Protestantism's Varied History : Personal Appraisal
Concern for the integrity, worth, and dignity of persons is the basic presupposition of human rights. At least three personal freedom are requisite: freedom of conscience . freedom from unjust exploitation or oppression, and freedom to live a properly human life Christian faith. as based upon biblical teaching and expressed in the experience of believers through the centuries, assuredly affirms these freedoms. Many theologians, scripture scholars, and Christian philosophers have cogently argued that freedom is a primary code world of the new Testament In this teaching, Jesus was the Liberator! This claim is not mere rhetoric.
Of the three main divisions of Christianity, Protestantism enjoy the best but not an unsullied, reputation for securing, extending, and enhancing human freedoms. Indeed, there is a popular, well-preserved stereotype which portrays Protestant history as a series of successes in emancipating people for the enjoyment of greater freedom. The contrasting corollary to this image is that of Roman Catholicism as a perennial Inquisition. Catholic history is depicted as unrelieved servitude in subjection to hierarchical authority, freedom of conscience being stifled by the imposition of unreasonable, outrageously dogmatic restraints upon children, women, and men. Eastern Orthodoxy, especially the notorious early Byzantine and the Russian, has a similar reputation. Such are the views, as widely held as they are uncritical and uninformed, of many Protestants.
There is truth in both the positive picture of Protestantism and the negative judgments on Orthodoxy and Catholicism. However, inversely considered, history shows in varying measures the grave faults of Protestantism in this regard and the virtues of the other two. Ambiguity taints the entire history of Christianity insofar as human rights are concerned. Martin Luther began the Reformation by proclaiming a basic paradox. The freedom of the Christian is at the same time a bondage. The freest person is ,in Christ, the servant of all. But Protestants have often been inclined to exalt two kinds of bondage: that to the Christ perceived in one’s neighbor, and that demanded by ecclesiastical and civil powers.
Neither the Lutherans nor Calvinists but “left wing” Christians of the Reformation of the sixteenth century were the direct predecessors of the most energetic movement for freedom from oppression by princely and prelatic power. From them came such effective disturbers of entrenched conservatism as the Baptists, Mennonites, and Quakers. Luther’s conception of freedom for all people in the civil sphere hardly found exemplary expression in Germany or the Scandinavian countries, where the Lutheran churches enjoyed a status both favored and established. Present-day Lutheranism to a considerable extent has been liberated and has become a liberating faith. Calvinism has fared rather better, despite a checkered history, as stimulus and tutor to human rights. Calvinism did spawn some excess of theocratic suppression of liberties in Geneva and Massachusetts, while paradoxically giving rise to the political movement of covenanted, responsible democracy. (it is not coincident that the constitutional document of Woodrow Wilson’s League of Nation was called the Covenant, and the covenant concept persist in the United Nation’s program to further human rights.)
Between ideal concepts of human rights, dignity, and happiness and their general realization in society there is always a disappointing hiatus. Ruthless monarchy or totalitarianism has shown a much a much higher capacity to incorporated into political structures and social relations than have democratic ideal of liberty. The same disjunction between ideal and reality applies to societies in which various forms of Protestantism have been determinative. Does this familiar condition, than, discredit and disqualify the claim that Protestant Christianity merits much-out by no mean all-credit for the upsurge of popular affirmations of rights? No. But honesty requires a mental check on one’s enthusiasm for extolling Protestantism as a whole for its contribution. Protestant churches and theologies are too diverse to be treated as a unity. The historical record is too ambiguous to merit unequivocal praise. Yet, the positive influences have been, and remain, real.