THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION: A SUMMARY BY WAY OF A SHORT COMPENDIUM (original) (raw)
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The reformation was no doubt one of the finest defining moments of the sixteenth century, an event surpassed only by the introduction of Christianity. It was a great event known as the most revolutionary movement. It marks the end of the middle ages and the beginning of modern times.
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Christian apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. It can take many forms: philosophical, polemical, scientific, and Scriptural along with others forms as well. It has existed since New Testament times and grew as a discipline in both the Patristic and Medieval periods of the Christian Church. When apologetics were done in early Lutheranism, polemics were often intertwined. In the days of the Reformation, it usually wasn’t enough to defeat your opponent with cool, reasoned logic; the conventions of that day often required you to swing at your opponent with a ‘brick bat’ as well. Lutheranism, from its inception has been an apologetically active Church. Martin Luther's speech at the Diet of Worms, The Augsburg Confession, it's Apology and the Smalcald Articles, Chemnitz's Examination of the Council of Trent and Chemnitz and Andreae’s Catalog of Testimonies defended the pure Gospel against the errors of Calvin, Islam, Judaism, Rome, various sectarians and superstition. As the Reformation progressed, Lutheranism continued to face various challenges. It persevered in responding to Roman Catholicism, Calvinism and fanatical groups such as the Anabaptists on one hand and non-Christian groups such as Judaism and Islam on the other. Luther himself responded to all of these, some to a lesser degree, others to a greater degree.
Perspectives on the missiological legacy of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation
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Upon the occasion of the 500th anniversary Martin Luther's publication of his 95 theses, this composite article brings together five perspectives on the missiological legacy of the reformer and the subsequent Protestant Reformation. The blend of voices makes clear that Luther and the subsequent Protestant Reformation do not have a simple missiological legacy but rather various legacies: theological, ecclesiological, political, and practical; some of which co-exist, and even collide, in the
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The Lutheran Reformation transformed not only theology and the church but also law and the state. Despite his early rebuke of law in favor of the Gospel, Martin Luther eventually joined up with various jurists and political leaders to craft ambitious legal reforms of church, state, and society on the strength of Luther's new theology, particularly his new two kingdoms theory. These legal reforms were defined and defended in hundreds of monographs, pamphlets, and sermons published by Lutheran writers from the 1520s onward. They were refined and routinized in hundreds of new reformation ordinances that brought fundamental changes to theology and law, to church and state, marriage and family, criminal law and procedure, and education and charity. Critics have long treated this legal phase of the Reformation as a corruption of Luther's original message of Christian freedom from the strictures of all human laws and traditions. But Luther ultimately realized that he needed the law to stabilize and enforce the new Protestant teachings. Radical theological reforms had made possible fundamental legal reforms. Fundamental legal reforms, in turn, would make palpable radical theological reforms. In the course of the 1530s onward, the Lutheran Reformation became in its essence both a theological and a legal reform movement. It struck new balances between law and Gospel, rule and equity, order and faith, and structure and spirit.
Luther the Lawyer: The Lutheran Reformation of Law, Politics, and Society
Law and Justice: A Christian Law Review , 2017
The Lutheran Reformation transformed not only theology and the church but law and the state as well. Beginning in the 1520s, Luther joined up with various jurists and political leaders to craft ambitious legal reforms of church, state, and society on the strength of the new Protestant theology. These legal reforms were defined and defended in hundreds of monographs, pamphlets, and sermons published by Luther and his many followers from the 1520s onward. They were refined and routinized in hundreds of new reformation ordinances promulgated by German polities that converted to the Lutheran cause. By the time of the Peace of Augsburg (1555)--the imperial law that temporarily settled the constitutional order of Germany--the Lutheran Reformation had brought fundamental changes to theology and law, to church and state, marriage and family, education and charity.
Martin Luther's Theology of Universal Priesthood: A Historical, Contextual and Contemporary Analysis
2019
Martin Luther’s theology of universal priesthood, alongside the supremacy of Scripture above the Church and justification by faith, produced a fundamental ecclesiological reformation. Luther’s theology of universal priesthood is synthesised from a sample of his corpus, with due appreciation to the historically and contextually sensitive manner and concludes by critiquing some contemporary developments in the doctrine in light of Luther’s seminal contribution. Martin Luther’s theology of universal priesthood was first a rejection of a sacerdotal theology of ministry and therefore, secondly, the character indelibilis that endowed the clergy the ontological superiority to enact this sacerdotalism. Thirdly, Luther’s subsequent rejection of the two-tiered priesthood was a natural corollary. Fourthly, Luther rejected the concept of Magisterium that maintained only the Papacy could interpret the Scriptures. Fifthly, Luther rejected the further social application of the universal priesthood to upheave government. Concurrently, Luther’s theology of universal priesthood brought a series of significant acceptances. Firstly, while rejecting the hierarchy and authority of the Roman church, Luther accepted the authority of the local congregation to appoint and affirm ministers. Secondly, Luther affirmed the practical ministry of every believer, re-sacralising the everyday life of every believer. Thirdly, Luther maintained the offices of ministry as services within the universal priesthood and at the call of the assembly. In light of this definition, this thesis argues that (i) there was a broad consensus upon upholding the universal priesthood and maintaining offices of ministry amongst Reformed churches, (ii) that the Catholic revisiting of universal priesthood in Vatican II produced few substantive developments of Late Medieval theology, (iii) the Southern Baptist theology of “soul competency” has erroneously conflated universal priesthood with religious liberty, individualising the universal priesthood, (v) mainline churches experience a functional dualism, and (vi) the Missional Movement offers the potential connection of Luther’s vision of everyday priesthood to mission.