The Unfinished Reformation: What Unites and Divides Catholics and Protestants After 500 Years

By Gregg Allison and Christopher A. Castaldo

The Unfinished Reformation offers a thoughtful look at the key theological and sociological differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.

In 1517 a Catholic monk nailed a list of grievances on the door of a church in Germany and launched a revolution in the history of Christianity. That monk was Martin Luther, and the revolution was the Protestant Reformation. This upheaval resulted in flexibility and innovation in the church but also religious instability and division, particularly among the Catholic and Protestant fault line. Five hundred years later, there continues to be unresolved issues between the Protestant and Catholic churches. So, Gregg Allison and Chris Castaldo ask the question... is the Reformation really finished? 

The Unfinished Reformation is a brief and clear guide to the key points of unity and divergence between the two largest branches of Christianity. Fundamental differences in doctrine and practice are addressed in detail:

• Scripture, Tradition, and Interpretation
• Image of God, Sin, and Mary
• Church and Sacraments
• Salvation

Written in an accessible and informative style, The Unfinished Reformation provokes thought about Christian beliefs, equips you for healthy conversations with those on "the other side of the divide", and encourages fruitful discussion about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Sep 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9780310527947

Gregg Allison

Gregg Allison (PhD) is Professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky where he teaches systematic theology.  Previously he served on Cru staff at the University of Notre Dame and overseas in Italy and the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. He is a pastor of Sojourn Community Church, and is the theological strategist for Sojourn Network, a church planting network of about thirty churches. He is the author of Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine; Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church; and Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment.

Book preview

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

This book started with a search for clarity.

A student of Tony Lane’s had asked him to recommend a resource that surveys the commonalities and differences between Roman Catholic and evangelical Protestant theology with reference to the Reformation. Tony inquired with Chris Castaldo, soliciting his opinion, who in turn asked a few friends at the Catholic/Protestant intersection: Leonardo De Chirico in Rome, Mark Gilbert in Australia, Ralph MacKenzie in San Diego, and Gregg Allison in Louisville. Gregg was the first to respond: I can’t think of one, Chris; we should coauthor such a book.

When the other leaders also identified the lack of such a book, Chris realized that Gregg was onto something. Gregg then proposed the idea to Ryan Pazdur at Zondervan, and shortly thereafter, Ryan and Chris discussed the concept over coffee. It was somewhere in the middle of those cappuccinos that plans for the book stepped into the realm of reality.

In addition to thanking Ryan and the staff at Zondervan, we wish to also recognize colleagues and friends whose input has contributed to this project. First, we would like to thank our friend, Leonardo De Chirico. Leo’s articulation of the Christ-Church interconnection has been enormously helpful in explaining the ecclesiological self-understanding of Catholicism. Similarly, we would also like to thank Henri Blocher, who has specifically applied this paradigm to the sacraments. We are indebted to Tony Lane for his work on the doctrine of justification, particularly in Regensburg, Trent, Calvin, and contemporary Catholicism. And we are grateful for numerous Catholic friends and colleagues, particularly Mike Brummond, Eduardo Echeverria, Fr. Dermot Fenlon, and Brett Salkeld.

If readers would like to go deeper into the topics addressed in this book, Gregg has written Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment, and Chris has written Holy Ground: Walking with Jesus as a Former Catholic and Talking with Catholics about the Gospel.

We would like to thank Sojourn Community Church, where Gregg serves as an elder, and New Covenant Church in Naperville, where Chris serves as lead pastor. You are the readership that we had in mind throughout the writing of this volume. Finally, we wish to thank our spouses, Nora and Angela, and our families, whose love and support has made this work possible.

Introduction:

What Happened 500 Years Ago?

Go to a prayer vigil outside an abortion clinic and you will find Protestants and Roman Catholics standing together in solidarity. Probe the ranks of marriage’s defenders and you will find the two groups united. Or step into a concert of prayer in which Dutch Reformed and Hispanic Catholic congregations are petitioning God in unison. You may be drawn to ask an important question: Is the Reformation finished?

We cannot judge whether it is finished, of course, unless we understand how it began. Looking back five hundred years confronts us with an era of momentous change in which many Christians desired renewed faith. Men and women returned to Scripture and the writings of the early church, igniting what some have described as another Pentecost or light after darkness. Five centuries later, we call it the Reformation.

