The Reformation's Politics and Ours

The Reformation's Politics and Ours 

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Ken Briggs  |  Oct. 31, 2016

The pope's words and courtesies in the land of Swedish Lutheranism were exemplary. Had someone of similar irenic temperament been at the helm in Luther's time, might he have defused the conflict and avoided the split? My reading in glorious hindsight would be that Francis exhibited the largeness of acceptance and personal warmth to calm Luther's fires but that he might not have had the native doggedness to untangle the twisted strands