The Preface to the Reformation Reader that accompanies Old Western Culture, Christendom: The Reformation

What is your only comfort in life and in death?” So begins the Heidelberg Catechism, representing the important pastoral legacy of the Reformation. “That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ” answers the catechism.

Following a century of ecclesiastical upheaval, Medieval Christians throughout Europe eagerly grasped the simple truths emphasized by the Reformers. But the Reformation was not a tidy, easy, or monolithic event. It was also a time of much anguish, debate, and fighting, both on paper and on the battlefield. Anathemas were issued, kings and princes took sides, kingdoms quarreled, men and women and children were killed or imprisoned for their faith. And all of this was done within the bounds of Christendom, by people who bear the name of Christ. The Reformation is a difficult period of history to study.

The purpose of this reader is to give students of Old Western Culture a broad view of the Reformation, starting with its early events and documents. In keeping with the primary-source approach of the Old Western Culture curriculum, students will read source documents. All sides of the Reformation debate are included. Read the actual words from Popes Boniface the VIII and Leo X, the response from Luther, the decrees of the Council of Constance, the Council of Trent, Calvin’s words to King Francis I, Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism, Field and Wilcox’s Admonition to Parliament, and more, bookended on either side by the Renaissance era poetry of Chaucer and Spenser. The theological texts are introduced by Dr. W. Bradford Littlejohn, situating the documents in history and explaining their significance.

Whether you are coming to this Reader as a Protestant or not, I hope you will first and foremost come to this Reader as a historic Christian, rooted in your own tradition. The short introductions to each text are included to give some historical context, but the primary documents are the centerpiece of this Reader. The introductions are from a Protestant perspective, but also from an irenic Reformed view; that is, rooted in the historic Christian faith while being appreciative of the width and breadth of Christian tradition and shared Creeds of the church.

In many ways this is a history of division in the church. But in the midst of a world filled with man’s fallen nature, Christ is purifying his bride. As my pastor often says, “God draws straight with crooked lines.” There is vice in every human heart, and yet God raises up heroes of the faith, with virtue worthy of emulation in our midst. Lewis expressed this sentiment well in a letter to an old Catholic priest, “But what would I think of your Thomas More or of our William Tyndale? Both of them seem to me most saintly men and to have loved God with their whole heart…Nevertheless they disagree and (what racks and astounds me) their disagreement seems to me to spring not from their vices nor from their ignorance but rather from their virtue and the depths of their faith, so that the more they were at their best the more they were at variance, I believe the judgment of God on their dissension is more profoundly hidden than it appears to you to be: for his judgements are indeed an abyss.”

As Christians we should all pray for the unity of the Church, and eagerly look to that day when Christ’s Bride will be perfected (Eph. 5:27). Part of working towards that day is understanding the history of God’s people.

The name of this reader series and of its accompanying curriculum, Old Western Culture, is a term coined by C.S. Lewis, taken from his essay On the Description of Times. A student who has been with us from the first year of this curriculum knows that “Old Western Culture” refers to that body of knowledge that until recent times was the common possession of every educated person. One of the objections that I sometimes encounter from Christians is to question whether this “old Western culture” is truly our possession. They repeat the question of Tertullian, “what hath Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Part of the answer to that question has been to show that the early church and early Christians fully embraced this possession, “plundering the Egyptians” (as Augustine of Hippo said), and used these tools of learning for the kingdom of God, finding truth wherever it may be found. When it comes to church history leading up to and during the Reformation, some Christians become even less certain about what is their possession. The result is often skipping over periods of history. They are too messy, too controversial, too unknown. But I don’t believe we are doing ourselves a favor. The Protestant who skips pre-Reformation history is behaving in a decidedly un-Protestant way, and puts himself at a disadvantage by not understanding an essential part of the Reformation. To Protestants, the Reformation was not the formation of a new church, but a purification of the church; a return to apostolic teaching. You will find among the writings of Reformers like John Calvin constant reference to the church fathers before him, as well as the pre-Christian authors.

The non-Protestant who skips the study of the Reformation is behaving in an un-catholic (or universal Christian) way, and also at a disadvantage, failing to see how much the Reformation affected all of Christendom, including his own tradition. Skipping the Reformation also means skipping his own tradition’s history during this period.

The Reformation, like the rest of Old Western Culture, should be the common possession of all those educated in the Western tradition, and specifically of all “mere Christians” (to borrow Lewis’ term). The divisions which accompany this period should not make us shy away. On the contrary, we should rejoice in all the history of God’s people!

Sola Deo Gloria.

Daniel Foucachon,
Founder, Roman Roads Press