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     I wonder how much of the apparent differences between
Lutheranism and Calvinism can properly be explained by the
doctrines of the founders themselves, and how much is
attributable to the diverse political climates in which these
doctrines originally struggled and flourished.

     To what extent were the doctrines themselves stimulated,
molded and modified by the social and political expectations
(anticipations) of their founders?  To what extent is it
correct that Lutheranism more successfully integrated itself
into the social and political fabrics of the localities in
which it flourished, while Calvinism was more likely to exist
in conflict and competition with them. Is it plausible to
argue that the Calvinist confident of his predestined
salvation was politically more assertive than the Lutheran
whose faith required humble subordination to a temporal ruler
as the surrogate of God?  Is is true that Calvinists were
(much) more likely victims of (political) persecution than
Lutherans? Is it true that Calvinists were in general much
more resistant to the imperatives of cujus regio, ejus
religio than Lutherans? Is is true that Anabaptists and
Menonnites were intellectually less sophisticated than
Calvinists.  In what ways did English political culture in
the 16th 17th and 18th Centuries differ from the political
culture on the Continent? And how did these differences in
political culture affect the course of Protestantism in
England?  Should Anglicans be considered Protestants?


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Copyright 2005, Ernst Jochen Meyer
