A Brief History of Upheavals – The Protestant Reformation

By the time Martin Luther, a German Catholic priest, (allegedly) nailed his "95 Theses" to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517, the movement known as the Protestant Reformation was already well underway. To be sure, Luther's legendary act of defiance is the most noteworthy--and perhaps the most impactful--moment of the Reformation, but it was not the beginning. 

The next upheaval on our 500-year leaps through Western Christian history, as you've probably guessed, is the Protestant Reformation, which began (as is usually the case in these upheavals) not as a religious phenomenon but a cultural and scientific movement that we know as The Renaissance. The Renaissance, which began in Italy probably during the late 1300s, was a cultural movement defined by significant progress in the arts and sciences which fundamentally changed the fabric of Western Europe, drawing it out of the Dark Ages and opening the door for a Golden Age of exploration and progress (though, as we know, not all progress is positive). The foundation of the Renaissance was an intellectual philosophy known as humanism, a rediscovery from classical Greek philosophy, that essentially claimed that "man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras). In other words, humanism located the individual, rather than the community or authority structures, as the intellectual (and eventually moral) center of the universe. Reality, humanists believe, is not fixed and absolute, but is rather relative to the individual's experience of it. I cannot overstate how monumental this philosophical shift was. Prior to this, the center of authority (in other words, the definition of reality) was located outside of individuals, usually in the community or, in the case of medieval Europe, in the Church. Thus, for the better part of 5 centuries, the Pope (and the leadership structure of the Catholic Church) defined reality for medieval Europeans. As a result, during the Dark Ages, the power of the Pope was unrivaled, far beyond that of any king or emperor. In fact, many historians point out that, at one point, the Church (and, therefore, the Pope) owned 1/3 of the land in Europe.

Now, along comes the Renaissance, built on humanist philosophy, claiming that the ultimate authority and defined of reality was not the Pope or the Church but rather each individual, and suddenly it was possible for an individual (like, say, a German priest, among others) to challenge the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church.

And I should point out that not only was it possible to do so but increasingly necessary. The famous saying, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" perfectly sums up the situation in the Catholic Church at this time. The Church had enjoyed unchecked power and had defined reality for so long that, for most people, what Church leaders said was essentially the same as Holy Writ. In fact, this was exacerbated by the fact that the Bible was available only in Latin and, therefore, accessible only to the classically educated, that is, the priests. Therefore, they were the intermediaries between God and people, and what they said was Gospel truth. This led to all sorts of abuses, most famously, the selling of indulgences, a practice through which people bought forgiveness for their sins from the Catholic Church, often at incredibly high prices. But, since it was the Church that determined the eternal destiny of a person's soul, how could they refuse to pay? 

The rise of humanism and the elevation of the individual conscience provided an opportunity to address these abuses. Now, as a side note, I should point out that the rise of humanism was not all positive. Over time it has become the absolute rejection of authority and moral relativism that is rampant in Western society today. When we reject all authority and make each individual the gatekeeper of reality, we find ourselves in the dire situation described at the end of the Book of Judges (one of the darkest books in the Bible): "In those days, there was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in their own eyes" (Judges 21:25). In the Biblical worldview, this is not a good thing. But that's a conversation we will save for another day. 

Back to the positive corrective power of humanism, it enabled Martin Luther and other Reformers to challenge the absolute authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church, calling into question corrupt practices like the selling of indulgences and insisting that the salvation of souls was not arbitrated by the Church but by individual faith alone (sola fide). Further, the humanist philosophy applied to Luther's interpretation of Scripture resulted in something he referred to as, "The priesthood of all believers," in other words, the idea that each individual could and must have a personal relationship with God. This, of course, necessitated that the Bible be made available in the language of each individual and gave rise to Luther's own translation of the Scriptures into German and eventually to the King James Bible in English.

Now, as significant as Luther and the other Reformers ideas were, they wouldn't have had nearly the impact they did were it not for another product of the Renaissance, this one technological, moveable type, or as we know it, the printing press. Caused the spark of the Reformers ideas to catch fire across Europe, and though Martin Luther was eventually excommunicated from the Catholic Church, and many other Reformers suffered similar or worse fates, their influence spread and a new movement, known as Protestantism was born.

And this is one of the clearest examples of the effects of upheavals on the global Church. The Protestant Church that was born, though not without its own flaws, quickly grew to become a worldwide movement. It spread rapidly across Europe and later, both via colonization and missionary activity, to the New World. Today, there are nearly 850 million Protestants in the world, nearly 1/3 of the global Christian Church. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church was, over time, forced to deal with the Protestant complaints. Despite initial resistance, the 16th and 17th Centuries saw the Catholic Church go through their own Reformation (often called the Catholic Reformation or the Counter Reformation). The result was a rooting out of corruption, a reexamination of ecclesiology, and a reformed and vibrant Catholic Church. From the wreckage of the old something new was born. In response, the old was forced to adapt and reform. And, as a result, the Gospel spread to places it couldn’t otherwise have reached, and the global Church grew and flourished.