Has The Reformation Ended? An Interview with Dr. Mark Noll
November 7, 2007
Has the Reformation ended? That’s the topic Dr. Mark Noll takes up in his most recent book, co-authored with Carolyn Nystrom, titled Is The Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism (Baker Academic, 2005).
Our position is that the Reformation is not over. What do you think? Share your thoughts with us.
Here are two post on the topic:
Posted in Catholicism, Mark Noll, Reformation
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November 8th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Thanks for inviting comments, I always feel a little guilty commenting without being asked to. In one sense reformation is not over and won’t be until the second coming, because the church is constantly in great need of reform. The “Protestant Reformation” of the 16th century is not over and sadly doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon. I think today there are 3 general views of the protestant reformation:
1. The catholic view, that the reformation was a tragedy because it was unnecessary.
2. The sincere and thoughtful protestant view that the reformation was a tragic necessity.
3. The anti-historical fundamentalist protestant view that the reformation was a triumphant necessity and the only tragedy was that such a thing as the Roman Catholic Church ever existed.
(OK maybe 4, the majority of Christians probably never consider any of these viewpoints; they just want everyone to get along, and be happy. (The old what you believe is good for you attitude.)
I think the gap between the catholic and protestant understanding of what “The Church” is, leads to the conflicts and misunderstanding between the two. Any thinking catholic would agree that there were serious abuses and scandals occurring, especially in areas like Germany during Luther’s time. Luther also was correct in identifying serious problems in the church, and preaching for a return to the biblical Christian ideals (he was an Augustinian after all). I think a careful study of history also shows that Luther never intended Christians to “SEPARATE” from the church.
I have always been interested from personal experience, between the comparison between ex-protestants that become catholic and ex-catholics that become protestant. Catholic teaching is that we view all of our fellow Christians as brothers in Christ. A Catholic Christian is one who is in communion with the bishops who are in communion with the bishop of Rome. The fullness of Christian truth persists in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. One who is in communion with the Catholic Church is no better or worse than any other Christian by that relationship; but he has been given the gift of faith to accept the fully revealed word of God. I am always edified by ex-protestants that enter the church, and give testimony to the love they have for the truth, goodness, and beauty that exists in the protestant traditions in which they came to Christ. They bring these gifts with them to the fullness of the Catholic Church; because the fruits that exist in our separated brethren are for the benefit of the whole church (I would put love for Scripture at the top of that list). In contrast, I am usually saddened to hear of the way that ex-catholics bitterly describe the church, which usually ends up being a condemnation of the sinful, lazy, and scandalous members of that body they left behind.
Scripture is my best comfort for trying to understand the mystery of the church as the body of Christ. We do have to come to the realization that Jesus “The Word of God” became flesh and dwelt among us, and he revealed all truth. He did not write down and leave a book to reveal his truth, but he gathered 12 men together (most of them plain smelly fishermen); and to this group he promised:
“I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” - Matthew 16-18
And his last prayer for his church was:
“I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one - John 17:20-22
November 8th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
Brett,
Unless the comment portion is disabled for a particular post, comments are always welcome. It would be a rare situation where comments are not allowed.