Protestant and Catholic Reform Set

Question 1

Apostle Paul (ca. 4-64)

Answer 1

Apostle Paul as a central figure not just of the New Testament, but to the Foundation of European Christianity and origins of the Christian faith in Rome. Paul as scholarly foundation of God’s teaching specifically deciding to follow Jesus via the understanding of His death and resurrection. Paul teaches on the light of God and discernment to follow Jesus, overlapping with concept of Medieval ontology as being aware of one’s living and being alive, and that by living, one can access God and His spirit.
Review – Historically, Christianity’s beginning text of Jesus’ stories is framed by Paul, which leads to the establishment of the religion as a worldwide ideology. His texts have a great legacy and create discourse for comparisons between the two other largest organized religions, Judaism, and Islam. His works are considered the origin texts for the dissemination of the ideas that cause, develop, and influence the Protestant Reformation.

Question 2

Emperor Constantine (r. 306-337)

Answer 2

Known for facilitating the conversion of Rome to Christianity with the Edict of Milan (313). As a multi-faceted, motivated idea, the inclusion of Christian tolerance in the Roman Empire was lucrative as judges/jobs in the church and eventually the Roman Church would become a political hierarchy because of Constantine’s intervention. The Nicaea council contributed to this as they were a council of bishops akin to a parliament body or round-table discussion to resolve issues of God’s existence within the Church and among dissenters. Constantine furthered the idea that Jesus was consubstantial and one with God and the Council of Nicaea declares a creed for memorization of scripture and studying the Bible perhaps to establish religious norms in society and control the moral values of the Empire.

Question 3

The Gregorian Reforms (ca. 1050-1080)

Answer 3

Enacted by Pope Gregory VII, reforming the church specifically with regard to moral integrity, leading to the split of Byzantine Christianity to Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy in the East/West Schism in 1054. Considering the authority of Christian origin in Rome by defining the trinity amid arguments about God’s duality or potential polytheism. At this time, corruption was an issue among church leaders and balancing church/state relations. In 1059 the Cardinal College of Catholicism was created and the church governance of God establishes the vicar/pope as the main church authority as the pope proclaims universal leadership making the church justified in all choices.

Question 4

Scholasticism (1200s)

Answer 4

A result arguably of Western Medieval Christian Worship, including transubstantiation as the claim that God and the holy trinity creates encounters through the blood/bread/body of Christ (Lord’s supper). Extensions of medieval culture as time in antiquity first being circular, but in the medieval age it is vertical and horizontal shaped like the cross and Jesus going every upward to reach God. High Scholasticism then is opposed to mysticism as establishing discernable degrees of reality greater than the sum of feelings in action. Supernational 6th senses of understanding beyond simple rationality. Scholasticism was pushed by individual scholars like Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, Meister Eckhart in the late 13th-14th century as a universalist. Concept of making divine existence physical and explainable by natural phenomena and argues for divine existence using cosmic understanding. Aquinas specifically utilizes the sense of motion as an argument for why things occur, perpetually energy must transfer from being to being or object to object, but there must be the first being that moves, and Aquinas argues this is God.
Review – Emphasis of reason on the systematic theology and lens used to explain the character of God.
Luther criticizes scholasticism because it turns God into simply explained reason without heart or pure spirit. Stripping God down to dogma or human logic severely limits the omnipotent, all-powerful power of God. As a result, humans put God in a box and use their personal scholastic theology to abuse power, because when you lose God’s full grace, you are more susceptible to corruption. Luther exemplifies this criticism of scholastics via his critique of the Catholic selling of indulgences.

Question 5

Simony

Answer 5

Simony relates to early understandings of corruption within the Catholic church, especially with the establishment and growth of the Avignon Papacy in the 14th century. Thoroughly connecting church and state jurisdiction, the Catholic church became a vehicle for political beliefs to spread and facilitate a hierarchical structure as well as emphasize the idea of universal leadership from the Gregorian period. The selling of offices or roles as well as sacred objects in the Church made the concept of heresy in the High Middle Ages arise, as spiritual objects should not be sold or priced by members of the church. This grew to include the acceptance of aporia or the emptiness of the soul without God, but this is often when encounters with God take place. Exorcisms were often performed on perceived heretics to “wipe the slate clean” in the hope of making them pure again.
Review – Luther’s and reform concept of criticizing the overt selling of church offices, ultimately invoking Luther’s work on corruption in the church.

