Reformation and Modern Countries

This paper attempts to show that Protestant countries tend to dominate the top tier of the list of countries in terms of three criteria: (1) economic development as indicated by the country’s gross domestic product and gross national income (GDP and GNI), (2) social development as indicated by the human development index (HDI), and (3) the political development as indicated by the corruptions perception index (CPI).

On the term, "Protestant countries"

Protestant countries are defined in this paper as those countries that are historically Protestant having embraced the Reformation as early as the 16th century and whose majority of citizens are Protestant either by practice, upbringing, or confession. In contemporary demographics of Protestantism, the identification of whether a country is Protestant is determined by the majority percentage of its citizens based on the 2011 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life by the Pew Research Center.

CPI 2012-2016 (Top 15)

“Higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems."

HDI 2015 (Top 15)

Of particular interest in this paper is the education component of the HDI. The scores in this dimension is calculated based on the expected years of schooling and on the mean years of schooling.

HDI Component (Education)

GDP (2016)

Notice that in terms of the GDP, the Protestant countries that dominated both the CPI and the HDI are somewhat sparse, although nine of these countries are still in the top 30 list of countries with the highest GDPs. These are the United States (1), Germany (2), United Kingdom (5), Canada (10), Australia (14), the Netherlands (18), Switzerland (19), Sweden (22), Austria (28), and Norway (29). Essentially the same is true with regards to their respective GNI.

GNI (2016)

The Political Philosophy of the Reformation Emphasizing Duty to Offices

It is pure invention that pope, bishops, priests and monks are to be called the "spiritual estate"; princes, lords, artisans, and farmers the "temporal estate." That is indeed a fine bit of lying and hypocrisy. Yet no one should be frightened by it; and for this reason -- viz., that all Christians are truly of the "spiritual estate," and there is among them no difference at all but that of office.”

The Economic Philosphy of the Reformation Emphasizing Personal Pursuits

The emergence of modern capitalism is tightly related to the religius ideas of the groups that dominated the Reformed societies of 16th century until the time of his writing.... Calvinism has influenced its adherents profusely because of the belief in the predestination. Christians of this persuasion needed to have some sort of verification whether or not they are part of the saved or the damned. They argued that those who are saved must have success in their earthly lives as well, and so they venture into profitable pursuits that led to the widespread spirit of capitalism.

The Social Philosophy of the Reformation Emphasizing Education

"For Christian youth, and those of our upper classes, with whom abides the future of Christianity, will be taught and trained in the universities. In my view, no work more worthy of the pope and the emperor could be carried out than a true reformation of the universities. On the other hand, nothing could be more wicked, or serve the devil better, than unreformed universities."

The Reformation has, positively contributed to the achievement of political, social, and economic successes of the nations and peoples that embraced it. It is futile to try to understand the rise of modern nations while ignoring religious ideas that also developed with them, and in the same way, it is unwise to study religious ideas without looking at their impact on the society in general.

This brief essay aimed to show the positive correlation Protestantism and the country’s development in three dimensions: political, social, and economic. That such positive correlation does not automatically imply that all Protestant countries must score high on these dimensions. On the contrary, there are many Protestant countries that are low in the list of these measurements.

In conclusion, Proverbs 28:20 is helpful with regards to the point of this essay, “A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.” Surely, God looks after His people, maybe not in terms of earthly wealth alone, but in all other and more important aspects of living: honest dealings with one another, and the edification of the church as education of the people.