Reformation 500: Triumph and Tragedy
As we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation, I must admit, I am deeply grieved. I resonate with the story Archbishop Justin Welby shared in the Evening Standard as he recounted the tears that streamed from both his and his Catholic counterpart's faces at a recent celebration of the Eucharist wherein they could not share table fellowship. The disunity and shattered state of modern Protestantism is a grave sin, and one that should not be lightly overlooked. Appeals to the original intent or goals of the Reformers do little to mitigate the disaster which is the fractured and broken church today. Yet it is not all bad news. The spirit of the Reformation has positively affected the world in many ways, through music, art, literature, science, good government, ecological protections, etc. Most significantly, the Reformation spirit even managed to bring about many of the reforms within the Roman Catholic Church that were called for in the 16...