Question 6

John Wycliffe (ca. 1320-1384)

Answer 6

Oxford theology professor who translates the bible into English based on desire to avoid using the pope as a conduit to God and spirituality. Comments on the ecclesiastical hierarchy inherent in the Catholic Church, and the establishment of the pope as the highest authority of the Church under God. Questions what makes the pope more holy than the individual reading the bible and taking part in the sacraments if both are flawed human beings? He establishes the lollards as a group of English Christians who dissented with the actions/corruptions and livelihood of excess within the Catholic Church, especially the authority over property titles and their extensive involvement with civil disciplines/authorities.

Question 7

Council of Constance (1414-1418)

Answer 7

Council of the Catholic Church which ends the Great Schism between the East and Western Orthodoxies. The Catholic church ended the Western Schism by accepting the resignation of papal claimants in Germany under the Holy Roman Emperor, as well as evaluate the teachings of John Wycliffe, place him on trial and eventually exile him along with Jan Hus, his follower and student. This council would be a pivotal moment in what would become the Protestant Reform movement, and it is a precursor to Luther’s theology and criticisms of the Catholic church in the 16th century.
Review – Deliberation on Wycliffe and those who teach theology diverging in interpretations of theology from the church as conservative reformers. Used ultimately as a stepping stone/prologue to Luther’s existence as a reformer of the Church and his passion for criticizing the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Question 8

Jan Huss Letters on Wyclif, Pope John XXIII, and To the Entire Christian World (1404-15)

Answer 8

Discusses criticisms of Wycliffe’s exile, the contradictory doctrines of simony and what authority decides who is a heretic. It seems to Hus that heretics are those who criticize the Catholic church more than those who are non-Christian or spiritually corrupt; they care more about those who challenge authority than spiritually astray individuals.
“a cleric, he says, who has his portion on the earth, shall have no portion in heaven. Also if a cleric possesses anything apart from God, his portion shall not be the Lord, the word of grace; if he has gold or silver, or possessions, or some household goods, with these the lord will disdain to become his portion.” (7)
“that at very many private hearings and later in the public hearings of the Council I protested my willingness to submit to instruction and direction, revocation and punishment, were I given instruction that anything I had written, taught, or said in reply was contrary to the truth.” (209, Entire Christian World in Franciscan prison)

Question 9

Jan Hus (1369-1415)

Answer 9

Preformation Czech professor, preacher, and theologian that debated Catholic clerical taking of communion. Eventually burned at the stake he prophesied the Protestant Reformation based on his teachings and the growth of Hussite followers, of which would be Martin Luther; The goose as Hus burning and becoming a swan in 100 years.

Question 10

Indulgences Controversy (1517-1520)

Answer 10

As the turn of the century occurs, following Jan Hus’ execution in 1415, 100 years later, his prophecy comes to life as Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk with history learning theology in Wittenberg, eventually becomes the chair of theology as an Augustinian vicar who criticizes the selling of indulgences by the Catholic Church to families whose relatives had died and thought to have gone to purgatory. An indulgence was a purchase of good works for relatives to spend less time in purgatory, the spiritual place between heaven and hell. As a result, Luther accuses the church of preying on grieving souls and writes the 95 Theses in 1517 as a list of grievances against the Church, critiquing them for abusing authority.

Question 11

95 Theses (1517)

Answer 11

“30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much less that he has attained full remission…32. They will be condemned eternally, together with the teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation because they have letters of pardon. 33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope’s pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him; 34. For these “grace of pardon” concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.”
Individuals do not have to earn grace by purchasing pardons, and Christians are taught that actual good works are far better than purchasing indulgences, because putting money in the hands of the Church does little to better the soul of the individual, as the pope has as much power over salvation, and they do to say what purgatory is like. Thus, the betterment of the soul in daily works and actions leads to actual salvation, regardless of the money one has or spends.

