LUTHER NAILED IT Historian Alex Ryrie expounds Martin Luther’s profound influence on the modern world but also explains Protestantism can’t take all the credit for the rise of tolerance and freedom, writes Richard Allsop. Thesentür (Theses Doors), Wittenberg Castle Church | Foto Studio Kirsch Volume 70 I 3 LUTHER NAILED IT R ithout 1521 but, by delaying this action, victory by the parliamentary forces Protestants, Frederick ‘had bought Luther in the English Civil War led to the the story enough time to turn his personal beheading of King Charles I of Western crisis of conscience into a mass and the establishment of a Civilisation movement threatening the church’s republic, Oliver Cromwell became in the past entire structure of authority’. the Lord Protector of this new W500 years would have been very Commonwealth which replaced different. the discredited monarchy. Building That is not to say that if Martin on ideas which emerged during Luther had not nailed his theses CROMWELL’S SUPPORT the Civil War, Cromwell ‘became on the door of Wittenberg Castle FOR TOLERATION HORRIFIED the first Protestant ruler anywhere Church in 1517, then the Catholic PRESBYTERIAN PURISTS, to support religious toleration as a Church would have continued in its WHO HAD EXPECTED HIM TO matter of principle, and as a result medieval form for another half- IMPOSE A NEW STYLE presided over a sectarian flowering millennium. However, it’s hard to OF NATIONAL CHURCH IN unmatched since Luther’. overstate the significance of the THEIR IMAGE This toleration extended to Reformation which Luther triggered, Muslims and Jews but, for political a revolution in religious and political reasons, could not include Catholics, thinking which has had a profound a group whose loyalty was perceived impact on the modern world. To modern eyes, it can to be to a foreign power rather than The author of this new history of look inevitable that the rise of to England. Cromwell’s support for Protestantism, Alec Ryrie, Professor Protestantism from 1519 onwards toleration horrified the Presbyterian of the History of Christianity at would lead to tolerant, liberal purists among his supporters, who Durham University and Anglican modernity in countries which have had expected him to impose a new lay preacher, argues we should not inherited Western Civilisation; style of national church in their date his subject from 1517, as is places where multiple religions (and image to replace the one which had conventionally done, but from 1519. atheism) are tolerated in the public supported the King in the Civil War. Between 1517 and 1519, a square. However, the road to this If the Cromwellian age of series of debates with theological destination was circuitous, difficult toleration had continued beyond the opponents made it abundantly clear and bloody. As Ryrie comments, 1650s one by-product would almost to church authorities that Luther was ‘modern Protestants have often certainly have been the collapse a heretic. In normal circumstances, enjoyed telling themselves a self- of the North American colonies. 1519 would have seen Luther suffer congratulatory story in which their Many of the religious exiles to New the usual fate of those who crossed tradition gave rise to tolerance and England returned to England in the the established church, but a piece of freedom, and that is rather less 1640s to fight for religious freedom fortuitous timing meant Luther and than a half truth … but it is not and in the 1650s to enjoy it, but the his novel religious ideas were not completely false’. Anglican restoration in 1660 put an abruptly stopped. Ryrie takes his readers through end to this reverse migration. Luther resided in the Electorate all the landmarks on that journey of Saxony, and Frederick, the Elector from John Calvin and Henry VIII, of Saxony, became a key swing vote through to the varied Protestant in determining the choice of the denominations around the next Holy Roman Emperor, after contemporary world. He describes the incumbent died in January both the suffering of Protestant 1519. Frederick had mixed feelings martyrs and the punishment meted about Luther’s teachings, but saw out by Protestants, not only to defending him as a way of asserting Catholics, but to rival groups within his own independent authority. In the vast panorama of Protestantism. Protestants: The Radicals Who the unique political circumstances Ryrie identifies mid-17th century Made the Modern World of 1519, nobody was going to England as the seminal time and challenge the Elector on this point. place when toleration first became By Alec Ryrie William Collins, 2017, 528pp Luther was excommunicated in a realistic possibility. After the OCTOBER 2018 | IPA Review 59 Painting of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach, 1528 Ryrie argues that, in the with the challenge of deciding which setting China on a modernising path decades from the 1660s onwards, sects to include under the Protestant and ‘radically changing the course of the prospects for Protestantism banner. Jehovah’s Witnesses are in, world