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Podcast: New Books in German Studies
Episode: Paolo Astorri, "Lutheran Theology and Contract Law in Early Modern Germany (ca. 1520-1720)" (Verlag Ferdinand Schoningh, 2019)
Description: In Lutheran Theology and Contract Law in Early Modern Germany (ca. 1520-1720) (Verlag Ferdinand Schoningh, 2019), Paolo Astorri shows how the Protestant Reformation influence European law. Martin Luther and his successors led European Christianity away from medieval ideas of penance and the careful accounting that went with it toward theology of grace. Human salvation was thence justified by faith alone, and holy scripture the supreme authority. For the law, this meant that love (charity) and not complicated rules would guide jurists. For the poor, debts were to be forgiven freely, while a rich debtor could now be charged interest by hi...