“God opposes usury and greed yet no one realizes this because it is not simple murder and robbery. Rather usury is a more diverse, insatiable murder and robbery…Thus everyone should see to his worldly and spiritual office as commanded to punish the wicked and protect the pious.”
In his 1525 advice to the town council of Danzig, Luther stated that government regulation of interest should be according to the principle of equity.
For example, a mortgage of 5 percent would be equitable, but it should be reduced if it does not yield this return. At the same time, one should consider the individual’s personal economic situation. The well-to-do could be induced to waive a part of his interest, whereas an old person without means should retain it.
But these views were of minimal influence.
Legislation introduced in Dresden in 1529 prohibited 15 to 20 percent interest in favor of a 5 percent rate, in turn influencing the reform of the Zwickau city laws in 1539. Yet it was also noted how often such legislation was violated. That these examples may indicate more a failure than success is confirmed by the 1564-65 controversy in Rudolstadt. The Lutheran pastor there refused to commune two parishioners who lived by usury. The theological faculties of Wittenberg, Leipzig and Jena were requested to give their opinions. They concluded against the pastor who then had to leave town, and they did not recognize Luther as an authority on this issue.
After this there was never again a serious effort to acknowledge Luther’s position on capitalism.
Luther’s efforts to turn the early capitalist world upside down by insisting on government regulation of business was countered by the powerful of his day, the analogues to the CEOs of today’s financial, energy, and pharmaceutical industries. Luther was not utopian in these matters.
Nevertheless, throughout his career Luther fought against what he saw as the two-sided coin of mammonism: ascetic flight from money and the acquisitive drive for it. His foundation for this battle was the good news that a person’s worth is not determined by what he or she does or does not possess, but rather by God’s promise in Christ. That is the gospel.”
Foster R. McCurley in Social Ministry in the Lutheran Tradition (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008) 63-64.