Historical Context
Reformation Timeline
1456 Gutenberg Bible and Augustine’s writings (Luther called himself an Augustinian)
1517 95 Theses
1520 Luther’s writings (letter to the Pope, Bondage of the Will)
1521 Excommunicated from the church
1522 End of Luther’s focus on the academy; now he focuses on the larger Church
1529 Diet of Speyer: Protestantism born
1534 Church of England formed under Henry VIII
1545 Council of Trent: Counter-reformation (Catholic Church begins to reform itself)
Religious Context
Catholic
indulgences
relics
powerful leaders but in decline
works-based salvation
lots of bureaucracy and corruption
had strayed from the excitement and simplicity of the apostolic church
1545 Counter-reformation: corrected the big problems but the Reformation had gained so much traction that it was much more defined and major differences in doctrine now become apparent, Protestantism was now a new, distinct religion
German
Luther
city-states
humanism – individually minded
Swiss (Zurich, Strasbourg)
Zwingli
free states, republics
focused on community
more influential in England (the Puritans, who carried the ideas to the New World)
(Reformed churches are more common on the East coast)
95 Theses
reform the church but don’t remove it
spreads quickly because of the printing press (Wittenberg was not a prestigious university)
very critical of indulgences
Freedom of a Christian
The good you do is because of your faith, not because you’re bound to do it.
Freedom comes from faith.
The Christian is perfectly free, subject to none. The Christian is the dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone.
Inner man (spiritual) vs. outer man (bodily)
commandments were given to show man that he is lost
depravity of man – there is no good in him, so he cannot gradually work his way closer to God
Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works. (result of salvation, not a means of earning it)
Bondage of the Will
response to Erasmus – pointing out his flawed arguments
Erasmus tries to not make waves by being vague and even illogical about doctrine
humanism (not the sames as secular humanism) – theologically neutral in the 16th century, wasn’t a religious term, the concept existed but wasn’t used as a term until 1808, humanists were not against God but believed certain things about the study of the liberal arts and culture and humanity, to have life the way it should be, go back to original source documents and pull out meaning from them directly (Bible, Plato, Aristotle) instead of getting it second- or third-hand
Erasmus considered Latin the language of the world and was opposed to national boundaries as detrimental to the search for knowledge
Luther was a humanist in his time too – believed in returning to the original source documents, saw culture as off track
Luther’s argument – sin incapacitates people from working out their salvation
Christian humanist – read the Bible in the original languages, read Augustine and other church fathers
difficult to take off our 21st century, Protestant glasses and see Luther’s writings as ground-breaking