Borrowing Is Easy, Repayment Is Hard

Anglican priest and Guardian columnist Giles Fraser says the current Greek-German-euro crisis harks back to different perspectives on the Crucifixion(!) [bold added].

As Mr Fraser recalled, traditional Protestant and Catholic teaching has presented the self-sacrifice of Christ as the payment of a debt to God the Father. In this view, human sinfulness created a debt which simply had to be settled, but could not be repaid by humanity because of its fallen state; so the Son of God stepped in and took care of that vast obligation. For Orthodox theologians, this wrongly portrays God the Father as a sort of heavenly debt-collector who is himself constrained by some iron necessity; they prefer to see the passion story as an act of mercy by a God who is free.

The Greeks, obviously steeped in the Orthodox notion of a merciful God, had over 15 years of fun in the Mediterranean sun at the expense of those dyspeptic German bankers. C'mon, Angela, forgive us our debts and we'll try real hard to pay you back next time.