I watched two programs on Martin Luther I had taped some time ago. The first was a documentary entitled Martin Luther: the Idea that Changed the World. It combined interviews with experts and dramatic scenes from Martin Luther's life. The driving theme of the program was Martin Luther's quest to answer the question of how to be a good person, and ultimately, gain Heaven while living in a sin-stained world. He was overcome with such great guilt, which led to his entering the Augustinian order, putting him in a position to encounter ancient truths in Scriptures that led him to speak out against the Roman Catholic Church. Having experienced God's graces so powerfully after great anguish caused him to hold unyieldingly to the principles he proclaimed and taught, even when his life was threatened by powerful figures in Europe.
I don't know if I should say this, but I think Martin Luther is a genius. He had a brilliant mind that drove him to speak out against the Church in a very articulate way, especially through his 95 Theses. Somehow, those statements launched a movement that would powerfully impact the world, especially when combined with other circumstances at the time, that gave him influence beyond him as a person. The documentary emphasized how the relatively new invention of the printing press, the first form of mass media, seized on his writings and produced them in large quantities for the masses, which helped his ideas spread like wildfire. That's when the trouble started, when the authority of rulers was challenged. The situation, indeed, got rather complicated because there were political circumstances at stake, beyond the theological stakes. Martin Luther was certainly more concerned with the latter, but others were more concerned with politics, like the Pope, who had so much more political power than in modern times, and even King Henry VIII, who at first defended the Roman Catholic Church, but then cast it aside and established the Church of England to suit his own desires, including his own ideas of power.
I also watched a Rick Steves program on Martin Luther and the Reformation. There was footage of places in Germany related to Martin Luther, including in Eisleben, Erfurt, and Wittenberg. But Rick Steves took great care not just to tell about events in Dr. Luther's life, but to furthermore place them in the context of church history and the sociopolitical situation of the time. Rick Steves indicated that the Roman Catholic Church emerged in a power vacuum after the end of the Roman Empire, and so came to dominate Western Europe for the subsequent 10 centuries, holding sway over the political situation as well as the every day life of people, which, for commoners, he described as being unglamorous. As tends to happen in the world, those people and institutions that gain great power become corrupted, and Dr. Luther rightly called the Church out on its corruption. Rick Steves emphasized at the start and end of the program how Dr. Luther's actions also were about progress, as they affected the world order in which societies moved toward lesser influence of massive institutions like the Roman Catholic Church, and greater individual freedom.
These programs piqued my interest in the major writing for which he is known, and so I read the 95 Theses. There is definitely a strong focus on the practice of indulgences, with an insistence of forgiveness of sins coming by grace through faith alone, and addressing the authority of the Pope. He offered a lot of food for thought to spark discussion in the university community.
That's the spirit of what Dr. Gard, President of Concordia University Chicago, said in his remarks before a panel discussion held there on the eve of the 500th Anniversary of the 95 Theses. He mentioned how fitting it was to have this panel discussion at a university, where discussion of ideas is meant to take place.
The panel discussion, entitled The Reformation at 500: an Interdenominational Conversation, featured two people I've personally met: Dr. Philip Ryken, President of Wheaton College, and Cardinal Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago. It also included Dr. Matthew Harrison, Bishop and President of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, who I've heard of before, but had only seen in person for the first time at this event. The panel was moderated by Manya Brachear Pashman, the religion reporter for The Chicago Tribune. (This page features a biographical profile of each panelist and includes a video recording of the discussion. If you have an hour to spare, I highly recommend watching the discussion because of the sharing of great insights, and even a high-five exchanged between Cardinal Cupich and President Harrison, which had something to do with similar views on predestination.)
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| The panel, from left to right: Dr. Ryken, President Harrison, Cardinal Cupich, and Manya Brachear Pashman |
It was clear from the opening remarks that there would be some disagreement among the three panelists, which Ms. Pashman hoped for as a journalist. One major issue raised was how salvation happens. Cardinal Cupich talked about how works and faith are equally essential, while Dr. Ryken mentioned that there is no "Christ and", because Christ alone is the One Who makes salvation possible. President Harrison also remarked that the righteousness of God is a finished act.
President Harrison also talked about the Lutheran Church's divisions, with confessional Lutherans and state Lutheran churches, especially in Europe, which have taken a decidedly progressive stance on issues. He contrasted these divisions in Lutheranism with how Roman Catholics are not similarly divided, and continue to hold fast to truths of the Magisterium. President Harrison even talked about how he read works by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and how much depth there is to Benedict's writings.
All three speakers appeared to be in agreement that the Protestant Reformation was an unfortunate event in world history that caused division to Christ's Church, seeking to refer to the 500th anniversary as a "commemoration", rather than something like a "celebration". Cardinal Cupich deferred from referring to the Protestant Reformation as a "necessity", which implied its inevitability--and that led to the predestination remark that resulted in a high-five exchanged with President Harrison. I would agree that the Reformation wasn't inevitable, but resulted from a collection of circumstances that came together in a particular way to cause it.
They also spoke about how heartened they were by the very fact that they were all together in one room having this discussion, being open to other's views, even to the point of being willing to face someone saying "you're wrong". And they talked about ways Christians of all denominations could work together, in efforts to address social ills and encroachments by the government on religious freedom.
It was such a great conversation, and I was a little bit startled when the hour was done: I felt like they could have kept going for so much longer. I could have even gone on longer in conversation with a Lutheran pastor named Paul who sat next to me. Before it started, he turned to me and asked why I had come to the discussion, and that turned into quite a conversation about our involvements in church: He shared about his work as pastor, and I shared about my teaching Religious Education.
The next evening, October 31, I joined with Lutherans and fellow Roman Catholics at Holy Name Cathedral for a prayer service. The co-presiders were Cardinal Cupich of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago and Bishop Wayne Miller of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (How about that for two evenings in a row seeing Cardinal Cupich, and the third time in the month of October.)
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| Left: Bishop Miller. Right: Cardinal Cupich. |
The prayers, songs, Scripture readings, and other readings focused on the Church, the Word of God, the tragedy of the division that resulted from the Protestant Reformation, the renewal that also occurred in the church, and what unites Roman Catholics and Lutherans.
There were great remarks offered in the messages: We are called to live a Christianity that drives us outward to care for others. While we are not saved by works, we're known by them. We open our hands to receive the graces of God in abundance and then release them. For the One Who binds us together is more powerful than what tears us apart, and how good it is when we live together, like Psalm 113 says.
It was notable that Lutherans were at a Roman Catholic Cathedral, of all places, to commemorate the anniversary of the 95 Theses, which Bishop Miller mentioned in his remarks. And while I was there, I was kind of reminded of the story of The Sneetches, because at the end of it, no one could tell who was who. And with the exception of certain clergy and religious people present, I couldn't really tell who was Roman Catholic and who was Lutheran. And we were all together to join together in prayer, as Cardinal Cupich and Bishop Miller renewed, with their signatures, the 1989 Joint Covenant between the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
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| Cardinal Cupich and Bishop Miller signing to renew the Covenant |
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