This is a review of the major churches which arose during the Protestant Reformation.  We'll look at the historical events and interview some of the key persons involved.  Then we will go through key places for the story of the Christian faith in Catholicism and Protestantism.  You'll need Map 2, the Christian faith in Europe, at the end of your syllabus.  If you don't have that map, please stop now, and come back when you have it, so that you can follow along as we travel from place to place in our review. 

THE LUTHERAN BRANCH OF PROTESTANTISM

    The Protestant Reformation began when Martin Luther, a Catholic monk who was a Bible scholar at the German University of Wittenberg, nailed to the door of the college chapel a list of topics for debate.  The date was October 31, 1517.  The next day, November 1, was All Saints' Day, so October 31 was All Hallows' E'en (the eve of the day honoring all hallowed beings).  November 1 was the time for an annual display of relics which guaranteed to pilgrims release from purgatory.  Michael J. Fox and I have modified my Honda for time-travel.  You can travel back in time with me as I interview that German priest.  Let's begin our interview.

Dr. Kellogg:  Herr Luther, we'd like to talk with you about your early years first.  May we call you Martin?

Martin Luther:  Nein, ich bin Professor!

Kellogg:  Entschuldigen Sie, bitte, please excuse me, Herr Professor.  I apologize for attempting to be too informal.  From now on I will pay you the respect appropriate for a Professor in a German university.  I understand that you grew up in a devout Christian home.  Your father worked in the mines, and he taught you about St. Anne, the matron saint of miners.  You studied pre-law and were considered a good student.  You enjoyed the activities of the Pre-Law Society and were well on your way toward becoming a successful attorney.  But then you suddenly changed your plans and became an Augustinian monk.  Why?

Luther:  Donner und Blitzen!  I was in a thunderstorm, and a huge bolt of lightning knocked me to the ground.  I was so scared that I yelled, "St Anne, help me!  I'll become a monk!"  Nobody would expect me to keep a vow made in terror, but I did.

Kellogg:  It's impressive that you would stay true to a promise made in such circumstances.  By the way, Herr Doktor, we studied about St. Anne in this course and observed that a church in Bristol is named for her, since she is the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  You became a monk, a priest, and eventually a Professor of Bible at Wittenberg, a German university in a small town. 

    I'll bet your Bible classes were similar to those at Emory & Henry College, which is also a small school.  Our college is named for Methodist bishop John Emory, who rode his horse all up and down the Atlantic seaboard, and Virginia statesman Patrick Henry, whose sister lived near Emory in the town of Saltville.  From the Post Office, we can see the highest peak in Virginia, Mount Rogers, and nearby White Top, like the mountainous name of your town, Wittenberg.  Our student newspaper is The Whitetopper, and our mascot is the Wasp.  I'll bet your campus newspaper is Der Wittenberger, and your mascot is the Wittenburglar.

Luther:  Ach!  The printing press had just been invented.  But I used to publish a lot of books and pamphlets on biblical issues.  I was really determined to study the Bible thoroughly.  I wanted to find in it the answers to some of the questions about my own personal faith -- questions that had really bothered me for many years.  I came to reject the idea that anybody would live a good enough life to deserve salvation.  Instead, God gives us salvation as an absolutely free gift.  So I didn't need to worry about forgiveness of sins, since God had already forgiven me through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  Like Paul, I called this gift grace.  

Kellogg:  You would be happy to know that in the twenty-first century, Catholics and Lutherans have declared their agreement with your basic understanding of grace as a central belief of all Christians, and the World Methodist Council plans to agree with the Catholic-Lutheran statement during 2006.  It must have been your legal training that led you to carry the concept of grace through to its logical consequence.  I understand that you rejected the popular medieval concept of purgatory, a realm where we go after we die if we have sins not yet forgiven, in order to pay for the consequences.

Luther:  Ja, you are correct.  I also argued against the doctrine of indulgences, certificates that would reduce the amount of time a person might have to spend in purgatory.  Those indulgences were based on good deeds, such as viewing relics or giving to the building fund of a church.

Kellogg:  Now you'd done quit preachin' and started meddlin'!  In fact, we know that on Halloween 1517, you posted on the door of your church in Wittenberg a number of theses, opening up for debate a lot of these issues.  How many theses were on your list?

Luther:  95 theses.

Kellogg:  That's easy for us to remember, because that's the number of a major Interstate highway that goes north from Richmond to D.C. and south to Florida.  Did people debate those 95 theses with you?

Luther:  Yes, especially church officials, who defended their authority to issue indulgences.  The more I argued my case, the more convinced I became that basic Christian beliefs should be grounded only in the Bible, not in the church's traditional interpretations.  And I defended the right of anybody to read the Bible and apply its teachings to his or her own religious questions.  That made me a radical!

Kellogg:  I've heard that no matter how far out your ideas were, one person supported your right to express them in your classes and in the pulpit.  Who was that person?

Luther:  His name was Frederic.

Kellogg:  Great -- that's my name too!  My friends call me Fred; should I call him Fritz?

Luther:  Himmel, nein!  He was a wealthy, powerful aristocrat, a member of the nobility.  Don't confuse him with Frederic the Great, who would be King of Prussia a couple of centuries later.  My patron, the leading supporter of the church and university of Wittenberg, was known as Frederic the Wise (Friedrich der Weise).  He held the title of Elector of Saxony.