Question 12

Flugschriften (1500s)

Answer 12

Relating to print culture in the 16th century, material culture as a means of connecting the public via distribution of pamphlets on religion, and even if one cannot read, they are able to partake in the discourse of concepts in daily society. With the Guttenberg printing press in the mid 15th century, the eventual increased distribution of printed materials including the Bible in the 16th century generates a society directly involved with the happenings of the Catholic church and dissent discourse circulating via Martin Luther.
Review – The distribution of mass media and texts made Martin Luther possible and amplified his field of connection between his works and the general public not just because of translation, but also because of large, copied materials. Ultimately mass media cultivated any effort to spread theological ideologies throughout geographical areas and also influenced future evangelism efforts.

Question 13

Luther’s Bible (1521-1522)

Answer 13

As a result of the Imperial Diet of Worms in 1521, in which Luther was put on trial in front of papal authorities and Charles V of the HRE for challenging the Catholic church’s leadership among the pope and local bishops. After this meeting in which he refuses to recant his works, he’s declared a heretic, abducted to Wartburg in the mountains and translates the New Testament into vernacular German. As a result, he eventually translates German liturgy and makes reforms for the people to hear mass on Sundays in German rather than Latin. Wishing to establish a civil understanding of Christianity among Germans, he wishes to include everyone in the discussion of salvation and separate exclusion of education or language from sin.
Review – translation from the original Greek into vernacular German, leads to the church becoming united into the state and the establishment of the national church, sola scriptura, and the distribution/accessibility of scripture for the public. The National Church was greatly reliant on the idea of complete priesthood in which every citizen was a member of the church, but Luther’s translation undermined the magisterial interpretation of the church and/or corruption.

Question 14

The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) Papacy in France not Rome in 14th century

Answer 14

“Christ commands the administration of the sacrament in one kind, yet in such a way that his commanding means leaving it to the decisions of the church; and further that Christ is peaking in this same chapter only of the laity and not of the priests…. But what is to be done with the deacons and subdeacons, who are neither laymen nor priests? According to this distinguished writer they ought to use neither the one kind nor both kinds!” (15)
Criticizing Leipzig professor of the Bible for teaching in Corinthians that “the apostle didn’t write to the whole Corinthian congregation, but to the laity alone and therefore gave no “permission” at all to the clergy but deprived them of the sacrament altogether!” (17)

Question 15

Inner Man/Outer Man Distinction (1520)

Answer 15

Lutheran theology of grace and distinguishing the inner man from the outer man through good works and spiritual righteousness. The inner man becomes saved through the sacraments (taking part in the lord’s supper and baptism). Grace of the individual as an extension of freedom from law through the gospel as the Catholic law degrades and accuses the individual. True grace is not about accusation or judgement, but freedom from sin through God’s love and for Luther, reason is less defined as scholarly rationale distracts from the spiritual gospel. The inner man/outer man as the soul-centered person and the person who explores fruit of action. Rather than good works causing faith, having faith first leads to good works. The righteousness of the inner man occurs first, and the outer man then reflects who the inside is. Involves bondage of will as being ignorant of being ignorant and understanding the will of God as much greater than the will of the individual.
Review – outer man as “doing the right things” and conceptualizing the “good” Christian by doing to church and keeping commands without being spiritually close to God. One can attend church events, but that doesn’t mean one is right with God, as it often cultivates a transactional relationship between the individual and the Church. The inner man changes the outer man, but the outer man cannot earn salvation. Sola Fide

Question 16

On Christian Liberty (1520)

Answer 16

“A man is a vicar only when his superior is absent. If the pope rules, while Christ is absent and does not dwell in his heart, what else is he but a vicar of Christ? What is the church under such a vicar but a mass of people without Christ?” (342)
“It is evident that no external thing has any influence in producing Christian righteousness or freedom, or in producing unrighteousness or servitude. A simple argument will furnish the proof of this statement.” (344-45) “Though our outer nature is wasting away, out inner nature if being renewed every day.”
As forgiven children of God, Christians are no longer compelled to keep God’s law to obtain salvation, they are free to willingly serve God and their neighbors.

