Linkages between the Protestant Reformation and poor relief reform have been noted since the sixteenth century itself. Increasingly over the past half century, social historians have closely studied practical matters of poverty and charity, offering discoveries that have complicated simplistic or uniform theological explanations. Esther Chung-Kim's new study provides a welcome addition to this literature, with its well-constructed comparative analysis across Protestant confessional understandings of poverty and approaches to poor relief. While Chung-Kim's work remains largely in the realm of theology, legislation and policy, it effectively incorporates and synthesises the findings of recent social historians, offering the foundations of a much more comprehensive picture.
By structuring the book around this comparative analysis of Protestant reformers’ approaches to issues of poverty, Chung-Kim's study sheds further light on the variety of ways in which religious change was connected to social change. She focuses each chapter on a particular Protestant leader who served as a theological catalyst – preaching, writing, exhorting – for change and then helps to highlight the intersection between theological reform and social reform. Although such a structure can result in an over-emphasis on the ‘leaders’ or a merely prescriptive account of calls for social reform, she successfully navigates to avoid such pitfalls. She is well aware of the recent historiography, and she provides references to particular local experiences of poor relief reform to demonstrate the complicated relationship between theory and praxis.
By examining the major Protestant confessional threads in turn, the book fosters a comparative understanding of the variety of ways in which the new Protestant doctrine of sola fide impacted social welfare measures with different institutional results. The first three chapters highlight early magisterial reformers: Luther and Karlstadt (chapter 1, ‘Wittenberg Reformers: Critique as Catalyst’), Bugenhagen (chapter 2, ‘Diplomat of Poor Relief’) and Bullinger (chapter 3, ‘Preacher for Poverty Prevention’). These clearly demonstrate that the institutionalising of the Protestant theological changes incorporated expectations of social impact on poor relief. These leaders’ biblical commentaries, sermons and social policy and legislative proposals raised questions that went beyond common socio-economic problems that were facing many urban areas in Europe. In addition to merely critiquing traditional poor relief approaches, they urged their followers to support institutional changes that would raise new questions of social responsibility. For instance, Bugenhagen's Lutheran Church Ordinances, which he drafted for numerous German cities and territories, were intended to establish not merely a new Protestant church and liturgy, but also to regulate the finances and institutions of poor relief. Moving into the Swiss Reformed realm, Chung-Kim's own research on Bullinger's pastoral ministry comes through as she carefully articulates the ways in which his sermons, commentaries and speeches incorporated advocacy for civic social programmes aimed at reducing poverty.
Chapter 4 (‘Migration and Religious Refugees: Poor Relief in Crisis’) begins to move the story beyond the purview of the magistracy. The reality of exile shaped religious identities and necessitated poor relief strategies and programmes that typically fell outside the auspices of governmental control. Thus, as Chung-Kim returns to a specific reformer, John Calvin (chapter 5, ‘Refugee Pastor and Promoter of the French Fund’), she is able pull together several of the preceding threads into her analysis of mid-century intersections between theology and poor relief practice. Calvin's refugee mindset affected his understanding of both poor relief and the magistracy, allowing for fertile comparisons with examples from earlier chapters.
The book's final two chapters move into the so-called Radical Reformation whose poor relief had to operate outside the realm of magisterial political jurisdiction (chapter 6, ‘Swiss Brethren and Dutch Mennonites: Networks of Mutual Aid’, and chapter 7, ‘Hutterites in Moravia: Communal Property’). In such settings, where the government could be openly hostile to a minority religious community, social networks and congregational infrastructure became increasingly important. For instance, Chung-Kim shows how the Swiss Brethren's poor relief was shaped by particular theological values within the community, impacted by needs driven by persecution and operated completely without magisterial support.
This organisational structure fosters a close analysis of the relationship between religious perspectives and social reform. Yet, each chapter goes further than merely describing a single theologian and his poor relief ideas and policies; Chung-Kim illustrates the fact that local circumstances also shaped the specific reforms taken. Thus, a ‘Calvinist’ approach to social welfare could look different in Geneva than it looked in another Calvinist refugee centre. Chung-Kim regularly incorporates examples from other places where similar institutions were established that nevertheless looked a little different to those proposed by the leading theologian representing that religious confession. Thus, the book's organisation enables an understanding of the prominent, common features of each particular theological framework, while making clear that there really was no single confessional experience.
This book provides a welcome synthesis across Protestant confessions and experiences. It is up to date on the scholarship, and readers will be left with a much broader understanding of the connections between religious values and social responses as implemented in real life in a variety of contexts. Chung-Kim's comparative approach to this complex subject is effective and allows for a richer understanding of the relationships between religious ideals, social policy and the experience of poverty.
