Bente: Luther's cultural influence, "a single man" (Der Lutheraner)

      The above title caught my eye when reviewing the volumes of Der Lutheraner.  It was a short blurb by Prof. Friedrich Bente, published in 1933, 3 years after he had passed away. The editor in 1933, probably Prof. Ludwig Fuerbringer, appeared to be honoring the memory of Prof. Bente with this posthumous publication. But more than just a remembrance, Bente's subjects are always decidedly Lutheran, and edifying.  The general praise of Luther's influence in the world is an antidote to the embarrassing treatment of Luther by today's LC-MS scholars. — In this first part, of a 2-part post, he quotes a well-known non-Lutheran historian. — From Der Lutheraner vol. 89 (1933), p. 364 [EN]:

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Luther's cultural influence.

 

F. Bente

The real purpose of Christianity is not to promote culture, but to save men spiritually and to bring them eternal salvation. But when a man has become a Christian, the new life force naturally has a powerful and healing effect in all directions, like a leaven. Therefore, as a by-product of the victorious course of Christianity, enormous cultural upheavals necessarily followed. Through the papacy, which in spiritual terms is essentially a return to paganism, this cultural movement was also partly inhibited and partly led astray. Through Luther the Gospel and the Church was free again, and the salutary influence of Christianity could now assert itself anew in all directions on civil and cultural conditions. We will let some non-Lutherans speak about this.

The English writer Thomas Carlyle writes:

 

“The Diet of Worms, and the appearance of Luther at it on April 17, 1521, may be regarded as the greatest event in the modern history of Europe, indeed as the moment when all subsequent civilization began. Here on one side the power of the world is enthroned; on the other side, a single man, the son of the poor miner, stands up for divine truth. Our plea, the plea of the whole world to him was this: ‘Deliver us; it is up to thee; forsake us not!’ Luther did not leave us in the lurch. It was, as I have said, the most significant moment in the modern history of mankind. England's Puritanism, England and her Parliament, America's many-sided activity during two centuries, were here germinated. Had Luther acted differently in that hour, all would have been different in the world.”

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      Franz Pieper also used the praise of Englishman Carlyle in his 1921 essay for the N. Dakota/Montana convention (see p. 8 here). He also called Carlyle a rationalist.  Although Bente did not reveal this, he did call him a "non-Lutheran", a strong signal to these Old German Missourians to not understand these persons in a spiritual sense, but only in a cultural sense. — In the next Part 2, Bente quotes four more "non-Lutherans".