If this holds good of the service he rendered to society as a whole, he was also within narrower limits the “reformer and restorer” of family life. His own marriage was “one of his greatest reforming acts, by which he confirmed his rehabilitation of the conjugal state, and, by his labours as a whole, he secured to marriage, and thus to the very foundation of family life, the prerogative of being a ‘divine institution.’” He brought the duties of the family into respect, whereas, formerly, “the Church, which permeated everything, had been the cause of their neglect.”
“It remains an historical truth that the greatness of the German people in politics, economics and intellectual life may be traced back to those divine powers which the Reformation set free by its recognition of the free grace of God in Christ.”
There are, however, other Protestant scholars, who are not theologians, who regard such praise of Luther’s social importance as either quite mistaken or at least greatly exaggerated; in their opinion Luther’s services lay rather in his work for religion, and on behalf of the knowledge of God and union with Him by faith.
L. Feuchtwanger, for instance, a representative sociologist, recently spoke in tones almost ironical of the view held “by most [Protestant] Church-historians,” who praise “the religion of Luther as having produced autonomous ethics, the modern State, a society that despises idleness, the German family, in short all that is great and good.” He is of opinion that such views call for “revision”; nor would such a revision, so he says, “detract from the eminent importance of the reformation.”[2166] We shall speak later on of the proofs he adduces to show the error of the “obstinate opinion,” as he terms it, “that Protestantism created the modern system of public charity,”[2167] and that Luther brought about the regeneration of benevolence.
E. Troeltsch, the Heidelberg theologian, says in “Die Bedeutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der modernen Welt”: “As a matter of fact, the importance of Protestantism must not be one-sidedly exaggerated. The foundations of the modern world in the State, in society, in economics, learning and art were established in a great measure independently of Protestantism, partly as an outgrowth of the later Middle Ages, partly as the result of the Renaissance, particularly of the Renaissance as assimilated by Protestantism, partly—as in the case of the Catholic countries, Spain, Austria, Italy and especially France—after the rise of Protestantism and concurrently with it.” “With the principle of nationalism,” writes Troeltsch, “his [Luther’s] system of an established Church had no connection. The latter merely promoted the solidification and centralisation of the chief authorities, whereas the former is a product of the entirely modern democratic awakening of the masses and the romantic idea of a national spirit.” In another passage he says: “There can be no question of [Protestantism] having paved the way for the modern idea of freedom—of science, of thought, or of the press—nor of its having inspired the scholarship which it controlled with new aims, or led it to break new ground.”[2168]
There are even Protestants who are disposed to deny that Luther took any interest in the State and in public affairs. “It follows from Luther’s views of life,” writes Erich Brandenburg, the author of “Luthers Anschauung vom Staate und der Gesellschaft,” that a Christian neither can nor ought to care for the outbuilding of the existing order of the State and society. For “God has thrown us into the world and put us under the rule of the devil, so that here we have no paradise but look forward hourly to every kind of misfortune to life and limb, wife and child, goods and honour.’[2169]... By the fact of his birth the Christian [according to Luther] has been given a definite place.... To seek for a better one, or to wish to create an entirely different state of things would be to rebel against the Will of God. Far from its being the Christian’s duty to strive after an improvement in the order of the State or of society, any such striving would be really sinful.” “He [Luther] regards civil life as merely one aspect of the probation which he has to endure on earth”; in his eyes the struggle for political freedom simply implies an “unlawful devotion to earthly aims, an absence of trust in God, and an attempt to create a paradise on earth by our own strength.”[2170] Where tyranny prevails one is not even allowed to emigrate, so Luther insists, unless indeed the ruler will not suffer the Evangel, when it became lawful and advisable, to seek another home.[2171] Nowadays people have a different conception, so Brandenburg points out, of national greatness and political freedom.[2172]
Albert Kalthoff, a Bremen preacher, who belongs to the extreme left of the Protestant party, goes still further: “There is a considerable amount of conceit sticking to our Protestant churches, indeed the Reformation festival seems to afford it a fitting occasion for celebrating each year its orgy. What is not Protestantism supposed to have brought to the world? National freedom and prosperity, modern science and technicology, all this we hear described as the fruit of the tree of Protestant life; not long since I even read of a German professor who quite seriously ascribed the whole of our present-day civilisation to Luther.”[2173]
Luther’s favourable traits in respect of social conditions, his eloquent admonitions on family life and love of our neighbour deserve a high place. There is no call again to bring forward examples after all we have quoted elsewhere. Luther is even fond of including under the “neighbourly love” of which he so frequently speaks the whole of our social activity on behalf of our fellow men.[2174]
His struggle against voluntary celibacy and renunciation of the world, however ill advised, had at least one good result, viz. that it afforded him an opportunity to speak strongly on the duties of the home, which were so often neglected, on the importance of the humble, everyday tasks involved in matrimony and the training of children, on work at home and for the community, whether in a private or a public capacity. That plentiful children were a blessing, a principle which had always been recognised in the Christian world, he insisted upon emphatically in connection with his advocacy of marriage. The keeping of the fourth commandment, which had always been regarded as the corner-stone of society, was warmly emphasised by him as regards the relations both to parents and to other secular authorities. It would be hard to gainsay that his teaching has bequeathed to Protestantism a wealth of instructions on the cultivation of family affection and the maintenance of a well-ordered household. From the first it was beneficial to the social foundations of society, and its good influence has been apparent even down to our own times. Luther’s writings and sermons, as we soon shall see, also contain some excellent admonitions against usury as well as against begging; he preaches contentment with our lot as well as honest industry; he has also much to say of relief of the poor and education of the young either for the learned professions or for life in general. In the same way that he sought to interest the community more and more in the relief of the indigent—though by rather novel means, which it seemed to him might take the place of the help formerly afforded by the churches, monasteries and private charity—so also his appeals on behalf of the schools were addressed more to the congregation, the authorities and the State than had been customary in the days of the Church schools. The increased share now taken by these bodies in this work, if kept within reasonable bounds, might indeed turn out advantageous, though the results did not reach his expectations, and in fact did not show themselves until much later, and then were due to factors altogether independent of Protestantism.
It must also be pointed out to Luther’s credit that he at once vigorously withstood the communistic views which had begun to make their appearance even before his day, as soon as experience had opened his eyes to their dangers. He perceived the radical trend of the Anabaptists—which it is true was not without some affinity with his own doctrines. He came after a while to oppose in popular writings the extravagant social demands of the peasants, and, in spite of the crass exaggeration of his language, his tracts give many a useful hint for the improvement of existing conditions on Christian lines.