A Joint Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017

Horizons ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-409
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Clifford
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Equal Footing ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

When the young Augustinian friar, Martin Luther, affixed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church on October 31, 1517, calling for the reform of the church, he could hardly have anticipated the succession of events that would lead to the division of Western Christendom. Luther had no intention of creating a “Lutheran” Church, nor could he have foreseen that his initiative would give rise to an ecclesial divide that would persist for half a millennium. The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism, which acknowledged the need for continual reform and renewal in the church, created the conditions for the Catholic Church to enter in earnest into a dialogue “on equal footing” with other Christian communities. The Lutheran-Catholic Commission on Unity, as it is known today, was established in 1967 and was the first commission for official bilateral dialogue. Thus, as we commemorate five hundred years since the Reformation, we also mark with gratitude fifty years of official dialogue and growth in communion.

The Sermon as A Multimedial Instrument of Communication in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dalia Marija StančIene
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lay People ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Important Means ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Abstract At the end of the sixteenth century, during the Christianization of Lithuania, sermons became one of the most important means of communication. As a medium, the sermon functioned through systems of codified sounds and symbols, as well as representing the institution of the Church for which it served as a broadcaster. Increased attention to the sermon was prompted by the desire of the Catholic Church to resist the Reformation and to preserve its spiritual monopoly. Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam underlined the importance of preaching, claiming that preaching the Gospels could improve society. The Jesuits instructed preachers not to limit themselves to religious matters alone but also to pay attention to social and political problems. There were two kinds of sermon: one for churchmen, preached in Latin; the other for lay people, in the vernacular. The Jesuits trained priests to preach in Lithuanian.

Roman Catholicism and Europe

2021 ◽  
pp. 436-457
Author(s):  
Petr Kratochvíl
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
The Political ◽  
Complex Relationship ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Global Nature ◽  
The Church ◽  
Hostile Attitude ◽  
The Catholic Church

This chapter explores the complex relationship between the Catholic Church and Europe over many centuries. It argues that the Catholic Church and Europe played a mutually constitutive role in the early Middle Ages and one would not be conceivable without the other. However, the Church gradually disassociated itself from Europe and vice versa. Since the Reformation, but even more strongly in the last two centuries, the Church’s attitude to Europe has become markedly more ambivalent, due to the rise of the European state, the hostile attitude of the Church to modern European social and political thought, Europe’s ongoing secularization, and the increasingly global nature of the Catholic Church. While the tension between the Church and Europe persists, the process of European unification marked a watershed in the Church’s relationship to Europe, given that integration is a key area in which the Church strongly supports the political developments of the continent.

Saint or Schemer? The 1527 Heresy Trial of Thomas Bilney Reconsidered

1989 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Walker
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Ambiguous Figure ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
Significant Figure ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Sir Thomas More ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

On 8 December 1527 two scholars, Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur, carried penitential faggots at St Paul's Cross as a token of abjuration of heresy. With this act both men formally cleansed their souls and brought about their reconciliation with the Church. Far from being the end of a story, however, this ceremony proved to be the beginning of a controversy which has survived until the present day. For Thomas Bilney subsequently renounced his abjuration and became a significant figure in the early Reformation in England, eventually dying at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1531. And yet, despite the importance attributed to him as a reformer, Bilney is now, as he was then, an ambiguous figure whose relationship with the Catholic Church and precise beliefs have never been conclusively determined. Many writers have claimed Bilney as a champion of their particular causes or have sought to identify his place in the wider movements of the Reformation. For the Protestant John Foxe he was a martyr, albeit a flawed one, for the reformed faith, who refused to the last to be intimidated into a second abjuration. For Sir Thomas More, in somewhat mischievous mood, he was a Catholic saint brought to realise the error of his ways at the stake and reconciled to the Church with almost his last breath.

scholarly journals Prosper Guéranger O.S.B. (1805-1875) and the Struggle for Liturgical Unity

1999 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 333-344
Author(s):  
Peter Raedts
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Historical Continuity ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Unbroken Line ◽  
The Middle Ages ◽  
The Catholic Church

One of the strongest weapons in the armoury of the Roman Catholic Church has always been its impressive sense of historical continuity. Apologists, such as Bishop Bossuet (1627-1704), liked to tease their Protestant adversaries with the question of where in the world their Church had been before Luther and Calvin. The question shows how important the time between ancient Christianity and the Reformation had become in Catholic apologetics since the sixteenth century. Where the Protestants had to admit that a gap of more than a thousand years separated the early Christian communities from the churches of the Reformation, Catholics could proudly point to the fact that in their Church an unbroken line of succession linked the present hierarchy to Christ and the apostles. This continuity seemed the best proof that other churches were human constructs, whereas the Catholic Church continued the mission of Christ and his disciples. In this argument the Middle Ages were essential, but not a time to dwell upon. It was not until the nineteenth century that in the Catholic Church the Middle Ages began to mean far more than proof of the Church’s unbroken continuity.

scholarly journals Jana Kalwina zarys nauki o Kościele w świetle Institutio Religionis Christianae z 1543r.

