Today is Reformation Day. What, exactly, does that mean? Was it truly a Reformation or was it something else? Also, what does the Orthodox Church have to do with the Reformation?
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What is Reformation Day? It’s the celebration of the beginning of the Protestant Church. This year is special because it marks the beginning of year-long celebrations for the 500th anniversary.
THE WHY OF THE REFORMATION
The intended goal of the Reformation in the 16th century was to reform the Roman Catholic Church. According to N.T. Wright, it was a reaction against medieval doctrines and how Christ’s death on the cross was understood.
During the middle ages, purgatory gripped the minds of many people. This wasn’t a pleasant thought. What Christians could look forward to in the afterlife was a time of punishment and painful purification of their sins.
Rich people, of course, could “buy” their way out through what’s called indulgences, which the Catholic Church still has today.
The Reformers rejected both purgatory and the abuses connected with it (such as the indulgences). What they retained from medieval theology, however, was the idea that there’s an angry God who needs to deal with our sins, in some way.
The result was that the Protestants insisted on the pacification of divine wrath through the death of Jesus, rather than purgatory (in theology called, atonement theology, forensic theology, or penal substitution theology). After all, even if purgatory didn’t exist, our sins still need to be “taken care of” somehow.
Notice that they are still working within a medieval framework that there’s an angry God whose justice includes someone being punished for these sins (an idea that is both foreign to Orthodoxy and scripture – see N.T. Wright’s The Day the Revolution Began for more information).
It’s this emphasis – that Jesus took our punishment for us – that also led the Protestants to also reject Mass (in various ways for different Protestants). They misunderstood the Mass to be a re-sacrificing of Jesus, which was contrary to their understanding of how Jesus had already taken the hit for us on the cross; there was no need for “another sacrifice.”
WAS IT A REFORMATION OR SOMETHING ELSE?
Nonetheless, one can still ask: was this really a “Reformation”? In reality, it seems that the result was not a “Reformation” as much as a “division.”
A video from Lutheran Satire, sent to me by a Missouri Synod friend, highlights this in a satirical way (click here to view).
Rather than reforming the Catholic Church, the Reformers ended up with their own separate churches and Christianity ended up with broken communion. This means that the Reformers had to think about “church” in a new way. “Church” was now not an earthly institution, but an “invisible” reality among believers in Christ.
So, no, it really wasn’t a Reformation. Why? Because the division it created destroys, rather than reforms, how the Church had always seen itself (it’s definition). It especially destroys the oneness of the Church, a oneness that St. Paul fought to preserve.
THE DEFINITION OF “CHURCH”
Up until the 16th century, the Church had always defined itself as the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.” This wasn’t an arbitrary decision; indeed, a worldwide assembly of bishops proclaimed it in the creed (the Council of Nicaea, a.k.a. the Second Ecumenical Council).
ONENESS
The oneness implies a Christian union within sacramental communion. For almost all of its history, being able to commune with one another, was the sign that proclaimed the unity of the church to the world – a sign that no longer exists in a Christianity of denominations.
Oneness is also a major theme in the Bible.
And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. (John 17:11 RSV)
“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. (John 17:20-23 RSV)
For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5 RSV)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28 RSV)
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15 RSV)
In fact, St. Paul, in the entirety of his letter to the Galatians argues against the breaking of communion. In Galatia, Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians had table fellowship together (communion), then a group from Jerusalem came and the Jewish Christians no longer had fellowship with the Gentile Christians – a division had occurred. Paul was horrified and called it a perversion of the gospel! The practical results of the Reformation were the same – Protestant Christians no longer had table fellowship with Catholic Christians.
Moving forward in time, Fr. Georges Florovsky, a prominent 20th-century Orthodox theologian, continued to affirm Christian unity, or oneness, in this way:
The Church cannot be divided, as Christ is never divided. But both individuals and groups can “go astray,” and fail to abide in the “fulness.” Membership in the Church is constituted by an active and faithful sharing of the “fulness.” Church is ever One and “Undivided,” but there are “schisms” in the Christendom. The main paradox of the “Divided Christendom” is that there are “separated Christians,” which are in a sense “outside of the Church” and yet are still intimately, and, in a varying measure, effectively related to Her. This paradox is the proper subject of what has been described as a “Theology of the abnormal.” (source)
CATHOLICITY
The Catholicity of the Church also implies a unity within fullness.
Fr. Georges explains,
…Catholicity is the main characteristic of the Church. She is “catholic” by nature. The primary meaning of the term was qualitative: “catholicity” meant first of all integrity of life, completeness and comprehensiveness, togetherness and inner concord. Not only the Church as a whole is “catholic,’ but she is catholic in all her parts and members. This is implied in the imagery used in the New Testament to describe the Church, especially in the image of the “Body.” (source)
APOSTOLICITY
The apostolicity of the church was also an indication of a physical, rather than invisible, reality – a unity through time. While it included a holding of the same faith throughout time (a point the Protestants don’t deny), it also included a physical succession of laying on of hands – one bishop to the next down through time. After all, Jesus is an incarnational reality, being seen in the flesh. He didn’t come as an invisible being for our salvation.
NOW WHAT? PROCEEDING WITH THE ORTHODOX
But the other reality is that those living now aren’t the ones who instigated the Reformation or the division of Christianity. We inherited it. So, the question is, how do we proceed?
On the individual level, we must continue to pray for the unity of Christianity. After all, “…he that is not against us is for us.” (Mark 9:40 RSV)
On the institutional level – which is above my pay grade – there are official dialogues. Some of them have conferences that are open to the public. If you’re near one, I encourage you to go, participate, learn, and ask questions.
Though there are official dialogues between Orthodox the Protestants, I’ve noticed that most of the 500-year celebrations don’t include the Orthodox (please correct me if you’re aware of any). This is unfortunate. One of the first dialogues the newly formed Lutheran Church had was with the Orthodox Church. The full correspondence of it – in English translation – can be found in the book, Augsburg and Constantinople (click here to find on Amazon).
ORTHODOX ROLE IN CHRISTIAN UNITY
Fr. Georges Florovsky also argues that the Orthodox have a central role to play in the future of Christianity unity, so they shouldn’t be left out.
Fr. Georges sees the Orthodox role in this way,
The Orthodox Church can be properly described as “The Church of Tradition.” On the one hand, the Church abides by Tradition, i.e., by a continuous unfolding of the initial or original “Apostolic” deposit [II Thessalonians 2:15]. On the other hand, in the ecumenical conversation, the Orthodox Church bears witness to the integral experience and mind of the Ancient and “undivided” Church. Her voice is, in this sense, the voice of Christian Antiquity. This secures for the Orthodox a distinctive position in the Ecumenical Movement and determines their peculiar function in the Christian commonwealth. (source)
In other words, a starting place for Christian unity is to look back to the last time we were all one – the early centuries of Christianity. He argues that the Orthodox Church is the direct continuous heir to that tradition and, as such, should play a central role in Christian unity.
CONCLUSION
No one argues that the intentions of the original Reformers were bad. They were reacting within a particular medieval context. However, the result was much more than a simple reformation. It split up the body of Christ and this is the tragedy of the Reformation. Historically, the Church had always seen itself through its oneness – the unity of God’s family – and it defined itself as such. The Church can’t be divided.
Nonetheless, we continue to love one another, respect one another, and pray for a time when Christianity is, again, one.
P.S. In the meantime, learn about the unknown Eastern Church and contribute to your understanding of worldwide Christianity.
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