Happy 500th Reformation Day

[47of74]

500 years ago today a certain German monk published a certain piece of paper and started a certain shitstorm. 

Quote

Five hundred years after a rebellious act by a single German monk divided the Christian world, religious leaders on both sides of that split have finally agreed their churches share responsibility for the historic rupture.

On Oct. 31, 1517, an outspoken university lecturer and Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted a list of objections to the dominant Roman Catholic beliefs and practices of his time. Chief among his grievances was the church's claim that Christians could buy their way out of punishment for sin — and thus shorten their time in purgatory — by purchasing a letter of "indulgence" from their local parish. In practice, much of the money went into the pockets of corrupt local princes.

Whether Luther nailed his list to the door of his hometown church, as legend has it, or simply mailed it to his archbishop is in dispute, but his "95 Theses"represented a stunning challenge to papal authority and the entire Holy Roman Empire.

 

[StacyW]

It's almost worth wearing a costume today so I could dress as Martin Luther.  I could nail grievances to all my coworkers office doors.

[47of74]

22 minutes ago, StacyW said:

It's almost worth wearing a costume today so I could dress as Martin Luther.  I could nail grievances to all my coworkers office doors.

Are there 95 co-worker related grievances?  Would you do it in English or Latin? 

[StacyW]

4 minutes ago, 47of74 said:

Are there 95 co-worker related grievances?  Would you do it in English or Latin? 

It would be safer to do it in Latin, and I don't have 95 but I could put in filler and who would know. Right now my grievance is that someone is playing spooky sounds very loudly: horribilis sonos vexas mihi . No time to conjugate or decline there.

[HarryPotterFan]

Wow, half a millennium. This feels huge. 

[Corntree]

This is understandably marked as an important day in history, but it's interesting that the Theses were complaining about indulgences and not Luther's other beefs with Catholic teaching. The Wikipedia page on the Ninety-five Theses says, "Though the Theses were the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider indulgences to be as important as other theological matters which would divide the church, such as justification by faith and the bondage of the will. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not see the writing of the Theses as the point at which his beliefs diverged from those of Rome." So today doesn't really mark The Big Break.

I can't totally take sides; I don't think the Catholics were right on everything but I don't think Luther was either. And of course Protestant thinking has evolved and split off in a bunch of directions since Luther, so it's not just Catholics vs. Luther anymore.

But the Reformation probably wouldn't have happened without the printing press and the corresponding increase in literacy, b/c more people having Bibles or a copy of the Theses or whatever and being able to read and think about it themselves loosened the grip of power the Catholic church had. And I'm all about free, open access to information so that was a cool thing. Even if the Catholic church had some doctrinal issues right, etc., they shouldn't have had so much power/control. (Sometimes I'm a bit of a Luddite, but the printing press was a fucking miracle. And now the Internet is a further miracle.)

Also, isn't it so wonderful that God in his providence had Reformation Day happen on Oct. 31 so future generations of Christians would have a godly alternative to evil Halloween? Haha.

[Hane]

I grew up Catholic, and even though I had many Protestant relatives, I didn’t learn about the Reformation until I was studying history in sixth grade. The textbook talked about the split from the Roman Catholic Church as if it were a GOOD thing. I was floored!

[Corntree]

I know what you mean, @Hane; I grew up Catholic, too. Of course any split from the one true church founded by Jesus himself was wrong, and oh how those poor Protestants had lost their way! What I didn't know until I was an adult (and not Christian anymore) was that the Catholics responded to the Reformation with a Counter-Reformation, which included defense of Catholic doctrine in response to Protestant ideas, church reforms which the Catholics agreed were needed, and an increased focus on spirituality. I'm surprised no one ever told me that when I was Catholic. I'm no big defender of Catholicism, but I wonder if there's some Protestant bias in some textbooks, where the Reformation is just a big split that shut the bad Catholics down, and you're never told that the Catholics did respond. I homeschool my children, and we use a good secular history curriculum that does mention the Counter-Reformation, which pleases me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Reformation

[47of74]

12 hours ago, Hane said:

I grew up Catholic, and even though I had many Protestant relatives, I didn’t learn about the Reformation until I was studying history in sixth grade. The textbook talked about the split from the Roman Catholic Church as if it were a GOOD thing. I was floored!

I think it was.  What Luther did led to a whole series of events, and part of it was freedom of religion as enshrined in the US Constitution.  It's part of the reason why I wasn't taking my life in my hands when I had enough of the Roman church and left. 

[AlwaysExcited]

Reformation day is pretty big deal here. I've been seeing quite a few events and celebrations, which surprised me. But Reformation was an important part of social change, peasant education and development of local language, so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. 

[StacyW]

31 minutes ago, AlwaysExcited said:

Reformation day is pretty big deal here. I've been seeing quite a few events and celebrations, which surprised me. But Reformation was an important part of social change, peasant education and development of local language, so maybe I shouldn't be that surprised. 

Where is "here"? 

[urban teacher]

Where is my cake? I demand cake to mark the anniversary.

[MarblesMom]

Mr MM was a life-long active Lutheran, me more of a loosey-goosey one.

In 2015, we went to "LutherLand" (no tea cup rides, though). 

We spent a lot of time in Wittenberg... we spent Easter in Luther's church (not the special hoity toity one for the rich), where he preached and was married.  We CLIMBED up to Wartburg Castle where he was kept in secret for a few years.... back in town, wandered thru his home, and learned a lot about his Tonto, Melanchthon.

Great lesson in history.  Luther was a major badass.

 

 

[AlwaysExcited]

10 hours ago, StacyW said:

Where is "here"? 

Baltic states. Sorry, won't get more specific than that. 

[CyborgKin]

I wish I'd planned ahead and thought up 95 grievances to nail (well, tape) to all (well a few, there's so many) of the local churches.  But I've missed my chance.  Maybe I'll write myself a 200 year plan to get it done for the 700th anniversary