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 119-127
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Wodziński
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Full Picture ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
German Reich ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
The Church

One of the main postulates of the reformation movement, apart from the theological questions, was a proposal of the internal reform of the church institution. The Father of the Reformation,as Rev. Martin Luther is called in the source literature, raised the questions concerning the mission of the Church, its role in the magisterium, and also and  perhaps above all its hierarchical structure and about the role of the clergy in the process of the eternal salvation. As a result of his reflections and probably his observations and his own experiences Luther undermined in succession different dogmatic, theological questions as well as those regarding the organization of the Roman Catholic Church. Slogans of renewal and reforms of the church structure spread very rapidly through the territory of German Reich, gaining numerous supporters among European nations. One of those for whom the Reformation ideas became the main field of activity was French man John Calvin. That well-rounded, well educated and well-read lawyer, knowing the main works of the German monk, acquired his principal theses postulating the changes in the functioning of the Church. Additionally, Calvin made a division of the Church between the earthly – the visible and the heavenly – the invisible one, and the person who bonds it, guarantees its unity and permanency, the  indivisibility is the only and the highest Priest – Jesus Christ. In the work of his life Institucio Religionis Christianae Calvin embodied a full picture of the Christian Church as, in his opinion, it should be. Analysing particular issues regarding the function of the clergymen, the pope, celebrating the sacraments, penance and conversion, and also the eternal salvation, we are given the basic compendium of knowledge concerning the ecclesiology by John Calvin. His teaching about the Church, although in some points different in from the  preaching of Rev. Martin Luther, however oscillates within the principal slogans of Reformation: Sola Fides –the man is saved solely by faith, Sola Gratia – God’s grace is necessary for salvation, Sola Scriptura – the only source of faith is the Holy Bible. He also added the idea: Solus Christus – only Christ saves, He is in the centre of The Church, we can observe Calvin’s Christ centred attitude in his preaching and in building ideological basics of the reformed denomination.

Adiaphora, Luther and the Material Culture of Worship

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 246-272
Author(s):  
Andrew Spicer
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Desiderius Erasmus ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Catholic Church

The celebration of the late medieval mass and other religious ceremonies was carefully delineated through the ecclesiastical regulations of the Catholic Church. This legalistic approach to worship was strongly criticized by both Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther before 1517. With the subsequent Reformation, Luther reacted against Catholic legalism which, he argued, ensnared the faithful and threatened Christian freedom. He was therefore particularly reluctant to specify what he considered to be the appropriate form, place and setting for his German mass. Luther utilized the concept of adiaphora to argue that such issues were matters of indifference as they were not fundamental for salvation. However, this stance was tempered by his realization that such Christian freedom actually did require direction to ensure that the Reformation message was not confused or lost.

The Biblical Question and the English Liberal Catholics

1969 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
James Tunstead Burtchaell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Irish Immigrants ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Looking backward from the early nineteenth century, the Catholic Church in England had disappointingly little scholarly achievement of which to boast since the Reformation. Henry Holden, Charles Butler, John Lingard—all were men to be proud of, but Catholics of such intellectual bent were so few. And understandably so. The penal laws had effectively deprived the recusants of any access to higher education, and would perdure until the latter nineteenth century. Squires whose sons were barred for their faith from most schools and from the two universities had to be content to enroll them quietly at one or another of the exile schools across the channel. The Irish immigrants who later came to fill and overspill the churches in the nineteenth century had even less exposure to—and perhaps appetite for—scholarship. And the clergy who shepherded this extraordinary flock of secluded gentry and boisterous working folk pursued a highly sacramental and understandably unsophisticated pastorate. The Church naturally felt itself somewhat put upon, and fell into rather defensive postures. Scholarship would appear as a luxury at best, and at worst as a weapon that the Establishment seemed always more adept and smooth at handling.

scholarly journals An outline of John Calvin’s teachings on the Church in the light of Institutio Religionis Christianae (1543)

