with it the dissolution of religious and metaphysical bonds which once united generations, nations, a continent, the Church, and even heaven and earth.
But what if these accounts are wrong? What if Protestantism is more than this, or something different altogether? The burden of this book is to illuminate Protestantism’s historic vision of society, culture, and governance, with the aim of applying its rich legacy in our own day. Collecting and expanding essays originally published in the journal Ad Fontes, this book deals with the issues of church and state, politics and culture, and economics and justice, and proposes that Protestantism’s own vision for these things is worth seeing afresh, on its own terms.
If you are wiling to ask “A Protestant Christendom?”, you may be surprised by the answer.
This is a Logos Reader Edition. Learn more.
- Highlights Protestantism’s historic vision of society, culture, and governance
- Explores issues of church and state, politics and culture, and economics and justice
- Part One: Church and State
- Part Two: Politics and Culture
- Part Three: Economics and Justice
Too long have Protestants the world over suffered under strawman caricatures and—worst of all—believed them themselves. Here in this anthology of essays is some much needed antidote to the simplistic historiography of Protestant social and political thought—villain or hero—or, even worse, vacant and listless. What these authors bring us is the magisterial richness of Protestant theology, not merely defended, but put to work on the crucial questions of our day. Here is a tradition with fire and vitality, alive in its genius and catholic fidelity, and urgently needed in this moment.
—Robert Joustra, PhD. Associate Professor of Politics & International Studies, Redeemer University College
A Protestant Christendom? The World the Reformation Made comes at just the right moment for all those who care about the tradition of Christian political thought. With maturity and elegance, the excellent essays untangle, deepen, and reconstruct aspects of Protestant political reflection that will enrich and one hopes enliven conversations too often prone to slogans and shortcuts. I am deeply grateful to the editors and authors for their excellent work that allows, as the introduction says, Protestantism ‘to speak to us anew.’ Catholic political reflection in particular benefits from these analyses that complicate and challenge an over-simplified narrative about Protestantism’s responsibility for the faults of modernity.
—Joseph E. Capizzi, Ph.D. Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology | School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America
Recovering the Reformation is as much about political theology as it is about justification by faith alone. A failure to see this is a failure to understand the public implications of the gospel. The Davenant Institute has played a key role in retrieving the Magisterial Reformation’s political theology with its emphases on the two kingdoms, natural law, and the right relation of church and state. Protestant Christendom? provides a richer and deeper next step in Davenant’s project by showing us that the world that the Reformation made is one we need for today. In this fine collection of essays we are treated to topics like Luther’s doctrine of the three estates, Reformed interpretations of Romans 13, prudence in politics, Protestant classical education, Bucer on the welfare state, Luther on taxation, a right understanding of social justice, an apologetic for the common good and more. Anyone interested in developing a politics that is shaped by the bible, that is informed by theology and history, and is sane, should carefully read this book. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
—Ian Clary Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Colorado Christian University, Lakewood, Colorado