Is the Reformation Still Relevant?

This is a huge question and even my posing it, will be met with a feeling of offense by some of my friends. Pondering (or even obsessing about) the sixteenth century’s theological disputes will seem hard to relate to, with the fast-paced and ever-changing issues we are wrestling with today. Luther and Calvin and Zwingli and the others, battled with the Catholic super-structure for clarification five hundred years ago, in Europe. At first, they sought clarifications and new reform. They were sternly and rudely rebuffed at the time, and thus broke off and began their own re-discovery (and articulation) of biblical meaning for life, and a timeless hope for what comes after life on this planet. They were not monolithic; they shared many differences and distinctions. Akin to one another in spirit perhaps, but clearly a Lutheran is not the same thing as a Scottish Presbyterian or as a French Huguenot or as an English Baptist.

When British colonization gained root in the New World, further theological exploration happened: religion apart from the “divine right of kings” and given to a fast-growing diversity, for instance.

The hot issues of the Reformation that were purely theological—soteriology, bibliology and ecclesiology—remain highly relevant today and (I think) shall continue to be so—I would say they are almost timeless. And the writers of the Protestant Reformation and the Puritans continue to be helpful and very stimulating to us now, though they lived so long ago and often wrote in medieval and colonial-era languages. Their translation of relevance carries easily into the many matters that Protestant thinkers and church members deal with now—though not all. Admittedly the Reformers are not easy to read for most Bible-believing people, and so we enjoy modern thinkers who can distill their main points for us to digest. We are not poor as regards such resources—in fact, we are blessed with many modern scholars who do a great job of informing us or reminding us of what the Reformers said. In addition to the work of “birthing” the Protestant movement in the first place, the Reformers and their followers provided us with a great wealth of guidance for, well, continuing to reform the Christian movement. As well, the historical-theology events of the Reformation and post-Reformation times endure in the power with which they illustrate the hard work of doing theology: the Confessions and Catechisms, the wrangling between continental and British forces and the ongoing process of getting purely “back to the Bible” and then the huge American contributions to the work of the Gospel. Clearly the Reformation and the light it gave are Providential.

However, I question the effectiveness and vitality and the relevance of “Reformed” tribalism as it has developed among us in recent decades. My fear is that the challenges we face now and shall face in the coming years will make silly-looking our Reformed tendency to “polish our theological silver” and rope ourselves off from other evangelicals (being proud of ourselves for our orthodoxy). We are being pushed off the road and on to the shoulder. In terms of the work of discipleship, we have limited our potential impact by giving so much energy to creating Reformed “barbed wire.” As I see it, this is not the thing to which Jesus called us. Truth and correct theology, in the big issues, yes. Those are needed tools for kingdom ministry. But tribal separations fueled by fine details between us, no. The general public could care less about those things that Reformation-honorers sometimes make into their main badges of distinction.