المفارقة اللوثرية : من تسامح المحبة إلى لا تسامح الإيمان

Abstract EN

Luther is the first to translate into German the term of “Tolerantia”, borrowed from St.

Augustine, in the sense of “patience” charitable, “suffering” dictated by love divine caritas.

But the notion of patience implies from the outset a relation to time, since no one can be eternally patient, and this time of tolerance is limited, at best, by the time given to those who are supposed to be converted and at worst, by the horizon of the Last Judgment.

In this perspective, Luther distinguishes theologically between the tolerance of love and the intolerance of faith.

This distinction and fragmentation between tolerance and Intolerance finds its foundations and pillars in the Lutheran theology from the principles of «justification by faith» and «doctrine of the two kingdoms».

The paradox here is that Luther was tolerant on the one hand and fanatical on the other, as if we were in front of two Luther’s, or, rather, schizophrenic Luther.

Luther was, at first, tolerant and this is what we touch and examine, either through his early writings or through his first attitudes toward the Jews, who should be treated with the love of Christ rather than the pope's law; or toward dissenters and heretics Hussites on the one hand, And in his struggle with Carlstadt and Thomas Müntzer on the other hand.

Therefore, it is not permissible to use force and violence with all of them, because faith works freely and no one hates it.

But Luther has also fallen prey to intolerance, as his writings and attitudes have changed with those who disagree with him.

This is what we observe clearly in his reaction to the peasants' revolution and in the statement that the persecution of beliefs opposed to official faith and those who seek to openly propagate the heresies such as Anabaptists.

Lutheran fanaticism is even more pronounced in his hostile attitudes towards both Jews and Muslims in this later period of his life.