Bradstreet on Human Dignity and Multiculturaliam

Thomas Bradstreet has recently published a couple important essays. The first is a fascinating take on human dignity from a Reformed perspective (which he wrote with Dominic Foo). This is a long read, but worth it. The second is on multiculturalism in the church. This one contains really important distinctions that have been largely lost …

Christianity in the Late Middle Ages

I’m continuing to work from Alister McGrath’s Reformation Thought: An Introduction”, providing background for anyone interested in understanding the Reformers and the causes for the Reformation. The backdrop to the Reformation is the late medieval period. In recent scholarship there has been a growing emphasis upon the need to place the Reformation movement in its …

The Reformers were the “Adults” of the Era

Rome was, and by extension, Roman Catholicism was an absolute cesspool at the time of the Reformation. Elsewhere, I’ve cited Heiko Oberman discussing some of the root causes: there is much to warrant the thesis that the later Middle Ages were born in Avignon and were shaped by the uncertainty and hierarchical confusion due to …

People Learned About “The Reformation” in Their Own Language

A lot of things contributed to the spread of the Gospel at the time of the Reformation. Pervasive knowledge of the corruption of “the Church”. The printing press. The willingness (and newfound ability) of the Reformers to reach back ad fontes (“to the original sources”). One of the most important, however, was Martin Luther’s decision …

Zwingli and the Beginning of the Reformed Reformation

The Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli developed his religious ideas in the town of Zurich, Switzerland, at a time that was parallel to but separate from the religious development of Luther: What was wonderful to him and his generation was that they had before their eyes the original Greek, and Hebrew texts. The very words directly …

Martin Luther and the Lutheran Reformation

Alister McGrath spends some time summarizing the individual “Reformations”. Probably the most well-known is (as you may have seen some articles on the upcoming 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation) is the Lutheran Reformation, which began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses (primarily dealing with the Roman Catholic doctrine and practice of “Indulgences”) to the castle church at Wittenberg.

The “Protestant” Reformation

Today, October 31, 2016, is the 499th anniversary of the start of what is known as “the Protestant Reformation”. As Alister McGrath explains, however, the use of the word “Protestant” regarding the events of October 31, 1517 is anachronistic: The term “Protestant” … requires comment. It derives from the aftermath of the Second Diet of …

A Number of Different “Reformations”

The term “Reformation” is used in a number of senses, and it is helpful to distinguish them. As used in the historical literature, the term “Reformation” generally refers to reform movements in different areas, each of which had different roots: Lutheranism: This is probably the earliest and best known among the Reformation movements; sparked publicly …

Alliances of Church and State

As popes in the late 1400’s and early 1500’s became more evil and self-absorbed, their ability to even try to reform the church diminished. Given the corruption in Rome, the Reformers turned to their own civil governments for help: It is therefore important to notice the manner in which Protestant reformers allied themselves with regional …

Tracing the Origins of the Reformation

My hope, over the coming year, will be to try to fulfill the promise of this blog – to discuss the Reformation, from the point of view of the need for Reformation. … And in the process, I’ll hope to put some meat onto the bones of the skeletal history of the Reformation.