> Luther already believed that it's God alone who saves us from our sins, based solely on our faith. Our works - anything else we do - don't matter. He based this on the Bible
And yet the bible also says that if someone really has faith it will be apparent in their works (James 2:18). So works do matter.
Also, as a practical point: what do is what you are and what you are is what you do.
I wasn't expecting a sermon in my in-box. I'm a Catholic-educated atheist. I recognize the Protestant Reformation as an historical turning point, but don't believe In Protestant dogma any more than I do the Catholic version. There's a tendency in Whiggish history to equate Protestantism with personal liberty, when figures such as Calvin and the Puritans in the US could be just as fatally nasty to those they considered heretics as the Catholics were. Check the Philadelphia Nativist Riots for a lesson on the wisdom of state education that takes sides among denominations.
This was a lot more theology than in my usual posts, but here it's very relevant to the history!
You're right that it's easy to conflate Protestantism with personal liberty - for another counterexample closer to Luther, look at Prussia. But my argument is that the trend of universal education started from Protestantism. It wasn't a direct route in a lot of places, and it wasn't what we modern people would call a complete education - but it was much more of an education than before, and it started due to Protestantism.
> Luther already believed that it's God alone who saves us from our sins, based solely on our faith. Our works - anything else we do - don't matter. He based this on the Bible
And yet the bible also says that if someone really has faith it will be apparent in their works (James 2:18). So works do matter.
Also, as a practical point: what do is what you are and what you are is what you do.
I wasn't expecting a sermon in my in-box. I'm a Catholic-educated atheist. I recognize the Protestant Reformation as an historical turning point, but don't believe In Protestant dogma any more than I do the Catholic version. There's a tendency in Whiggish history to equate Protestantism with personal liberty, when figures such as Calvin and the Puritans in the US could be just as fatally nasty to those they considered heretics as the Catholics were. Check the Philadelphia Nativist Riots for a lesson on the wisdom of state education that takes sides among denominations.
This was a lot more theology than in my usual posts, but here it's very relevant to the history!
You're right that it's easy to conflate Protestantism with personal liberty - for another counterexample closer to Luther, look at Prussia. But my argument is that the trend of universal education started from Protestantism. It wasn't a direct route in a lot of places, and it wasn't what we modern people would call a complete education - but it was much more of an education than before, and it started due to Protestantism.