Reflections on... The Reformation and Luther's Eccelesiology (FTS_MC500)

Making our way through the centuries of the church in mission, we finished our general discussion of the church after Constantine. We noted that ecclesial authority and civil authority functioned more and more symbiotically until at last, under the new kings after the fall of Rome, the church and state were one and the same. The new kings, after having conquered and destroyed the Roman empire, had no civil structure for authority except for the institution of the church. The bishops became mayors and governors, so to speak, and the state effectively appropriated the church for civil, as well as, religious authority. The sacraments, as a result, become the property of the state, baptism, for example, being the entry into not only the kingdom of God, but also the entry into the kingdom of whichever king was ruling at the time. The church continues to serve as the social service arm of the government. The only true witness to the kingdom of God and the Gospel of Christ was the monastery, which became the primary educator in the empire. This mixture of empire and church created the cocktail in which Martin Luther and the Reformation would explode across Europe in the 16th century.

Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and Bible teacher, reacted against the corruption and control of the Roman Church's hierarchy and doctrine, responding with two major themes: justification by grace through faith and the priesthood of all believers. For Luther, every single doctrine and practice of the church was reinterpreted and refashioned according to this doctrine of justification by grace through faith. Although many things changed in this reconstituting of the church around the doctrine of justification by grace, ecclesiology remained largely the same. Baptism was still the way by which infants were joined to the church and society, and the partnership between church and state remained central to society.

As we reflected on the work of Luther and the Reformation, especially with regards to ecclesiology, I was reminded of a few observations made by Luther in his The German Mass and Order of Divine Service (thanks to Alan Knox for the reference). It seems that there were both "seeker-sensitive" and "incarnational/organic church" models in Luther's mind as well! I will quote at length. First, Luther's "seeker-sensitive" model:

Next, there is the German Mass and Divine Service, of which we are now treating. This ought to be set up for the sake of the simple laymen. Both these kinds of Service then we must have held and publicly celebrated in church for the people in general. They are not yet believers or Christians. But the greater part stand there and gape, simply to see something new: and it is just as if we held Divine Service in an open square or field amongst Turks or heathen. So far it is no question yet of a regularly fixed assembly wherein to train Christians according to the Gospel: but rather of a public allurement to faith and Christianity.

But Luther would have preferred a more organic/incarnational model, had he had the leaders for it.

But the third sort [of Divine Service], which the true type of Evangelical Order should embrace, must not be celebrated so publicly in the square amongst all and sundry. Those, however, who are desirous of being Christians in earnest, and are ready to profess the Gospel with hand and mouth, should register their names and assemble by themselves in some house to pray, to read, to baptize and to receive the sacrament and practise other Christian works. In this Order, those whose conduct was not such as befits Christians could be recognized, reproved, reformed, rejected, or excommunicated, according to the rule of Christ in Matt. xviii. Here, too, a general giving of alms could be imposed on Christians, to be willingly given and divided among the poor, after the example of St. Paul in 2 Cor. ix. Here there would not be need of much fine singing. Here we could have baptism and the sacrament in short and simple fashion: and direct everything towards the Word and prayer and love. Here we should have a good short Catechism about the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer. In one word, if we only had people who longed to be Christians in earnest, Form and Order would soon shape itself. But I cannot and would not order or arrange such a community or congregation at present. I have not the requisite persons for it, nor do I see many who are urgent for it.

From the rest of his writings on the mass, it is clear that Luther was aware of issues of contextualization as well as some of ecumenism. How far he went with these is apparent in the history, but it is interesting, even encouraging, to see them in writing.