With reference to Luther, Oswald Bayer began to deal with the phenomenon of the gift as the "original word of theology" in 1971, a line of thinking continued by Tuomo Mannerma, Risto Saarinen, and Martin Seils. That led to the perception of Luther's theology as a theology of God's self-giving. Bo Kristian Holm now combines this theology with a certain distance from everyday economy, which he regards as sinful. In contrast to all the "overflow" of gift theology, however, the relative scarcity of resources that belongs to creation is overlooked. And it is ignored that its problems have to be solved reasonably based on the so-called "economic principle" in the sense of the doctrine of two kingdoms / two regiments. But this cannot happen in the sense of "Eigengesetzlichkeiten" (inherent laws). Rather, all value freedom or "innocence" of the economic principle has recently been called into question. This also corresponds to Luther's view that, for example, property is a protected and available good, but, according to God's will, its rights are limited by charity. This opens up a "conflictridden" commitment to a theological ethics of the gift that is based on Christ in order to counter greed and avarice in everyday economic life. The design of the German constitution of 1949 could be understood as a corresponding attempt not to abandon the economy from the outset as a godless space theologically but, according to the claim of the "social market economy" as a field, to commit oneself to a corresponding binding of values in Luther's sense.

Enthalten in:
Kerygma und Dogma; 2020/4 Zeitschrift für theologische Forschung und kirchliche Lehre (2020)

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Serie / Reihe: Kerygma und Dogma

Personen: Pawlas, Andreas

Schlagwörter: Luther Theologie Wirtschaft Gabe Wirtschaftlichkeit