From: henry sholar <hwsholar-AT-uncg.edu>
Subject: Re: Who determines that one goes to hell?
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 07:02:31 -0400



thanks, MT-- i think thanks--
for laying out so clearly
that whole can of worms
(if you'll pardon the =C9)

certainly more accurate to say
it was Calvin who
ratcheted-up Luther's theology.

henry



On Thu, 18 Mar 1999 14:30:49 PST mthrond-AT-hotmail.com wrote:

> Henry:
>
>
> Luther, wanting to avoid the corruption of the church and its
> >politicalization and commercialization of divine indulgence and,
> >ultimately, redemption, tends also to say that it is ultimately god's
> >choice, but he waters down calvin's ultra-logical omnipotent/omniscient
> >being into a more loving judge who gives people a break per their
> >intentions and various human frailties.
>
> I generally agree, but naturally you are aware that Luther antedates
> Calvin by some period of time. If watering-down is being done, it's
> Calvin making the otherworldliness of Luther's vision psychologically
> untenable. Also, whatever flaws there are in Weber's Protestant Ethic he
> gives a nice distinction with regard to the orientation of the self. 
> The Lutheran self orients away from society, as had the monastery
> Catholic (of which Luther himself was one).  The Calvinist, through a
> rather laborious psychological process, was forced into the world to
> prove his own worth to himself.  Weber also notes, as he must to discuss
> his native Germany, that even where "Lutheranism" is, most of its
> adherents adopted, to a greater or lesser extent, the world-view of the
> Calvinist at a certain historical juncture.  But I suspect that with
> Weber the religious terminology is more a code-word for the encroachment
> of modernity and its origins rather than a truly
> phenomenological/hermeneutic/sociological picture of each group.
>
>
>
> MT
> >
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