In years and cultures past, society valued young men.  There was a common-sense realization that strong men meant a strong fabric of society.  Christianity recognized the divinely-ordered family structure of the godly leadership of husbands and fathers, as well as masculine leadership in society.  Indeed, God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, describes the leadership of women and children as a curse (Chapter 3).

As a continuation of my thoughts in an earlier piece that I wrote called “The Church is Not a Business,” I wanted to reflect on the concept of entrepreneurship. This is part of running a business under the capitalist, free market model of economics.

For the next several parts of our series, we will turn our attention to Luther’s writings on usury. Although Luther addressed the subject in a number of works and letters, three texts in particular are worthy of study: his 1519 Short Sermon on Usury (WA 6:3–8), his 1520 Long Sermon on Usury (LW 45:273–310), and his 1539 To Pastors, That They Should Preach Against Usury (LW 61:284–328, Kindle). In addition, we will consider the broader questions and controversies that emerged during Luther’s lifetime concerning usury, in particular the “usury controversy” (Wucherstreit) of 1523 dealing with fellow evangelical pastor, Jakob Strauss.