How Economics Gave Birth to the Dutch Reformed Church



First, "Dutch Reformed Church" is not a corporate church name anymore (so far as I can tell). In the Netherlands it has a different name and in the U.S. there are several names. It is a conservative force in the politics of Iowa.

During pre Christian times some of the region we now call the Netherlands came under Roman rule. Pagan gods where popular. After the Roman Empire broke up Catholic Christianity converted large areas. The Reformation established Protestantism in some regions.

During all of this time the economy was peasant farmers, slaves and surfs eeking out livings while the wealthy lived lives of leisure. This arrangement was locked in for many generations.

Then in the late 1500's the weather changed across Europe. The period is now referred to as the "Little Ice Age." According to the book I'm reading, Nature's Mutiny, crop failures, disease and low living standards meant peasants and slaves could no long make payments to the wealthy. The social structure crumbled.

To get food, hard hit areas had to open trade with new far off regions. Peasants moved off the land and into cities where the trading and various crafts were busy. A city located on a trade route and inhabited by what we now call Calvinists was Amsterdam, Holland. It enthusiastically left behind the old wealthy classes and thrived with new merchants.

Religion found a way the justify the new economy. Writers of the time criticized the "lazy" wealthy class. Hard work was a religious and moral virtue. Their God, like gods from everywhere, was pleased with them. The newly wealthy and growing middle class succeeded because that was God's plan. In two generations Amsterdam moved from a backwater place to a center of trade and intellectual daring in religion.

The Dutch Reformed Church grew out of this cultural change. The faith itself changed as it morphed around the world. In South Africa, it defended Apartheid. Today in Iowa it attacks gay marriage. Back in the Netherlands, the majority now polls atheist.

Culture and its child, religion, keep changing.


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