history’. were looking bleak across much of Mormons are out. He also excludes The diversity of biblical Europe, as it was challenged from the Taiping in China, although their interpretation always has been vast resurgent Catholicism, radical worldview did ‘contain plenty of within Protestantism. In 1535, some internal sectarianism and embryonic disconnected Protestant fragments’. Anabaptists took to the streets of atheism. However, Protestantism The Taiping Rebellion from 1851 to Amsterdam naked after burning continued to flourish in large part 1864 left about twenty million dead their clothes, on the basis that Adam due to its sheer diversity. and Ryrie argues that if the Taiping and Eve had only sinned after they Ryrie emphasises the importance had been a bit less extreme—maybe had begun wearing clothes. In 19th of this diversity in Protestantism’s a bit more like other Protestants— century America a different take success, although it presents him they may well have won the war, on clothes was provided by the 60 IPA Review | ipa.org.au Volume 70 I 3 LUTHER NAILED IT R Holiness movement, which objected is Korea. An important factor in but does not return to this topic to the wearing of ties as they were how this came about is that Korea in any detail. The link between considered a ‘diabolical monument was one of the rare countries in the Protestantism and economic to male vanity’. colonial world where Christianity progress rarely features, other than Protestant diversity not only was the religion of the resistance to in a discussion of the simultaneous covered personal matters such as the colonial power (Japan), rather advance of the two in South Korea clothes, dancing and alcohol, but than of the coloniser. However, from the 1960s onwards. There, the many of the key political struggles unlike Latin America, growth in particular church which was most of the modern world. There were Protestant numbers has stalled in successful was the one which said Protestants for and against slavery, recent decades in South Korea. the poor do not have to be poor and the Nazi regime and Apartheid to which glorified economic success. name but a few controversies. Another absentee from the In relation to South Africa, Ryrie narrative is Northern Ireland. PROTESTANT DIVERSITY argues that while Protestantism Surely nowhere in the world has NOT ONLY COVERED allowed the Dutch Reformed Church PERSONAL MATTERS SUCH Protestantism held such resonance (DRC) to defend Apartheid on AS CLOTHES, DANCING as a cultural and political force as it religious grounds, it was not so rigid AND ALCOHOL, BUT MANY has over the Loyalist community in as to prevent this position being OF THE KEY POLITICAL Ulster, with Loyalist paramilitary assailed by other Protestants with a STRUGGLES OF THE groups prepared to kill to keep their different interpretation. Aided by the MODERN WORLD Protestant community intact. DRC, Afrikaners saw their nation There is also not much said as a spiritual entity rather than a about why secularism has been geographic one, and ‘like all good so successful in stripping people Calvinists, nothing encouraged One of the features of several away from mainstream Protestant Afrikaners like defeat, isolation, branches of Protestantism is the churches in much of the Western discrimination and contempt’. belief that their business was saving world. However, he does describe Like all aggressive nationalists, souls, not political activism. Ryrie how the left-wing Student Christian the Apartheid regime perceived concludes his chapter on Apartheid Movement in Britain managed the enemy to be ‘capitalist elites by describing how South Africa’s to lose mainstream and radical of cosmopolitan liberalism’ and independent churches gave its students simultaneously as ultimately it was this ‘homogenizing black members a spiritual strength ‘Christians who disliked radical logic of cosmopolitan capitalism’ which enabled them to cope better politics withdrew from the SCM, which was the major contributor to with the indignities of Apartheid. and Christians who embraced the collapse of Apartheid. He also observes in the Korean radical politics increasingly saw A happier task for Ryrie, than context that ‘having no interest in themselves as radicals and no longer explaining how some Protestants political activism does not make a as Christians’. In contrast, in certain defended the indefensible, is writing church uncaring’. countries fundamentalists and about those places in the world Yet, later in the narrative, Ryrie Pentecostal churches have been very where Protestantism has won suddenly slams non-participation successful in winning new converts, significant numbers of converts. in politics as favouring ‘oppressive helping to keep Protestantism as a For example, in Latin America the and authoritarian regimes’. His creed with ongoing importance in increase in Protestant numbers is reasoning is that ‘the presumption many countries. ‘one of the most dramatic religious that politics is corrupt is itself The subtitle of this book shifts in modern history’.