The Reformation—The Greatest Ever Revival?
The late Canadian historian and theologian W. Stanford Reid made the bold claim, writing in Christianity Today in 1965, that the Reformation is the greatest revival since Pentecost. But was the Reformation a revival at all? That is an interesting question. And the answer depends very much on what you think constitutes a revival; what you think a revival is.
We will return to that question, but we first need to remind ourselves of the impact and consequences of the Reformation. Its outcomes. Our primary focus in this blog is neither on the theological issues and debates, important as they are, nor on the personalities involved, numerous and absorbing as they are. We will be considering rather the impact the events of the Reformation had both on the Church and on the wider society of the time.
The Setting: Church and state
To help us appreciate the nature and extent of the changes that transpired as a result of the Reformation, a few preliminary comments on the political, social, and ecclesiastical context are in order. In sixteenth-century Europe, the context in which the Reformation came about, these three spheres were intricately interwoven: they were inseparable in many ways. So, to impact one invariably had consequences for the others. Upheaval in the church was guaranteed to have a knock-on effect in both the political and social realms. And so it did!
The political setting was complicated, not least due to the alliance of church and state epitomised by the increasingly fragile yet still prominent Holy Roman Empire.
It was further complicated by the fact that Europe was a mix of powerful independent nations, such as France, Spain, and England, combined with many smaller territories such as the regional electoral states of central Europe (Germany was not a unified nation at this time) and regions of papal dominion. Within the Holy Roman Empire, different regions held varying levels of autonomy. In some, the influence of the church (i.e. the pope, who wielded considerable political as well as ecclesiastical power) was significant. This was exemplified by the presence of Prince-bishops who combined both religious and civil authority. Church and state were very much entwined, for even in areas where the church did not have its representatives ensconced in official positions of political jurisdiction, its authority, if not its absolute power, was considerable. Consider, for example, the English king, Henry VIII, who had to take the momentous step of breaking completely with Rome in order to escape its shackles—albeit for less than meritorious reasons.
The setting: Church and society
The reality was that the tentacles of the Roman Catholic Church’s power and influence stretched deep into the fabric of society at almost every level. Tragically, often not for good! Europe had been Christian for centuries and the general populace lived under the influence, and at times interference, of the church. Coming out of the Medieval era, ignorance and superstition were rife amongst the common people, as was corruption, immorality, and oppressive practices amongst the clergy. The institutional church had badly lost its way, led by self-seeking popes, more concerned with secular than spiritual matters, and often embroiled in their own scandalous activities of one wretched kind or another. Whilst the pope and other figures in the higher echelons of the church basked in the luxury and comforts of their considerable wealth, much of the population of Europe lived in abject poverty and squalor. Yet the church continued to oppress the weak and the poor, preying on their superstitions and fears. A prime instance of this was the sale of indulgences (pardons). Indulgences were a means by which people could, to put it crudely, buy their dead loved ones out of purgatory where they were languishing, being purified from their sins until they were fit to enter heaven. The belief that you could shorten the time of suffering for someone you loved was a powerful sales pitch. And the proceeds further lined the coffers of the already obscenely rich popes.
It was the excesses of this practice, most notably as peddled by the infamous indulgence salesman, the monk Johann Tetzel, that prompted Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses (these are ninety-five arguments against indulgences). As Luther challenges in thesis 86:
Again: why does not the Pope, whose riches are at this day more ample than those of the wealthiest of the wealthy, build the one Basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of poor believers?¹
The rather grim picture painted here, whilst inevitably limited due to its brevity, is nevertheless sufficiently true-to-life to highlight the reality of the pervasive social, moral, and spiritual darkness in which pre-Reformation Europe was enveloped. A darkness into which the glorious light of the gospel of God was about to shine afresh!
Part of the Reformation Wall in Geneva
The Reformation: The fire burns
First came Martin Luther, followed swiftly by others such as Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, Guillaume Farel, Menno Simons, Thomas Cranmer, Theodore Beza and John Knox, to name but a few of the Reformation’s leading figures—with apologies to those many others who might have been mentioned here.
For although Martin Luther’s act of nailing his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31st 1517 is generally taken to be the spark which lit the fire of what we now call the Reformation, this was much, much bigger than one man. Luther was a key pioneer, but he was far from being alone. The blazing fire of reform that ultimately engulfed all of Europe was a work of God that enlisted the services of many men and women, some who have taken their place in the annals of Reformation history, others who are relatively unknown (have you ever heard of Michael and Margaretha Sattler?). And indeed some whose names are to be found only in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
The Reformation was birthed in religious concerns, to be sure. And this remained its heartbeat. It arose out of concerns relating both to the church’s practices and to its theology. Whereas the reformers differed amongst themselves in some of their views, in matters of both theology and practice, what united them, over against the Roman Catholic Church, is embodied in the five solas (Latin for ‘only; alone’) as they are known:
(by) Scripture alone (sola scriptura)
(by) faith alone (sola fide)
(by) grace alone (sola gratia)
(by) Christ alone (solo Christo)
to the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria)
The heart of the Reformation was a rediscovery of biblical Christianity, with renewed emphasis on the Bible as God’s Word and as the sole authority (sola scriptura) in matters of belief and practice. This was in stark contrast to the stance of the Roman Catholic Church which held church tradition, whose ultimate guardian was the pope, to be equal in authority with the Bible. The reformers’ insistence on ‘Scripture alone’ had important ramifications in relation to key areas of doctrine; most notably, the fundamental doctrine of how a person is made right with God. The doctrine of justification by faith. This was Martin Luther’s liberating, life-changing discovery which became the touchstone of so much of what followed.