1970 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 117-125
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Wodziński
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
John Calvin ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
God's Grace ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
The Church

One of the main postulates of the reformation movement, apart from the theological questions, was a proposal of the internal reform of the church institution. The Father of the Reformation, as Rev. Martin Luther is called in the source literature, raised the questions concerning the mission of the Church, its role in the magisterium, and, perhaps above all, its hierarchical structure and the role of the clergy in the process of eternal salvation. As a result of his reflections, observations, and personal experience, Luther successively undermined different dogmatic, theological questions, as well as those regarding the organization of the Roman Catholic Church. Slogans of renewal and reforms of the church structure spread very rapidly through the territory of German Reich, gaining numerous supporters among the European states. One of those for whom the Reformation ideas became the main field of activity was John Calvin of France. A well-rounded, well educated, and well-read lawyer, familiar with the main works of the German monk, Calvin’s principal theses postulated changes in the functioning of the Church. Additionally, Calvin proposed to distinguish between two dimensions of the Church, i.e. the earthly (visible) and the heavenly (invisible) one, with Jesus Christ as the highest priest, bonding the Church together and guaranteeing its unity, permanence, and indivisibility. Calvin’s opus magnum, Institucio Religionis Christianae, represents to the fullest his vision of the Christian Church as he thought it should be. An analysis of specific issues regarding the function of the clergymen, the role of the pope, the celebration of the sacraments, penance and conversion, as well as eternal salvation, gives an insight into the basic compendium of ecclesiological knowledge compiled by Calvin. His teachings about the Church, although in some points different from those of Rev. Martin Luther, nonetheless oscillate within the principal slogans of Reformation: Sola Fides – the man is saved solely by faith, Sola Gratia – God’s grace is necessary for salvation, Sola Scriptura – the only source of faith is the Holy Bible. Calvin’s own idea was that of Solus Christus – salvation can be reached solely through Christ as the centre of the Church. Calvin’s Christ-centric attitude reveals itself to the fullest in his preaching and the ideological foundations he established for the reformed denomination.  

Church Organization in Brandenburg–Prussia from the Reformation to 1740

1938 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-290
Author(s):  
Reinhold A. Dorwart
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Local Church ◽  
Church Organization ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

For obvious reasons, a study of the organization of the Church in Brandenburg-Prussia must begin with the formal acceptance of the Reformation in those territories. The Reformation was not accepted officially in Brandenburg until after the death of Joachim I in 1535. His son and heir, Margrave and Elector Joachim II joined the Protestant ranks in 1539. Prior to this time the Church in Brandenburg had been an integral part of the Catholic Church of Rome; and local church organization and the supervision thereof had been in the hands of the episcopal consistory. This latter body attended to all the business of reviewing and supervising the administration of its diocese, of issuing the reports of the bishop or administrator, of appointment of apostolic visitors, and of the government, temporal administration, and discipline of seminaries.

Martin Luther in Denmark

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Henrik Gregersen
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Evangelical Lutheran

In Denmark, Martin Luther was initially seen as a humanist reformer on a par with other humanists, but during the 1520s he increasingly became a divisive figure separating those wanting only to reform the Roman Catholic church from within, and those working for a break with Rome. Ways of understanding Luther differed widely within the evangelical camp too. Early “Lutherans” in Denmark, such as Hans Tausen and the drafters of the Confessio Hafniensis of 1530, presented legalistic and spiritualistic elements. In 1536, however, King Christian III announced the Reformation of Denmark, using robust Wittenberg theologians such as Johann Bugenhagen and Peder Palladius to reform the church, the university, and the society at large. Since then Denmark has been an unusually homogeneous Lutheran country, compared to Lutheran areas of Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries, including Luther’s own Sachsen. Yet Danish views of Luther have changed significantly over the centuries, especially after the national awakening in the 19th century. Thereafter, Luther was seen as a church father, though also as a somewhat remote figure. In 20th-century theology, N. F. S. Grundtvig and Søren Kierkegaard served as mediating figures between premodern Lutheranism and contemporary theology. After World War II, the Reformation is still widely regarded as formative for Danish history, albeit in combination with other inspirations. A secular mindset grew stronger both within and outside the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, with some promoting a liberalist interpretation of Luther’s two-kingdoms doctrine, and others challenging the Evangelical-Lutheran Church’s status as the “People’s Church.” By January 1, 2016, 76.9 percent of the Danish population were tax-paying members of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Denmark.

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