Question 17

Single Predestination (1520)

Answer 17

The Lutheran ideal that individuals have free choice to choose heaven and hell; choosing good is God’s grace within us and goodness is not a communal effort. The need for written confessions becomes clear as one can recognize over time how the inner man changes through accountability and reflection.
Review – Luther’s position/conviction that the inner man is properly Christian following the three solo doctrines and places Christ at the center, and every individual who does that through sanctification, partakes in the Eucharist, and is baptized, is saved in Heaven. Double predestination like single, denies free will for the afterlife and accepts divine grace for choosing good when one wants evil. Instead, Calvin’s double predestination belief begins with the description/existence of Hell, that individuals are destined for Hell by allowing us to do what we had chosen to begin with. Calvin’s extension of the total depravity of human nature towards evil and original sin.

Question 18

Sacramental Union (1520)

Answer 18

Eucharist theology of Luther where partaking in bread and wine is united to Christ like his Human and Divine Natures. The three sacraments are Baptism and the Eucharist with Confession as a partial sacrament focuses not on public confession, but reflection and accountability. There is a physical presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit during the partaking of bread and wine. Catholics differ in that they believe in the transubstantiation of the Lord’s supper.
Review – Luther rejects transubstantiation (as transformation in the supper completely changes during partaking), creates consubstantiation meaning together with Christ, and through the Lord’s supper, there is a together transformation in which one partakes in the body and blood of Christ and the literal bread and wine during the supper.

Question 19

Katharina von Bora (1499-1552)

Answer 19

Katharina von Bora was Luther’s wife and did much to solidify his family values and opinions of the marriage of clergy members. He believed that priestly celibacy wasn’t warranted, and they should be compelled to marry, as it invites marriage as an exemplification of a godly estate. Women are thus meant to be subordinate to men because of Eve’s punishment for sin, and by the word of God, women are meant to marry to produce family. A family livelihood presents multi-facets of grace as the role of the wife is different from that of a parent and teaches one different thing about faithfulness.
Review – Bora renounced their monastic views along with Luther, and she managed many aspects of Luther’s livelihood. Relates directly to clerical celibacy and the breaking of those vows in Lutheran theology and critics of the Catholic church.

Question 20

Anabaptists (1525)

Answer 20

The Peasants War in 1525 encouraged the open revolt of protests against the church seeking to abolish feudalism and end master dom; the economic hierarchy of church clergy, landowners, and peasants on the bottom. Peasants then burned, looted, and killed people in protest of high taxes, and HRE Charles V sent the local nobility to handle the issue because of political turmoil internationally. Anabaptists encouraged peasants to rise up against magisterial church authority as they didn’t believe in traditional teachings that you are baptized and then saved. They believe in a “believer’s baptism” in which you begin your faith before you are baptized, and they don’t have a localized government of institutional hierarchies among members. What would become the Anabaptist Kingdom of Muntzer under Thomas, Luther’s student, would believe in the radical apocalypse and eventually be caught by the Catholic church and put in cages at the Munster tower.
Review – Main existence as anti-magisterial protestants, a heavy dissent group from the Catholic church including ways of life like polygamy and second baptism. Modern-day Amish individuals with the desire to create the Bible livelihood as closely as possible, emphasizing anti-industrialism and apocalyptic (millenarian) ideologies.

Question 21

12 Articles of the Swabian Peasants (1525) – by Sebastian Lotzer

Answer 21

“The gospel is not the cause of revolt and disorder, since it is the message of Christ, the promised Messiah; the word of life, teaching only love, peace, patience, and concord.”
“We will not, therefore, pay further an unseemly tithe which is of man’s invention.”
“He has not commanded us not to obey the authorities, but rather that we should be humble, not only towards those in authority.”

