The Real Start of the Reformation?
October 26, 2010
In the week when the Protestant church looks back to the advertising of a public debate by a professor, Martin Luther, at Wittenberg University on October 31, 1517, and celebrates that event as the start of the Reformation, Derek and I head to Heidelberg. In fact, Heidelberg is a more likely candidate for the real, public start of the theological reformation as, on April 26, 1518, the Saxon Chapter of the Augustinian Order gathered to hear one Leonhard Beier defend a series of theses composed by Martin Luther, who presided over the proceedings. On that day, Luther's famous distinction between theologians of glory and theologians of the cross received its first public airing. The full set of theological theses, with Luther's explanations, can be found here; but I give the final thesis below. It is worth meditating on, given that the first sentence captures the essence of biblical teaching about God, in contrast with human beings, and is one of the most profound and beautiful statements found outside of the biblical canon:
The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.