A Good Word for Luther

I would never want to gainsay the contribution that Christians have made to the abolition of slavery, the banning of child labour, the amelioration of the harshness of industrial life, and other important fruits of the Social Gospel movement. Nor do I wish to call into question the social teachings of the Catholic Church from Leo XIII to John Paul II. But all these teachings and efforts belong, it is important to remember, to what Martin Luther called “the order of preservation” (that is, to the order of creation-after-the-Fall) and not, strictly speaking, to what he called the “order of redemption.”

as well as good words on other matters:

Edward T. Oakes, SJ, “Benedict XVI and Some Current Theology”


For more Oakes, see Edward T. Oakes.