Junior School Bulletin Issue 14 / 31 October 2017
Chaplains Chat This week, together with schools and churches around the world, the College celebrates Luther 500 – a week in which we remember and celebrate the Lutheran Reformation in the 16th century. The Lutheran Reformation was a time in church history when the theology, tradition, rites & observances of the Roman Catholic Church were questioned on the basis of scripture. The questioning did not happen all at once, and was not the work of one man, but many. The Reformation became an important moment in world history. It had a profound effect on Christian thinking, politics and culture in the Western World, which continues to the present day. The man who started it all is our namesake, Martin Luther
(1483-1546). He was a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg. On Tuesday 31 October this year it will be exactly 500 years since he wrote his famous 95 Theses on the door of the university church in Wittenberg, Germany. This moment in time is considered the start of the Reformation. His Theses were an invitation to others at the university to start an academic discussion regarding the practice of selling indulgences. Luther believed that the Roman Catholic practice of selling indulgences was not supported by scripture, was causing grief to conscience and was, at best, a money-making scheme for the Pope. Nobody engaged with Luther on this topic but instead his Theses were distributed across Germany causing concern for leaders of the Roman Catholic Church and interest from the general public.
As time moved forward, Martin Luther realised that the practice of selling indulgences was not the only teaching and practice of the Roman Catholic Church that did not align with his reading and study of scriptures. Together with others, Martin Luther wrote about other topics such as the nature of free will, original sin, good works, righteousness, the power and authority of the Pope and the Lutheran understanding of Law & Gospel, to name a few. When others wished to start a rebellion, and take up arms, it was Luther who maintained the importance of academic conversation and using the power of the pen. Luther is also known for his work in translating the Bible into the language of the common people (the Luther Bible), authoring various hymns and his positive teaching on vocation and marriage.
These days the Catholic church and the Lutheran church have reconciled some of the topics of which Luther protested. There has been, for example, common agreement in the area of justification – how someone is made right before God. This was made formal in the Joint Declaration of the Doctrine of Justification signed by both churches in 1999. Lutherans tend to be proud of the work of Martin Luther in reforming the church. He was brave enough to stand up to the teaching and practice of the Roman Catholic Church at a time when such challenges were not welcome and nearly cost his life. It is our hope that students of the College, our fellow Andrians, will be brave enough to stand up to the challenges they face in the world today and the things they consider are not right or helpful. Nathan Glover College Pastor