(BBC) The eurozone’s religious faultline

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Discussion among eurozone leaders about the future of their single currency has become an increasingly divisive affair. On the surface, religion has nothing to do with it - but could Protestant and Catholic leaders have deep-seated instincts that lead them to pull the eurozone in different directions, until it breaks?

Following the last European summit in Brussels there was much talk of defeat for Chancellor Merkel by what was described as a "new Latin Alliance" of Italy and Spain backed by France.

Many Germans protested that too much had been conceded by their government - and it might not be too far-fetched to see this as just the latest Protestant criticism of the Latin approach to matters monetary, which has deep roots in German culture, shaped by religious belief.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Europe • --European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2010 • Germany • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Lutheran • Roman Catholic • * Theology

7 Comments
Posted July 19, 2012 at 3:29 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Archer_of_the_Forest wrote:

OK, this is just a bizarre article.

July 19, 6:16 pm | [comment link]
2. Mark Baddeley wrote:

Yes, I enjoyed the bit about how German attitudes are caused by Lutheranism, and that this conservatism in banking began in the middle ages…. Now that’s *real* influence, affecting things before you even exist!

July 19, 8:57 pm | [comment link]
3. recchip wrote:

This is news?  Heck, I remember learning this stuff in High School.  The Northern European nations (Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, Scandanavia) (and their former colonies-Including Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the Good Old USA) are more prosperous than the Southern European (Spain, Italy, and Portugal) and their former colonies (Latin America for the most part.)  It was noted that the former (North) were basically “Protestant” and the others were “Catholic”.  France was “different” in that it was both heavily “Catholic” but with some “Calvinism” left from the Hughonots.  I remember this from both History and Spanish Classes.  When we discussed Spanish and Latin American History, this was a centerpiece of “understanding”: the culture.
So this is really nothing new.
p.s. This was also mentioned in some of my College Classes at a “Liberal Episcopal University” so this is not just some “right wing nut thing.”

July 19, 11:11 pm | [comment link]
4. MichaelA wrote:

Never revoke the Edict of Nantes!

July 19, 11:53 pm | [comment link]
5. MichaelA wrote:

What do we do with the Czechs?  They are sort of protestant and sort of catholic. 

Do you think we can blame them for everything…?!

July 19, 11:56 pm | [comment link]
6. clarin wrote:

“What do we do with the Czechs?  They are sort of protestant and sort of catholic.”
Yes - always bouncing.

July 20, 12:46 am | [comment link]
7. Hoskyns wrote:

Czech Republic is also among the most atheist countries in the post-Communist world. More to the point: what do you do about Poland, (still relatively) catholic and increasingly prosperous, having weathered all the storms of the economic crisis without any noticeable downturn and not (yet) members of the euro?

July 20, 4:12 am | [comment link]
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