Not everyone, however, regarded the movement as divine illumination. Some viewed the quest for renewal as a menacing threat, opening the way to doctrinal error, political turmoil, and social disorder. At the center of this disagreement was the question: To whom did God give authority to define Christian faith? Did it belong to the institution of the Roman Catholic Church? Or was Scripture its own interpreter?

The Reformation emerged in the tailwind of several broad developments in European society, including urbanization, increased affluence, and a rise in literacy. Meanwhile, a growing sense of anticlericalism became a focus of discontent with the Church. More significantly, however, the Reformation was brought to life by theology. In addition to the fundamental debate over religious authority, questions about salvation and calling in the world were being answered in fresh ways. Many became convinced that ordinary Christians (individuals without priestly ordination or academic degrees) could read and understand the Bible without the teaching office of the Roman Church. In reading the text, Christians recognized divine acceptance, or justification, as coming to sinners by faith alone. And they perceived that the Christian priesthood extended to every believer, endowing such temporal vocations as farming and smithery with new dignity and purpose.

Martin Luther is commonly identified as the pioneer of the Reformation. We recognize, of course, that there were forerunners—men such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus¹—but from Luther the opening salvo would come. The nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses (1517) and his famous stand at the Diet of Worms (1521) symbolize the daring spirit of the movement.² What began as opposition to the sale of indulgences (a remission of temporal punishment by paying money to the church) became an exposé of church corruption, even to the point of challenging the pope’s authority. It was around the same time that Huldrych Zwingli started preaching reform in Zurich, followed by Martin Bucer’s work in Strasbourg. In a few short years, the disciples of this first generation of Reformers would emerge from the shadows, leaders such as Philip Melanchthon, Heinrich Bullinger, John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Thomas Cranmer.³ To these men would fall the task of defining the movement in precise terms. A copious amount of biblical commentaries, theological treatises, confessions of faith, catechisms, sermons, and much more bear eloquent testimony to their productivity.

A Map of Early Sixteenth-Century Europe

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Evangelicals (subsequently called Protestants), however, did not have a monopoly on church reform. For example, it was at Easter of 1511 when Gasparo Contarini (later made Cardinal) experienced an evangelical renewal similar to Luther. Contarini came to recognize that sinners are justified by the righteousness of Christ, appropriated by faith, apart from meritorious works. In due time, a movement grew to include other Roman Catholic notables: Juan de Valdés, Cardinal Giacomo Sadoleto, Cardinal Giovanni Morone, Cardinal Reginald Pole, and Cardinal Tommaso Badia.⁴ However, the evangelical impulse of Catholic renewal was short lived. In 1545, the Council of Trent convened to oppose the growing movement and cut a new path. As one Catholic historian has described it:

[The Council of Trent’s] spirituality was then sacramental, centered on the Eucharist. It was exacting, making stiff demands on its practitioners: self-discipline, self-control, and regularity in prayer. It was practical in the way it closely associated good works with self-improvement. And finally, in accordance with the dominant cultural trend of the times, it was humanistic—at least in its assumption that each person had it in his power, to some degree, to determine his own fate.⁵

DEFINING THE REFORMATION

So what was the sixteenth-century Reformation? The answer may be more elusive than we realize. Should we supply the article, "the Reformation," or is it better to speak of multiple reformations? What were its primary causes and central aims? When did it begin, and when did it end, if indeed it has?

To understand the sixteenth-century Reformation, we must begin by defining the term. The medievals used the word reformatio to describe the enterprise of repairing an inadequate state of affairs by returning to an earlier expression of faith. This idea, for example, is what Pope Innocent III had in mind when he convened the Fourth Lateran Council (1213; begun in 1215) for the reformation of the universal church. This movement, and others like it, sought to manifest deeper dimensions of God’s truth through ethical and spiritual renewal.

In the opening years of the sixteenth century, the faithful expressed criticism of ecclesiastical institutions and offered proposals for renewal. The Fifth Lateran Council (1512–1517), supposedly a reform council, was therefore teeming with reformation potential. During the Council, Cardinal Giles of Viterbo (Italy; 1469–1532) spoke for many who desired a greater measure of personal faith when he declared: Men must be changed by religion, not religion by men.⁶ Such religious hunger sent thoughtful Christians to reexamine the roots of their faith. This examination produced a wide range of proposals aimed at bringing reformation, the form of which differed depending upon region and time period.