Question 22

Two Kingdoms (1525)

Answer 22

Extension of modern Lutheran theology where the two kingdoms of God are the temporal/physical sphere and the spiritual sphere after death. The context in the Peasant’s War of 1525 is a time of conflict between the church class and the poor; and a lack of industrialization during a feudal era in which the church was the civil authority. They collect taxes and Luther criticizes the church for not being the spiritual leaders they should be. Thomas Muntzer, Luther’s student, preaches about apocalypse and economic reform to banish feudalism and encourage the coming of Jesus. The two kingdoms theology, thus is the idea that God has command over every sphere of life, including civil law and spiritual righteousness. Extension of inner man disposition of the soul, in line with society’s accountability and the outer man as the temporal, physical world of law and order.
Review – In Luther’s theology, this is an extension of the inner man/outer man distinction of the church/state and the individual. Calvin’s theology is that the state has the right to dictate, and city of man, and the church has the authority to dictate the city of God.

Question 23

Against the Thieving Murderous Hordes of Peasants (1525) - Luther

Answer 23

“He said that those who resist the authorities will bring a judgment upon themselves. This saying will smite the peasants sooner or later, for God wants people to be loyal and to do their duty.”
“For if a man is in open rebellion, everyone is both his judge and his executioner…for rebellion is not just a simple murder; it is like a great fire, which attacks and devastates a whole land.”
“I will not oppose a ruler who, even though he does not tolerate the gospel, will smite and punish these peasants without first offering to submit the case to judgment…anyone who perishes on the peasants’ side is an eternal firebrand of hell…for truly these souls are in purgatory; indeed, they are in the bonds of hell and the devil…those who do not flee, I pray that God will enlighten and convert.”

Question 24

Marburg Colloquy (1529)

Answer 24

A meeting at Marburg Castle in Germany was made in an attempt to solve the dispute between Luther and Ulrich Zwingli over the presence of Christ in the Eucharist/Lord’s supper in October of 1529. Zwingli was a Swiss theologian during the Swiss Reformation arguing that transubstantiation is not real and that partaking in the lord’s supper is a commitment of the sacrament more than it is an experience of the body of Christ while it occurs, it is a symbol of a past reality of Jesus when he was crucified on Earth than it is a spiritual presence in the moment.

Question 25

Osiander’s Report (1529) – Andreas Osiander

Answer 25

Written by an eyewitness of Luther, delivering the meeting of the Marburg Colloquy of a conservation/debate between Luther and Zwingli. The reason back and forth about the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist.
Luther says, “So, if the word likeness or form can be stretched so far that it includes everything except sin, then that is peculiar… I still would not admit that the body can only be on one spot, for God is almighty. He can maintain my body with no place at all, so that is nowhere.”
Zwingli responds, “Holy Scripture always portrays Christ in a particular spot; in the manger, in the temple, in the desert, on the cross, in the grave, to the right hand of the Father…There is no proof in these passages that he is, or has to be, at a particular spot or fitting location forever and in eternity, instead of being transcendent or in many places, in a natural or supernatural manner.”

Question 26

Zwingli’s Report (1529) - Zwingli

Answer 26

Another report that was taken during the Marburg Colloquy, written by Zwingli himself depicts the mistrust present between him and Luther on reform. They had private debates without a judge between the two men and their supporting parties to possibly reach an agreement before the public debate.
“We confronted Luther with the fact that he had propounded those thrice foolish statements: that Christ suffered in his Divine nature and that the Body of Christ is everywhere; and that he had interpreted the word from the Bible that “the flesh profits nothing” in a way that differed from his present interpretation.”

Question 27

The Marburg Articles (1529) – Luther and Zwingli

Answer 27

They first describe the things they agree on regarding faith before they discuss the Eucharist and their leadership dissent. Then in the 15th article, they describe their dissent on the matter of the Eucharist.
“The practice of the sacrament is given and ordered by God the Almighty like the Word so that our weak conscience might be moved to faith through the Holy Spirit. And although we have not been able to agree at this time, whether the true body of Christ are corporally present in the bread and wine of communion, each party should display towards the other Christian love, as far as each respective conscience allows, and both should persistently ask God the Almighty for guidance so that through his Spirit he might bring us to a proper understanding. Amen.”
Review – Fragmentation of the protestant movement from within and discourse on the disputes between members of the reform tradition forcing the mediation of the state. Exemplification of disunity invites the entrance of the state authority which eventually determines the theological profile of protestant identity within the nation-state.

