Luther and the German Reformation

1
Luther and the German Reformation

• (16th century)

2
The Background Indulgences and Medieval Theology

• Retributive Justice
• All sin must be punished (on earth, in hell, or
  in purgatory)
• All good (merit) must be rewarded
• Salvation comes from a surplus of merit
• The Church possesses such a surplus and can
  dispense it in the form of indulgences

3
The Spark The Sale of Indulgences

• Pope Leo X and St. Peters Basilica
• John Tetzel
• As soon as the coin in the coffer rings,
• The soul from purgatory springs.

4
Luthers 95 Theses

• A protest against the sale of indulgences
• October 31, 1517
• Wittenberg

5
Martin Luther (1483-1546)

• An Augustinian monk since 1505
• Sought to quell his doubts through education
• Became convinced that man played no part in his
  own justification
• The key text Romans 117

6
Luthers Expanding Critique

• October 1518 Heidelberg Disputation
• Luthers re-evaluation of the entire Roman
  Catholic sacramental system
• Luthers emerging theology (1520)
• Humanity is evil
• God is merciful
• Scripture alone
• Grace alone
• Luthers theme Let God be God.

7
The Break with Rome

• June 12, 1520 Luther is condemned.
• Jan. 3, 1521 Luther is excommunicated.
• April 18, 1521 The Diet of Worms
• Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the
  Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust
  either in the pope or in councils alone, since it
  is well known that they have often erred and
  contradicted themselves), I am bound by the
  Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is
  captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will
  not retract anything, since it is neither safe
  nor right to go against conscience.

8
Luthers Writings

• The Freedom of a Christian (fall 1520)
• The last of three important tracts written for
  the public
• One of the last efforts to re-unite with Rome
• A short statement of Reformation principles
• A rejection of the idea that good works make a
  person good

9
Luthers Writings

• The Bondage of the Will (1525)
• A response to Erasmus On the Freedom of the Will
• Erasmus was primarily concerned with moral
  responsibility, and held to a synergism between
  divine and human roles in salvation.
• Luther was primarily concerned with the question
  of whether the will does anything (and thus can
  take any credit) in salvation.
• Luther argued that true freedom belongs only to
  God. We are always in bondage to either Satan or
  God.

10
Calvin and the Genevan Reformation

• (16th century)

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The Background Renaissance Humanism

• General tendencies
• A bleak picture of life in the present
• The memory of a golden age in the past
• Two competing directions
• Italian Renaissance Seeking to recapture the
  glory of classical Rome
• Northern European Renaissance Seeking to return
  to the purity of the early Church

12
The Background France in the 1500s

• Humanism
• Jacques LeFèvre
• Guillaume Farel
• Dissatisfaction with Church and Empire
• Emphasis on faith
• Less social unrest than in Germany

13
A Defining Moment in France

• Little persecution of Protestants in 1520s
• Oct. 17, 1534 -- The Placard Rebellion
• Severe persecution of Protestants by King Francis
  I
• Jan. 1535 -- Edict for the extermination of
  Protestants

14
John Calvin (1509-1564)

• Humanist scholar
• Flight to Basle in 1535
• Work with Farel in Geneva
• Exile to Strasbourg in 1538
• Return to Geneva in 1541
• The Reformations best organizer and theologian
• At heart, a commentator on Scripture

15
Calvins Theology

• Similarities with Luthers thought
• Let God be God
• Authority of Scripture
• Justification by faith
• Mans utter incapacity to save himself

16
Calvins Theology Emphases

• Grace
• Gods giving us himself by the incarnation
• Gods transforming our hearts
• Gods uniting us to Christ
• Gods producing the desire for godliness
• The Holy Spirit
• Author of Scripture (Revelation)
• Interpreter of Scripture (Illumination)

17
Calvins Institutes of the Christian Religion

• First edition (1536) was primarily an apologetic
  work for the Reformation.
• Second edition (1539) was greatly expanded and
  more instructional than apologetic.
• Third edition (1543) was further expanded.
• Fourth edition (1550) included only minor
  changes.
• Two other editions (1553, 1554) made no textual
  changes.
• Fifth major edition (1559) is the final and
  definitive version of the text.

