Religious Roots of European Welfare Models

[neodawson]

Currently reading through this, arguing that the different models of the welfare state are derived from different religious interpretations of how best to treat the poor.

www.academia.edu/1052945/Religious_Roots_of_European_Welfare_Models

So yeah, more proof that religion never contributed anything positive to the world.

[fortigurn]

Most useful, thanks.

[ignorantianescia]

Interesting article, very Finnish too, though it's odd to give relatively little weight to Germany and Poland in the case of Lutheranism and Northern Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands in the case of Reformed Protestantism (called "Calvinism" in the article). I'm sure that would have nuanced those typologies, because Roman Catholic Belgium and Luxembourg and also partially Protestant Germany and the Netherlands by and large have similar welfare models, often called the Rhineland model.

[syzygy]

I also find the article interesting, though I'm only partway through it. Quick question: Doesn't this quote have the definitions of the two Greek words reversed?

"The word philanthropy (God’s love to man) suited better to this purpose than agape, brotherly love."