REFORMATION

LUTHER- CALVIN
 THE REFORMATION
• The Reformation involved a radical questioning of tradition, a
radical disruption of the received worldview
• church traditions and rituals – replaced by “faith” and the Bible
• the Pope and church hierarchy questioned and rejected
• the schism of the western Christian world: Catholic vs Protestant
• iconoclasm
• the rationalization of religious and everyday practices, the
disenchantment of the world , social and religious discipline
• The disenchantment of the world – the gradual erosion of the
animistic coherent world of the medieval period
• the negative valorization of humanistic ideals – e.g. titanism
 PROTESTANTISM

• PROTESTANT = Late term- 1540s for the German

states
• Break with Rome, war against the Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V > religious and political
division of Europe
• Rethinking of spiritual order
• Religion = politics
 MAJOR ASPECTS OF THE
PARADIGM SHIFT
• ANTI –PAPIST CAMPAIGN

• RETURN TO THE EARLY CHURCH-ad fontes

• RADICAL REFORM OF SOCIAL,

POLITICAL AND CULTURAL LIFE – NEW
VALUES => GAP BETWEEN EASTERN AND
WESTERN EUROPE
 No need for the Pope
(the Antichrist)
• NO NEED FOR INTERMEDIARY LINKS BETWEEN MAN AND GOD –
PERSONAL, DIRECT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

• Priests = NO Longer intermediary between the faithful and God, they no longer have
power of absolution => no special, privileged status- against the system of indulgences
• No PURGATORY- only HAEVEN and HELL
• universal priesthood => equality before God/ on the spiritual level
• Monks /nuns = no longer “special” by leading an exemplary life-> but “idle” (do
not work) and “corrupt” (not chaste)-> DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES
• against the church hierarchy- rejected as “corrupt “
• Against the central authority of the Pope, Rome = Babylon- ANIT PAPIST CAMPAIGN
• -> decentralization – focus on the local congregation;
 Change in religious values

• sola fides – justification by faith- how to be

saved?--not by rituals (see Everyman), not by priests
(they have no longer special powers to help), but by
Justification – the right relation to God, by faith
(fides) – faith itself was a gift of God.
• Sola scriptura- the Bible (God’s Word)= the only
source of authority
• Predestination: the justified vs the damned ; the
elect vs the reprobate.
 MAJOR SHIFT IN VALUES
(+/- HUMANISM)
• NOT vita contemplativa but vita activa=> THE GOSPEL
OF WORK;
• Man = fallen, tension between him and GOD
• Man cannot help sinning, only God’s grace can help (Christ’s mercy)
=> HUMAN BONDAGE- no possibility of free choice
• => the need for DISCIPLINE – religious, moral , social and political
• Work + discipline => prosperity – evidence of God’s support/ sign of
election >> hard-working, industrious people – the elect vs the reprobate.
• Poverty = a sin => BEGGARS and monks = idle => to be punished and
excluded
 PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGNS
• ANTI PAPIST for universal priesthood
• AGAINST MONASTERIES- clergy no longer has a privileged
position; monks &nuns are “idle”
• Against celibacy
• AGAINST “IDOLS “ (idolatry) ->ICONOCLASM – against the
previous sacramental perception of the world - PURIFICATION OF
FAITH and disenchantment of the world
• ACCULTURATION
• Education
• Work and discipline– see the rise of capitalism
• Translation of the Bible in the vernacular languages (Catholicism - Jerome’s
Latin Bible, the “vulgata” unacceptable) => back to the origins
• juncture with and departure from Humanism
 Learn more
• 1517 – Luther’s 95 theses - the corruption of the Catholic
church + a new way to salvation => a new faith
• The history of the German Reformation (basic facts) and of the
English Reformation (Henry VIII’s political and religious
decisions)
• The translation of the Bible into German and other
languages
• Max Weber – the Protestant religion and the rise of
capitalism=> the emergence of a new civilization
• Luther – Calvin – (Zwingli)