AHC and WI: Lutheran Netherlands

With a POD after 1517, find a way to make the Netherlands a Lutheran country instead of a Reformed one.

And if the Netherlands became Lutheran, how would Dutch history change, and would there be any cultural effects like closer ties to Germany or even incorporation of the Netherlands to Prussia or the German Empire?
 

Driftless

Donor
No clue about the original POD, but that might alter relationships with Denmark or the other Scandinavian countries as well.
 
Interesting idea. Obviously a few of the early Dutch reformers would prefer Lutheranism to Calvinism.

I wonder how this would affect the Netherlands relationship with Germany?

It sets off some interesting butterflies:

Could Calvinism and Lutheranism co-exist? Were they similar enough to avoid the friction? Or would the religious wars just take a slightly different flavor?
 
While, it's not exactly Lutheranism, maybe having Arminianism win out over Calvinism would mean a Dutch Reformed Church closer theologically with Lutheran or Methodist churches.
 
While, it's not exactly Lutheranism, maybe having Arminianism win out over Calvinism would mean a Dutch Reformed Church closer theologically with Lutheran or Methodist churches.

Erm... No. Though modern-day Lutheranism has a soteriology that is much closer to Arminianism than Calvinism, this is really something that I would say can be attributed to election simply not being focused upon in Lutheranism at all since the days of Luther (indeed, Philip Melanchthon actually was very much against discussing the topic at all, because he felt it might alienate the congregations). Luther (and Melanchton) were both pretty firm believers in predestination. Luther's work On the Bondage of the Will was a lengthy polemic in which he staunchly argues from the Augustinian position that the will of fallen man is rotten, weak and incapable of even wanting to come to God, and if God does not intervene and make man come to God, then he will turn away. Grace has to be irresistible, because if it can be resisted, then everyone would resist it because that's who rotten fallen man is.

If you go back to the 17th century, you will most likely find Lutheran theologians closer to Calvinists than to Arminians. If you want Lutheran Netherlands, then you need an earlier PoD than the Synod of Dort.

Could Calvinism and Lutheranism co-exist? Were they similar enough to avoid the friction? Or would the religious wars just take a slightly different flavor?

The friction between Calvinism and Lutheranism really had more to do with interpretations of the Communion than anything else. The difference here is pretty difficult to understand really. Luther believed in consubstantiation, which is quite similar to transsubstantiation, but not the same, he believed that the bread and water remained bread and water but at the same time became the body and blood of Christ. Calvin felt that this interpretation rendered the body of Christ too ubiquitous, and insisted instead that Christ's body and blood in substance was in Heaven, but it was present in the wine and bread in spirit.
 
With a POD after 1517, find a way to make the Netherlands a Lutheran country instead of a Reformed one.

And if the Netherlands became Lutheran, how would Dutch history change, and would there be any cultural effects like closer ties to Germany or even incorporation of the Netherlands to Prussia or the German Empire?

What if Ferdinand I or his son Maximilian would become lord of the Low Countries after the abdication of Charles V,Maximilian had protestant sympaties so maybe they would tolerate it,
Maybe could a protestant cadet branch of the Habsburgs develop in the low countries
 
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