Church Reformed - Always Reforming

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In the ever changing topography of social and geo-political realities oth in India and abroad, it becomes pertinent to ascertain the nature and the presence of the Church in the world. It is even more appropriate at this juncture as there is a renewed affirmation of the role of the Reformation that took place 500 years ago in the ongoing life and witness of the Church. In order to commemorate this celebration CISRS organized a national ecumenical consultation with the intention that the Church would transcend a narrow ecclesiastical framework to be relevant to the diverse geopolitical situations that society encounters, most crucially from the vantage point of the vulnerable people and the environment. The articles in this book are the papers presented at the consultation.

Rev. Dr. Vincent Rajkumar is an ordained minister of the Church of South India, Karnataka Central Diocese. Currently serves as the Director of Christian Institute for the Study of Religion and Society (CISRS), Bangalore, India.

The Protestant Reformation was one of the most far-reaching events of the lase millennium. It ended the age-old hegemony of the Catholic Church in Western Europe and altered the political and economic fortunes wherever it reached. This stormy, often brutal, conflict separated the Christians of Western Europe into Protestants and Catholics. So farreaching were the results of the separation that the Reformation has been called a turning point in history. Once the people's religious unity was destroyed, they began to think in terms of their own regional interests. From the diversity of those interests arose new political, social, and economic problems and beliefs.

The story of it really begins over a hundred years earlier, when the Papacy began to reap the effects of centuries of compromise. The Great Schism saw two, even three individuals claiming to be the Pope, and the Council of Constance in the early fifteenth century saw a power struggle between Bishops and the Pope. Combined, they hindered Papal government and harmed the reputation of the Church in the eyes of the laity. The Popes and Cardinals often lived more like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed political as well as spiritual power. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, even waged war. Simony - the selling of Church offices and nepotism were rampant. The corruption of the Church was well known, and several attempts had been made to reform the Church but none of these efforts successfully challenged Church practice until Martin Luther's actions in the early 1500s.

Martin Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 by posting, his "95 Theses" on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany - these theses were a list of statements that expressed Luther's concerns about certain Church practices - largely the sale of indulgences, but they were based on Luther's deeper concerns with Church doctrine. Before we go on, notice that the word Protestant contains the word "protest" and that reformation contains the word "reform"-this was an effort, at least at first, to protest some practices of the Catholic Church and to reform the Church. In the process of reforming the church Luther disagreed not only with the selling of indulgences, but also with some of the fundamental tenets of the official Church doctrine of the 16th century. He raised four basic questions which is the heart of the Protestant Reformation: How is a person saved? Where religious authority lie? What is the church? What is the essence of Christian living? In answering these questions, he developed what would be known as the "Five Solas" - Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gratia, Solus Christus and Sola Deo Gloria. These five essential points of biblical doctrine clearly separate Protestantism from Roman Catholicism.