In subsequent years, the tepid state of the church persisted. This was due to several factors, such as:

an appalling standard of morality by Renaissance popes such as Alexander VI (reigned 1492–1503) and his family whom he gifted with privilege and wealth;

the ongoing tension between the Catholic emperor, Charles V, and his popes, which embroiled church leadership in political affairs of the Papal States;

the rise of democratic values by public intellectuals such as Erasmus, which called into question elements of Catholic tradition;

the construction of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which encouraged the selling of religious benefits such as indulgences;

and an inadequate education of priests, whose ministries were often marked by veniality and superstition.

Thus, the need for renewal was becoming increasingly apparent.

Historians often look to the year 1517, when Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Wittenberg, as the starting point to the Protestant Reformation. We remember, however, that Luther did not intend to leave the Catholic Church in 1517. A cursory reading of the Theses reveals his deference to the pope. Evidently, Luther believed that if the pontiff were only made aware of the abuses occurring in Germany, he would bring reform. As Luther wrote in Thesis 50, If a pope knew how much people were being charged for an indulgence—he would prefer to demolish St. Peter’s. But in the year 1521, Luther was expelled from the church.

In light of the above, we recognize reformation of the sixteenth century (without the article) to describe a widespread desire for, and movement toward, greater fidelity in the areas of theology, pastoral care, and overall piety. Here, the notion of an always reforming church (ecclesia semper reformanda) emerges as a driving force, a conviction that repudiates the status quo in the active pursuit of dynamic faith.⁷ The idea of ongoing reform is fundamental to Protestant (and to some degree also Roman Catholic) Christianity.

More specifically, "the Reformation describes an array of religious protests and initiatives of renewal that spread through Europe during the sixteenth century. To speak of the Reformation, therefore, is not to speak of a unified movement with a single leader; rather, it was a collection of disparate movements. For instance, one may speak of the magisterial Reformation (reform movements such as Lutheranism that were supported and enabled by magistrates, or political leaders), or the radical or left wing" Reformation (non-institutionalized churches, such as Anabaptists, that broke away from the centuries-old state-church structure). One may also choose to distinguish Reformation movements by geographic region such as the Lutheran Reformation in Germany and Scandinavia, the Calvinist Reformation in Switzerland and the Netherlands, the Anglican Reformation in Great Britain, and the Radical Reformation in Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. And there are some who would include Catholic renewal in this historical portrait, as in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In short, there are numerous ways historians may slice the ecclesial onion to illustrate the profound difference between reform movements of the sixteenth century.

Granting the varied and complex shape of sixteenth-century reform, there is nevertheless a discernable core of convictions that defines the Reformation. With the primacy of Scripture as God’s supreme authority and the early church as a model, Protestant Reformers jettisoned universal papal authority and, at varying degrees, spurned traditional beliefs and customs that had grown up in medieval Catholicism (e.g., monastic vows, pilgrimages, veneration of the saints, indulgences). On the basis of biblical authority, they sought to reestablish the essence and organization of the church (if not also wider society) to bring it in line with Scripture.

Following from this commitment to Scripture, movements of the Reformation generally reduced the number of sacraments from the traditional seven to only two: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.⁸ Communicating the Bible to laypeople was a priority. While opinions varied on style of worship (e.g., the role of images, aesthetics, and music), there was widespread agreement on the need for lay participation and services that employed the vernacular (common) language. Such reforms tended to get traction in urban centers before penetrating rural society.

Finally, in breaking with their medieval past, the Reformers also forged a specific understanding of the doctrine of justification. In opposition to the Roman Catholic Council of Trent, the Reformers distinguished between justification and sanctification, declaring that the former was a legal declaration of innocence based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. This distinctly Protestant understanding of justification transformed the experience of salvation for sixteenth-century people and inspired them in their ongoing walk with God.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ASKING IF THE REFORMATION IS FINISHED

Despite the many gains of the Protestants in the sixteenth century, there are numerous reasons to ask whether the Reformation is now finished. A decade ago, Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom