I appreciate those of you who check back here from time to time — it’s not a huge number, but you’re there and I see you (through the magic of the statistics page).
Ever since James Swan invited me to be a part of his team at Beggars All Reformation and Apologetics, I’ve wondered what to do with this space. It’s interesting to see how some multiple-bloggers handle things. Both James and Turretinfan, who post at AOMin, seem to post the same things on both blogs. I understand why they do it, but in some ways it seems redundant to me. Rhology and Frank Turk manage to do it well. But they have “their own blogs” in addition to some of their joint efforts.
I chose the name “Reformation500” because I wanted to celebrate the Reformation. As I’ve written elsewhere (copying Schaff), I believe the Reformation was the greatest “moment” in church history. (I say this with the understanding that a “moment” has its roots in the cross of Christ, and it extends even till today. “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”)
To paraphrase a popular writer, “We are the Reformation.” Those of us who care about getting Christianity right. The Roman Catholic Church was really, really, really bad at the time of the Reformation. The Reformation was worth doing then, and it’s worth working to get it right today.
Reformation500 
When Paul preached to the Romans, did he do so with God’s authority?
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Would Schaff have necessarily regarded the Reformation as one of the greatest moments _for Christianity_ though? In the quote you linked to, he says,
“The Reformation of the sixteenth century is, next to the introduction of Christianity, the greatest event in history. It marks the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern times. Starting from religion, it gave, directly or indirectly, a mighty impulse to every forward movement, and made Protestantism the chief propelling force in the history of modern civilization.”
Certainly he is saying that the Reformation was one of the greatest events ever from a general historical viewpoint (and he’s right), but did Schaff share your view about the Reformation being a great thing for Christianity?
I’m not asking the question rhetorically, because I haven’t read much from Schaff and don’t know the answer; I was wondering if you had any quotations to offer on his view about the Reformation from a specifically Christian standpoint.
If the Roman Church was a corruption of Christianity, then no doubt the Reformation was a great moment in church history. Yet it would seem that while it is a great moment, it also has a dark side to it–the fact that the Reformation was necessary at all, the fact that a large body of professing Christians had become so corrupt that they ceased to be (at least in your view) a true church, and necessitated such a total revamp of the existing doctrine and practice, would seem to be cause for a certain degree of mourning as well as celebration.
Unity must not be valued above truth, but it must not be disregarded either. The Reformation, if it was a recovery of the Gospel, was necessary, and great in that the Gospel was recovered, but the severance of Christian unity, even if a necessary one, is always a tragedy.
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“Both James and Turretinfan, who post at AOMin, seem to post the same things on both blogs. I understand why they do it, but in some ways it seems redundant to me.”
Actually, not to nitpick (even though I am!)if you were to take a look at all the aomin posts I’ve done, only rarely do I cross-post. Sometimes I may refer to the same info, but the majority of times the aomin posts are different.
This explains why I don’t post as often on aomin. If I did, they’d be over-run with dull Luther tidbits.
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Hi James — I thought I had seen some double posts; I apologize if that’s not the case.
As you can see, since I’ve been posting at Beggars All, I’ve decided to focus my efforts there. Given the limits on my time, that seemed to make more sense. I still want to do something with this name, just not sure what it is yet.
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