How does the reformation affect us today

Luther outflanked the power of the Catholic Church hierarchy with a new communications technology, the printing press, that allowed him to speak directly to the people.

When he was finally dragged before the assembled majesty of church and empire in and ordered to renounce his errors, he refused, insisting that his conscience was captive to the Word of God, a higher authority than any pope, bishop or king.

Suddenly, everyone had a voice and no one could tell anyone else what to believe. Luther's radical appeal to the total supremacy of personal faith would trigger nearly years of religious warfare. If you're inclined to believe that our modern divisions go back to the way Luther smashed all order and authority: well, no one can tell you you're wrong.

But if you think modern life is more than an endless bad-tempered argument, you may concede that Luther's Reformation gave us a few useful, if largely, unexpected gifts. Let me propose three:. Read More. Free inquiry. Luther wasn't an apostle of free speech. He wanted Christians to believe the truth, not whatever they wanted. But by insisting that all human authority was provisional and that conscience can be constrained only by the Bible and the Holy Spirit, he ensured that Protestants who try to police the boundaries of acceptable argument will in the end always fail.

Protestantism has given us not a paradise of free speech, but an open-ended, undisciplined argument. It has continuously generated new ideas, revived old ones and questioned its own orthodoxies. To take the iconic example: slavery, which for centuries Christians had assumed was a necessary evil or simply a fact of life. Everybody should be able to read the word of God for themselves, education for ordinary people was stressed in Protestant territories, and school systems were established.

This focus on general education is still important years later. The Reformation can be seen in the context of a media revolution, it can be viewed in the framework of globalization, it can be described as a movement which enhanced participation and education. The Reformation is also a focal point in European history: the individual defeats the authority of the institution. It is the beginning of the separation of state and church. Writing from a Protestant perspective, these achievements of the Reformation are emphasized and celebrated as a success story.

But for Catholics, the th anniversary is not a Reformation Jubilee but a Commemoration, as the Reformation undoubtedly also brought disunity to the church and split Europe and Western Christianity. In preceding centuries, the Reformation anniversary was seen as a continuation of the confessional struggles or from a nationalistic perspective, the German monk fighting for freedom from Roman papism. Maybe this is the first time that we shall have a fuller and more ecumenical understanding of the Reformation and also be able to address points of injustice and failure.

Unfortunately, the Reformation also gave rise to a new form of Christian Anti-Judaism. In his late writings, Luther espoused a hostility towards Jews which tarnishes the Reformation. During the peasant revolts, Luther sided with the feudal lords when the peasant movement grew too radical in his eyes, and he called on the state authorities to suppress the peasants with violence.

In the Anabaptist controversy Luther also favoured the authorities to restore order and safety with force. Luther condemned Jews, peasants, Anabaptists and asked and encouraged authorities to kill them. Any celebration of the Reformation without addressing these downfalls would lack credibility.

In Germany, the heartland of the Reformation, Reformation Day is a national holiday. Today, about a third of the population is Protestant, a third Catholic and a third with no official religious affiliation. A public celebration of the years of Reformation cannot be partisan but must include the perspectives of other faith groups and the religiously unaffiliated as well.

In the Old Testament, yes; in the New Testament, no. This gave tremendous dignity to the common man doing common jobs — farmers, miners, tradesmen, craftsmen, etc.

This in turn led to the: Protestant work ethic and capitalism Colossians : Whatever your opinion of capitalism, it has led to the highest living standards and the greatest technological advances in human history. How else can you explain a relatively small, comparatively young nation, the United States of America, going from being a tiny group of colonies … to the most prosperous nation and greatest military power the world has ever seen … to being able to put a man on the moon … in less than years?

At the founding of this nation it was overwhelmingly 98 percent Protestant, and predominantly Calvinist in belief. These things, combined with a belief in a shared moral responsibility that work should be done in honest and ethical ways, have led to unprecedented material wealth, unparalleled generosity and the emergence of the middle class.

It is worth noting that the Reformers, especially Calvin, always looked at material prosperity as a means of being able to be generous toward the work of the Church and the care of the less fortunate. Education Psalm ; Colossians : Because the Reformation was so heavily Bible-centric, reading it became essential to the spread of the Gospel and Reformed doctrines.

This led to a tremendous increase in literacy all over Europe and beyond. This also spurred an increase in literacy, which led to the widespread reading of the Bible, which in turn helped fuel the unstoppable spread of the Reformation. It might be of interest that New England, founded and heavily influenced as it was by the ferociously Reformed Puritans, had a literacy rate in the mid th Century of 95 percent … much higher than it is today. The only translation available was in Latin, and nobody read Latin back then, either.

Translation of the Bible into indigenous languages has led to more cultures having a written alphabet, and hence becoming literate, than any other factor. Most average churchgoers had little part in the life of the church beyond showing up on Sunday, hearing a sermon and taking communion. However, as the reformers began to read the Scriptures with fresh eyes, they saw that the church was meant to be quite different.

Rather than incorporating everyone in society by default, the church was made up of believers, called out by God from the wider culture. Moreover, all believers had equal access to God via faith. There was no separate priestly class. Every believer was a saint who could intercede for others and have a vital role as a member of the body of Christ.

This newfound emphasis on the church as a body of believers brought with it a further realization: not everyone in the broader culture was a Christian. Of course, the church had always known this and had always sent out missionaries. But with the Reformation, evangelism took on a whole new urgency, and eventually gave rise to the various foreign and domestic missionary movements.

In the centuries before the Reformation, the Bible was essentially a closed book for the majority of the populace. Books in general were rare and expensive, illiteracy was high, and church services as well as most books, including the Bible were in Latin, which only scholars and clergy could understand. But with the advent of the printing press, books became more readily available. At the same time, the reformers recognized that the Scriptures were the supreme authority for faith and practice in the church.

They began translating the Bible into the vernacular languages and conducting church services in those languages. This blend of factors led to a level of biblical literacy unheard of since Bible times. It also fostered the modern development of literature in the various native tongues of Europe.

And for the first time, common people could read the Word of God and worship him in their own language. The wide availability of the Scriptures and their renewed status at the centre of church life created a heightened need for education. After all, regular churchgoers would have to be able to read, discuss and understand the Scriptures.