18
Structure of the 1559 Institutes

• Book 1 (106 pp.)
• The knowledge of God the Creator
• Book 2 (296 pp.)
• The knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ
• Book 3 (474 pp.)
• The ways we receive the grace of Christ
• Book 4 (516 pp.)
• The means by which God invites us to Christ

19
Two of Calvins Opponents

• Andreas Osiander (ca. 1496-1552)
• Lutheran theologian
• Rejected the Reformation view of justification
• Michael Servetus (ca. 1511-1553)
• Attacked the traditional view of the Trinity and
  the Incarnation
• Escaped from the Roman Catholic Inquisition
• Was burned as a heretic in Geneva

20
The Calvinist/Arminian Debate

• (17th century)

21
Holland in the 16th Century

• Home of both Thomas à Kempis and Erasmus
• More than 20 Bible translations between 1513 and
  1531
• The Belgic Confession (1561)
• A state reformed church, but some freedom of
  religion (1571)
• A haven for Anabaptist and Puritan refugees

22
The Belgic Confession on Human Free Will

• From Article 14 on creation and fall
• And being thus become wicked, perverse, and
  corrupt in all his ways, he hath lost all his
  excellent gifts which he had received from God,
  and only retained a few remains thereof.
  Therefore, we reject all that is taught repugnant
  to this concerning the free will of man, since
  man is but a slave to sin and has nothing of
  himself unless it is given him from heaven.
• The confession follows this statement with
  discussions of John 644, Rom 87, 1 Cor 214, 2
  Cor 35, and Phil 213.

23
The Belgic Confession on Election

• From Article 16 on eternal election
• God then did manifest himself such as he is
  that is to say, merciful and just merciful,
  since he delivers and preserves from this
  perdition all whom he, in his eternal and
  unchangeable council, of mere goodness hath
  elected in Christ Jesus our Lord, without any
  respect to their works just, in leaving others
  in the fall and perdition wherein they have
  involved themselves.

24
Chronology of the Debate

• 1603 Jacobus Arminius becomes theology
  professor at Leiden and comes into conflict with
  the strict Calvinist Francis Gomar.
• 1608 Arminius publically states his objections
  to the Belgic Confession.
• 1609 At a public conference, Gomar and Arminius
  address their areas of disagreement. Arminius
  dies shortly thereafter.
• 1610 The Arminians publish their Remonstrance,
  and this is followed by a Counter-Remonstrance in
  1611.
• 1618-19 The Synod of Dort condemns the teaching
  of the Remonstrants.

25
Documents of the Debate

• The Remonstrance of the Arminians (1610)
• The Counter-Remonstrance of the Calvinists
  (1611)
• The Arminians Statement at the Synod (December
  1618)
• The Canons of the Synod (May 1619)

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Pietism Methodism

• (18th century)

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Pietism and Puritanism Similar, but...

• Puritanism Pietism
• Country England Germany
• Problem Insufficient reform Cold orthodoxy
• Bible Only authority Only authority
• Use of Bible Preaching Lay Bible studies
• Emphasis Austerity of faith Warmth of faith

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Main Features of Pietism

• Bible-centered faith
• Keen consciousness of personal guilt and
  forgiveness
• Personal conversion experience
• Practical holiness
• Concern for the poor
• Music as the expression of the heart of
  Christianity

29
The Spread of Pietism

• Philipp Spener (1635-1705)
• Pia Desideria (1675)
• Nikolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760)
• Separatist Pietism the Moravian Brethren
• A heart for the world
• The American Great Awakening
• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
• The greatest impact England

30
Stirrings in England (ca. 1740)

• Just at this time, when we wanted little of
  filling up the measure of our iniquities, two or
  three clergymen in the Church of England began
  vehemently to call sinners to repentance. In two
  or three years they had sounded the alarm to the
  utmost borders of the land. Many thousands
  gathered to hear them and in every place where
  they came, many began to show such a concern for
  religion as they had never done before.
• The two or three clergymen
• John and Charles Wesley
• George Whitefield

