Religion : Another October 31 - Brief Article

* The maxim that ideas have consequences is illustrated with a vengeance by the Protestant Reformation, conventionally dated from Martin Luther's posting of his "95 Theses" on the Wittenberg church door on October 31, 1517. On the same date 482 years later, the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation signed a "Joint Declaration on Justification," the doctrine that was at the heart of the division of Christendom. The Reformation and the subsequent wars of religion in the 16th and 17th centuries almost destroyed the civil fabric of Europe, opening the way to the Enlightenment and its rigorous exclusion of religion from the public square, with the attendant divorce of faith and reason. In short, we are all living in a world that was largely shaped, albeit in maddeningly confused ways, by the protest of an Augustinian monk 482 years ago. The Joint Declaration is signed on the eve of a new millennium that Pope John Paul II has said must be the millennium of Christian unity, as the millennium past has been the millennium of Christian division. In the declaration, Catholics and Lutherans affirm that justification, which is simply another word for salvation, is entirely the gift of God bestowed by grace alone (sola gratia), received by faith alone (sola fide), because Christ alone (solus Christus) is the one mediator. The sticking point for centuries was over "faith alone." After the more than 30 years of theological dialogue that produced the declaration, Catholics agree that "faith alone" is not a problem, if it is a living faith that transforms the life of the believer; and Lutherans agree that a transformed life is indeed God's purpose for those who are saved by faith alone.

Secularists may snicker at what they view as theological quibbling, but they and all of us are embroiled in the questions of human nature, what has gone wrong with it, and whether there is reason to hope for the future-which is to say, we are all embroiled in the questions of salvation. The Joint Declaration does not establish complete unity between Catholics and Lutherans, never mind all the other Protestants, and it certainly does not restore the Christendom that was, which is just as well. But it is reasonable to hope that, in clarifying an idea that in its misunderstanding had catastrophic consequences, the signing on October 31, 1999, has contributed to the mending of a gravely wounded world.

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