Question 28

Union with Christ (1559)

Answer 28

The Calvinist ideal of the antithesis of original sin, beginning with the belief that man is one with Adam. The cure of union with Adam is the organic union of man with Christ in which Christ takes on all of the defects of the believer in Christ through the crucifixion.

Question 29

Duplex Gratia (1559)

Answer 29

Known as double grace where we are justified legally and externally as God says we are right with Him before we are because of our union with Christ. Regeneration precedes faith, as we are forgiven before we know God.
Review – Calvin’s doctrine of salvation first as union in Christ, two graces extended as justification and sanctification; justification is the way one is legally right before God and is reconciled from sin through the spirit of Christ. Sanctification is the growth of justification in the walk of God throughout one’s life, often attested to through baptism and partaking in the Lord’s Supper.

Question 30

Ordo Salutis (1559)

Answer 30

Known as the order of salvation ordered logically as
Election (predestination as the elect before time)
Gospel call (one hears the gospel of God and chooses to follow Jesus)
Regeneration (God’s renewing of the soul and life)
Conversion (one’s turning to God based on the Gospel)
Justification (God frees one from the penalty of sin and not guilty)
Adoption (one with the son of God)
Sanctification (God’s separation of one from sin and temptation)
Perseverance (one’s continued belief and remaining in salvation)
Glorification (God’s final removal of all sin from life and the eternal state)
Extra: Grace precedes faith, as God acts first rather than man

Question 31

Doctrines of Grace (1559)

Answer 31

The idea that obtaining salvation and grace are not obtained by one’s free will but because of God’s omnipotent grace.
Total Depravity – strong form of original sin, different from utter depravity as Calvin doesn’t teach that each man is as bad as ever, but good works spring from the desire to glorify the self; humanity possesses free will, but it is bondage to sin until it’s transformed.
Unconditional Election – The grace of God precedes good works and any effort to salvation humans make, we are chosen, rather than making ourselves.
Limited Atonement – Effects of Christ’s crucifixion as sacrificed grace is only reapable by those who are elect.
Irresistible Grace – heart of stone to heart of flesh, as grace precedes faith.
Perseverance of the Saints – Once one is elected, you can never be impeached as God makes us a person in Christ and through election we are grafted into the body of Christ, forever justified. Official name as TULIP, the 5 points of Calvinism.

Question 32

Spiritual Presence in the Lord’s Supper (1559)

Answer 32

Objects to the physical presence of Christ in the Eucharist and values the local presence of Christ in Heaven, distinguishing grace from the person of Christ, the physical hearts of believers desire a physical presence, but this isn’t true.

Question 33

The Consistory (1541)

Answer 33

The ecclesiastical, not civil counsel, rather than including church authorities, is conducted by brothers and elders. Trial by sin resulting in absolution or death penalty for the reprobate who cannot be present in Church.

Question 34

The Company of Pastors (1541)

Answer 34

The ordaining process of pastors in the Reformed Church.
Theological Exam
Character Exam
Preaching Exam
Assessment
Pastoral Change
Small Council Exam
Announcement to Congregation
Installment
Oath
Company of Pastors
Review - Pastors have to be accepted by other pastors, and the consistory is an exemplification of the political system of the Reformed church rather than the Catholic church’s lack of voting for pastors. More democratic view of pastor election and cultivation.

Question 35

The Book of Concord (1580) – Augsburg Confession and Small Catechism

Answer 35

Chief Articles of Faith of coeternal Father, Son, and Spirit, Word signifies spoken words and Spirit signifies movement or action. Justification through faith alone from Paul in Romans that we cannot obtain forgiveness through merits, works, or satisfactions, but by grace through faith alone. Describes the office of the ministry and obtaining faith via the Gospel and sacrament as spirit does not come without word and vice versa. There is the presence of false Christians, as people have freedom of will to attain civil righteousness and choose reason over sinful disobedience to Christ. The cause of sin is such that the consciousness of men cannot be pacified by any works but by faith as sin comes when God withdraws his support and will turns from Godly to evil. Inclusion of 10 Commandments as simple doctrine of moral disciple even though freedom of will occurs; there are still civil truths that dictate morality or righteousness.