31
John Wesley (1703-1791)

• The Holy Club
• The unconverted missionary
• Aldersgate - 1738
• The field preacher
• The organizer

32
Wesleys Sermons

• One from before his missions work in Georgia
  (1730)
• Two from the decade following his evangelical
  conversion (1741, 1746)
• Two from the height of his preaching career
  (1760, 1765)
• Two from near the end of his life (1782, 1785)

33
Rationalism and Romanticism

• (18th and 19th centuries)

34
Some Terminology

• Reason -- the use of the mind, logic, etc., in
  the explication of truth, the solving of
  problems, and so forth
• Rational -- possessing and using reason
• Rationality -- the state of possessing reason
• Rationalism -- reliance on reason as the primary
  basis for the establishment of truth

35
The Rise of Rationalism

• The Scientific Revolution
• Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543, Poland)
• Galileo Galilei (1546-1642, Italy)
• Johann Kepler (1571-1630, Germany)
• Isaac Newton (1642-1727, England)
• The natural/spiritual division

36
The Rise of Rationalism

• The Philosophical Revolution
• Réné Descartes (1594-1650)
• God I
• Humanity
• God Universe
• Physical Universe

37
The Enlightenment

• A distrust of all authority
• Reason, observation, and experiment as the
  sources of truth
• Promotion of tolerance, justice, and the moral
  and material welfare of humanity

38
The Reaction Romanticism

• A renewed emphasis on feeling, passion, and
  imagination
• Began in Germany with Goethe (literature) and
  Schlegel (theology)
• Very influential in literary circles in England
  and France (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron,
  Shelley, Keats, Hugo, etc.)

39
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1772-1829)

• He was from a Reformed family which converted to
  pietism.
• He enrolled at Halle in 1787, where he studied
  Kant and Aristotle.
• He became a pastor in Berlin in 1794.
• He began to teach and write that religion was
  based on intuition and feeling, not dogma.
• He became professor of theology at Halle in 1804
  and dean of the theological faculty at Berlin in
  1810.

40
The Christian Faith (1821-22)

• Rationalistic Romantic
• The religious person The religious person
• as starting point as starting point
• Freedom to reject or Focus on feeling of
• modify accepted God conscious- doctrine
  ness

41
The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy

• (early 20th century)

42
Great Changes in19th-Century America

• Intellectual changes
• Darwinism
• Higher criticism of Scripture
• Social changes
• The great immigration
• A challenging of Protestant supremacy
• The rise of great cities

43
A Polarization of Protestantism

• Revivalism/conservative Protestantism
• Strongest in rural areas
• Generally ignored the changes in the cities
• Liberal Protestantism
• Embraced the challenges of the cities
• Birth of the Social Gospel movement

44
World War I andProtestant Polarization

• Rapant anti-German sentiment
• Mixing of theological and political feeling

45
The Rise ofFundamentalism

• Princeton Seminary
• Emphasis on propositional truth
• Rejection of the priority of feeling
• The Bible is the Word of God

46
The Rise ofFundamentalism

• The Five Points of Fundamentalism
• Niagara Conference PCUSA Gen. Assembly
• (1895) (1910)
• Inerrancy of Scripture Inerrancy of Scripture
• Divinity of Christ Virgin birth of Christ
• Virgin birth of Christ Substitutionary atonement
• Substitutionary atonement Bodily resurrection of
  Christ
• Bodily return of Christ Authenticity of miracles

47
The Beginnings ofControversy (1922)

• Harry Emerson Fosdick
• Shall the Fundamentalists Win?
• The Presbyterian
• Shall Unbelief Win?
• William Jennings Bryan
• In His Image An Answer to Darwinism

48
John Gresham Machen(1881-1937)

• Student of B.B. Warfield and Professor of NT at
  Princeton Seminary
• Published Christianity and Liberalism in 1923.
• Resigned from Princeton in 1929 and helped to
  found Westminster Theological Seminary.
• Established the Independent Board for Pres.
  Foreign Missions in 1933.
• Established the group now known as the Orthodox
  Presbyterian Church in 1936.