What followed was certainly incredibly rich and profound, theologically. And it proved to be seismic in its implications for the church. For the Reformation did not merely shake the established ecclesiastical foundations, it tore them apart. Martin Luther did not set out to break from the Roman Catholic church. His desire and intent was to reform it from within. Some reformers were less optimistic from the outset, or at least from early on, about the viability of remaining within the communion of what for them was a church that was so far removed from the apostolic church of the New Testament, from biblical Christianity, that it was beyond hope of being reformed. Whatever their original hopes and intentions, they all ended up in the same place: outside of the Roman Catholic communion.
Ulrich Zwingli
As we well know, they did not end up in the same place, however, in terms of the new churches that they variously set up. The four major streams that emerged as the Reformation progressed were Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinistic), Anabaptist, and Anglican. And that was just the beginning! We will not concern ourselves any further here with the ecclesiological intricacies involved. What is key to our current project—determining whether the Reformation was a revival—is the fact that a large-scale return to basics took place, based on a renewed focus on the Bible and a genuine desire to ground everything in Scripture, stripping away centuries of accrued non-biblical, and in some cases anti-biblical, theology and traditions. Equally important, and equally grounded in Scripture, was a new-found emphasis on the spiritual life, on authentic personal faith, based on the finished work of Christ and empowered by the Spirit.
“There are those who unjustly slander us as though we prohibited good works. … Since faith is inspired by the Holy Spirit, how can it be slothful or inactive when the Spirit himself is unceasing in his activity and operation? Where there is true faith, works necessarily result, just as fire necessarily brings with it heat. But where faith is lacking, works are not true works but only a futile imitation of works. (Chapter 9)”
The flame spreads
It has been observed that in the sixteenth century there was widespread discontent in Europe. Society was breaking down and Europe was ripe for revolution. Had the Reformation not taken place, it is likely that a secular revolution would have. What a different revolution that would have been! And how different the Europe would have been that emerged from it, both culturally and, more significantly, morally and spiritually. As it is, in the providence of God and by the power of his Spirit, came the Reformation.
When it came, the interconnectedness of church, state, and society provided the ideal kindling for the flames of reform to spread not only through the church but also through society as a whole. The central part that religion played in everyday life in sixteenth century Europe entailed that all of life was changed in some way by the religious reforms as the liberating, transforming light of the gospel, rediscovered in the Scriptures, shone brightly into the prevailing darkness. Seats of power were not exempt. As the Reformation progressed, independent cities, electorates within the Holy Roman Empire, and even nations, became Protestant. The Reformation was not a localised, or even regional, phenomenon. It was Europe-wide, and beyond. Quite apart from other considerations, the sheer magnitude of the Reformation is in and of itself an indicator of the importance and significance of this momentous, epoch-defining work of God.
True, not everything was plain sailing. Both the Roman Catholic Church and, in some quarters, the state sought to maintain their authority and their power. Wars of religion ensued. At times, some reformers were guilty themselves of serious errors or excesses. The Peasants’ War of 1524-25 is one tragic case in point, though its causes and where responsibility for it lay are still much disputed.
It is important to stress that the Reformation was not merely about outward change—of church, state, or society. It was a deeply spiritual revolution which had major ramifications. This was truly a movement of God and of God’s people which brought about a radical transformation of the entire landscape of sixteenth century European society, and beyond. European society was turned upside down. Or, more accurately, right way up.
Reformation and revival
Was the Reformation a revival?
The Reformation embodied a recovery of the centrality of the Bible, a restitution of sound Christian doctrine, a reestablishment of the centrality of Christ to salvation, a renewal of personal salvation. Through these, the church, society, and even the state all experienced remarkable transformation. They were reformed. This was a wide-scale, wide-ranging work of God by his Spirit.
If this is not revival, what is?
Is the Reformation the greatest revival since Pentecost?
To answer this question, I can do no better than cite approvingly the closing words of Stanford Reid’s article:
Undoubtedly the Reformation still holds the position of the greatest Christian revival; it revivified the Church both intensively and extensively as no other has done. Thus today the Church needs not merely “a revival” but rather an outpouring of God’s Spirit such as that experienced in the sixteenth century. It needs a reforming that will not only give new enthusiasm and understanding to the Church but also, through the Church’s witness and testimony in every sphere of life, bring about a revolutionary re-forming of individual and social life. This will come only when the Church returns to its Reformation foundation and builds once again on the doctrines set forth and applied by the Reformers.²
There are many respects, in broad terms, in which the circumstances we find ourselves in today share much in common with the days of the reformers.
Lord, revive us again!
Chris Jack
¹ Martin Luther, Luther’s Primary Works: Together with His Shorter and Larger Catechisms, ed. and trans. Henry Wace and C. A. Buchheim (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1896), 421.
² W. Stanford Reid, “The Greatest Revival since Pentecost,” Christianity Today (Washington, D.C.: Christianity Today, 1965), 82.
