There are some questions in life that most individuals throughout the world and throughout the ages have attempted to answer: “What should I believe, and why should I believe it?” “What is meaningful in life?” “What kind of person should I be?”
These questions, according to Brad S. Gregory, are “Life Questions.” And, for 1,500 years, they were not only asked by most people, but the answers were also considered to be true and universal for all people. Today, however, most people attempt to answer these questions in individual and relativistic terms, with little consideration of the universal significance that the answers to these questions yield for the moral fabric of society as a whole.
For Gregory, associate professor of early modern European history at the University of Notre Dame, the Catholic Church provided the unity and the authority to bind society together to face significant challenges in the world. However, since Martin Luther launched the Reformation in 1517 by undermining the authority of the bishop of Rome, we continue to sort out the consequences of a world where truth is constantly being questioned and redefined.
Gregory’s treatment of Reformation-era Catholicism in The Unintended Reformation is not without criticism of popes that led unholy lives or bishops that wielded their power to accrue personal wealth. Even so, the teachings of the Church were not diminished or changed by the sinful actions of her leaders, and Gregory is equally critical of the likes of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and other reformers who sought to impose their supposed personal revelation on matters of theology over Church teaching.
For centuries, the Church provided a real focal point that grounded and shaped not only religious life, but also the way that Christians engaged in political, economic and social activities. The Unintended Reformation surveys the domino effect of Protestant Christianity after the Reformation, where individuals continue to challenge other individuals on matters of doctrine, with little or no authority to stop heresy and false belief.
This proved true in the decades immediately after the Reformation, as modern philosophy attempted to develop a framework of understanding the world based on reason alone and void of religious authority. This autonomy, however, has continued over the centuries, as evidenced by the Marxist philosophy that shaped both the Nazi Party and Cold War-era Europe, as well as the relativism that dictates our present debates on the value of human life and the definition of marriage and family.
Clocking in at 592 pages, The Unintended Reformation is a thorough analysis of not only the past, but also our present condition. Divided into only six chapters, readers may at times grow weary of the detail and length of each section, but the end result is well worth the effort. Gregory’s study serves as a record that, without the moral authority and unity of the Catholic Church, things fall apart — and as William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming” warns us, the center cannot hold.
Christopher White writes from New York.
THE UNINTENDED REFORMATION
How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society
By Brad S. Gregory
Belknap Press, 2012
592 pages, $39.95
To order: osv.com
(800) 348-2440
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We’ll never know what would have happened if Leo and Clement had stayed in Florence and not become Pope. Intelligent and cultured men no doubt, but catastrophic religious leaders. In fact Luther was only the last of many reformers that had been cropping up in central Europe for a century and Church policy had much to it - indeed, a modern Catholic today would have to admit that on most points Luther was either right or had a good argument. We do know that Luther’s excommunication started the “Pope is anti-Christ” polemics that turned things very sour. It’s very noteworthy that there was no lack of local leadership for “Lutherites” in Germany as his message struck home solidly within the orders that had been in decline for a hundred years. Had a good Pope, more concerned with the Church than Italian politics, been in the Vatican, I see no reason to assume that Luther could not have been reasoned with. But it would have had to be genuine negotiation: the Church was sick, Luther knew it, to pretend nothing was wrong was simply nuts. (Leo called Luther, a true blue genius, “that drunken German monk.” Clement’s bungling of the Henry VIII affair was almost as bad.) Luther claimed to the end of his life he did not want to split the Church. We also know that if Charles V had captured Luther he would have been burned in short order. We also know Luther spent the last 30 years of his life as an “outlaw” in perfect safety. That tells you where the “hearts and minds” were in 16th century Saxony.
We’ll never know. But we can conclude some things. The theological issues that split the Church five hundred years ago are unimportant today. We should look at all Christians as brothers and sisters, even if it includes “progressive” Catholics that would find a better home elsewhere. It is within Christian denominations that the ecumenical spirit makes sense and might gain great reward. (Trying to change Christianity to meet a larger ecumenical goal I think foolish, although all with a religion share common secular opponents and cooperation is a fine idea.) Gregory’s book was reviewed in First Things, and the review author called for Christians to revive the Christian charity that won the European continent for the Cross at the time of Charlemagne. If one is willing to put Christ first and live the faith, matters of theology can be dealt with over generations. It is far more important to reestablish a cross-denominational Christian identity to stand as an alternative the confusion and sadness caused by secular individualism gone crazy.
We are all floundering in the chaos of a subjective world (relativism) in search of objective truth. What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be a woman? What is God’s plan for us in the unity of one flesh?
There is only one Way, Truth and Life. Truth is not a something it is a Somebody. “Turn then, of most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy on us…so that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.”
Our only Hope is to seek shelter from this chaos in His Sacred Heart and place all of our trust in Him.
JMJ Martin Luther was No reformer, He started his own religion, Church. He and all of those who followed his thinking (wanting their own church)were in Rebellion against the Pope not reforming the church. Reform something you stay with it to bring about reforms (which were needed at the time)you don’t start you own church. You don’t take the Bible and change it to your beliefs it’s God’s Holy Library. The Catholic Bible belongs to God’s Body on earth. Respectfully with Love, Joseph J. Pippet
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