Most people agree that the Reformation began when Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses just over five hundred years ago, on October 31, 1517, although the conditions for its success were already in place and the movement itself did not accelerate until a few years later. Once it started, it was impossible to channel the outburst of theological energy in a single direction, and different strands of thought appeared, each claiming the banner of Reformation. For the most part, Luther’s immediate followers clustered around him during his lifetime, but even among them tensions quickly emerged and divisions began to surface. As this book demonstrates, present-day Lutherans represent only one of those strands and cannot be regarded as Luther’s only, or even principal, heirs. The Swiss Reformers, some of whom were contemporaneous with Luther, lived in a different mental environment and produced at least three distinct kinds of Reformation more or less independently of Luther—the Zwinglians of Zurich, the Calvinists of Geneva, and the Anabaptists. The first two eventually merged into one and have now claimed the term Reformed for themselves, whereas the third has survived in different guises. The original Anabaptists had multiple origins and are represented today by Mennonites, Hutterites, Amish, and others more than by Baptists, who are best described as Protestants of a broadly Calvinistic type who have adopted elements of Anabaptism without becoming Anabaptists in the true sense. Then, of course, there are the Anglicans, members of the Churches of England and Ireland who also adopted an essentially Calvinistic position, though with certain characteristics setting them apart from the rest.

All of these different strands of Reformation thought appear in this volume and are treated with equal respect. Martin Luther inevitably has pride of place since the Reformation as we know it would not have happened without him. John Calvin also dominates the scene, as he did in the second generation of Protestantism, particularly outside of Germany. The controversies that developed among the later Reformers largely concerned the interpretation of these giants’ legacies. An introductory volume like this one must therefore concentrate on them and their followers while allowing for influences from other quarters that affected the course of debate. Readers should bear in mind that this book is about the theology of the Protestant reformers, not about the Reformation as such. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, theology was the preserve of academics, all of whom were male. Other voices were occasionally heard, but they were exceptional, and only rarely did women or laymen have much impact on what the Reformers taught. Secular rulers, including women, often determined what kind of Reformation their countries would adopt, but their role was usually limited to accepting or rejecting particular doctrinal positions formulated by others. As time went on, even theologians aligned themselves more and more with one established tendency or another, a pattern clearly seen in the confessional movement of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It is in that form that the Reformers’ theology has reached us today, and understanding that process must be a major aim of a book like this. Detailed studies of particular people and movements are readily available elsewhere, but pursuing these matters responsibly demands a good foundation in the basic lines of theological thinking that shaped the Reformation, which is the present study’s primary concern.

Until quite recently, those who wrote about the Reformation almost always did so from a confessional perspective that tended to glorify one tradition at the expense of the others. The ecumenical spirit of our time has made it possible to overcome this tendency to a large extent, and it has also made it possible to be critical of our traditional “heroes of the faith” when criticism is deserved. That does not mean we repudiate them; rather, we can now see them as men and women who had to struggle for their beliefs and were not always entirely successful in the attempt. At the same time, the Protestant Reformation was a fundamental factor in shaping the modern world, which owes much to the truths rediscovered by the Reformers of the sixteenth century. Their achievement must not be forgotten or downplayed.

Today even Roman Catholics, who until recently were almost uniformly hostile to the Reformation, are often inclined to recognize people like Luther and Calvin as doctors of the church universal rather than as founders of sectarian and essentially heretical theological traditions. Virtually everyone now accepts that the late medieval church had become a vast institution that no longer reflected the principles of primitive Christianity but apparently lacked the means or the will to reform itself. The Reformers’ inability to agree about how best to renew the church may be regarded as unfortunate, perhaps even as tragic. Rome itself was eventually obliged to adopt its own Reformation, but it was too late to repair the breach, which in some ways was made worse when Rome consciously adopted anti-Protestant principles. The Eastern Orthodox churches were courted by both sides, but they never embraced a movement that they did not understand and regarded as fundamentally alien to their own theological outlook. However we look at this history, we must live with the consequences. The Western church that was a unity in 1500 is now divided into numerous denominations, each of which has its own traditions, outlook, and (if we are honest about it) prejudices that characterize it and tend to perpetuate division whether anyone likes it or not. To borrow a literary analogy, Humpty Dumpty has fallen apart and will not be put back together again, and there can be no return to an imaginary golden age before that fall. In this book we seek to explain what happened and why, not to justify or celebrate one point of view but to increase our understanding and in the process to promote a spirit of charity toward one another that should be the hallmark of every Christian, regardless of what side of the divide we now find ourselves on.

This excerpt is from Gerald Bray’s Doing Theology with the Reformers (pp. VII-X). You can purchase it here.