    Frederic even stood by me when I was charged with heresy at Worms.  And when I was convicted, he had me taken into protective custody in one of his castles, the Wartburg.  I grew a beard during my time in that fortress, to serve as a disguise.  I hoped that people would mistake me for Dr. Reiff or Dr. Love.  Meanwhile, I was hard at work translating the New Testament from Greek into German, the ordinary language of the people.  It got so frustrating at times -- especially since I didn't have a Greek dictionary or grammar -- that I felt that Old Satan himself was getting in my way, keeping me from being able to translate well.  One night I got so angry that I threw my inkpot at the Devil -- the bottle of ink with which I had been translating the Bible and composing my favorite hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."  That inkpot left a big splotch on the wall.  The castle is in the area that one day would be called Germany.  In your time, so many tourists want to touch the wall that they've worn away huge sections of it.  Maybe like me they've gotten mad sometimes when they were studying, and they too have wanted to throw something at you, Fred!

Kellogg:  What did you do when it was safe to leave the Wartburg and come back home to Wittenberg?

Luther:  I set about organizing my followers, who were called Protestants or "protestors," into a church, with rituals, sacraments, and pastors.  I published books of theology to assist in formulating the basic Protestant beliefs.  And I got married.

Kellogg:  What was your wife's name?

Luther:  She was a former nun, named Katherine von Bora.  I called her Katie, but if you try that, I'll whop you upside the head!  We lived a long and happy life together, with many children, students, and others who needed a place to stay, in an old monastery that Frederic the Wise gave us.  I continued to lead the Protestant churches throughout Germany.

Kellogg:  You probably never guessed that someday your followers would cross the Atlantic Ocean and settle in the barbarian territory known as America.  We have lots of Lutherans living in Virginia, and all the other Protestant churches really trace their origins back to your reformation.  Thank you very much for this interview. Auf Wiedersehen, Dr. Luther!

Luther:  Auf Wiedersehen, Fred!

THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION

    The Catholic Church didn't simply ignore the Protestant Reformation.  It found ways to bring about changes and improvements from within.  We often call these steps the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation of the 16th century.  The Catholic Church eliminated some of the problems which had concerned Luther and Calvin so much.  It also solidified its position on a number of theological issues, clarifying its differences from the Protestant churches. 

• For example, Protestants emphasized the Bible as the one key Christian authority; Catholics proclaimed the church's tradition to have equal authority. 
• Protestants accepted only two sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper), but Catholics accepted and defined seven sacraments. 
• The different Protestant churches had a variety of creeds; the Catholic Church accepted the Nicene Creed as the official statement of Christian beliefs. 
• New reformed religious Orders, such as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), were established by the Catholic Church. 

    The Second Vatican Council, held in Rome from 1962 to 1965, brought Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants closer together.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the 21st century!  Will the new Pope, Benedict XVI, convene a council?  If so, will it make any major changes in the Catholic Church?  

LUTHERAN CHURCHES

    You know, Martin Luther didn't plan to form a new church.  He simply wanted to bring reforms into Western Christianity.  But as he developed his beliefs further, the split became inevitable.  His followers became known as Lutherans, and they brought Lutheranism to America.  For many years, American Lutherans identified especially with other Lutherans from the country of their ancestors:  Germany, Norway, Sweden, or other European countries.  Little by little, however, they overcame ethnic differences and recognized their common heritage in the Reformation. 

    The theme of justification by grace through faith unites all Lutherans in America and throughout the world.  Luther discovered that principle in the book of Romans, Paul's most precise theological letter, written to the most authoritative church in Luther's time.  In recent years, the Roman Catholic Church has affirmed the centrality of that principle!

THE CALVINIST BRANCH OF PROTESTANTISM

    A second branch of the Protestant movement, growing out of Luther's work yet going in its own directions, is the Reformed tradition.  The most important Reformed leader grew up in France:  John Calvin.  Our time machine is able to locate Calvin easily; he was born only a few years after Martin Luther, and he also lived in the 1500's.  He entered the University of Paris when he was only fourteen years old.

Dr. Kellogg:  Monsieur Calvin, we understand that you had three favorite subjects. 

John Calvin:  Yes, Frédéric, I loved Latin, Logic, and Law.  After I became a Protestant, I moved to Switzerland.  There I published my magnum opus, The Institutes of the Christian Religion.  It represented the very best combination of my own university studies in Latin, logic, and law as applied to the Christian faith. 

Kellogg:  Can you help us understand some of your main ideas in the Institutes?

Calvin:   Mais oui!  Of course!  We human beings know God only partly through nature.  We find God fully in the Bible.  As you can see, I agree with Martin Luther's principle of sola scriptura.  In the Bible, we discover that God created us originally good and able to fulfill our main duty in life:  obedience to God's will.  But something happened, which made us lose that original goodness.

Kellogg:  What happened?

Calvin:  We call it the Fall of Adam.  The story of how we human beings lost our original goodness is told in Genesis 3.  Since the word Adam in Hebrew means "human being," the story of the Fall is the story of all of us!  Because of the Fall, we are absolutely incapable of goodness.  We can't do anything to merit salvation.  Rather, we all deserve eternal damnation.  Yet for some unknown reason, God chose to save some people and grant them eternal life, even though they don't deserve it.  Christ paid the penalty for their sins by dying on the Cross.  

Kellogg:  What did you call those chosen people?

Calvin:  Well, mon ami, not all Christians are included in that group.  Nor are all Jews, even though they are often called "the chosen," as in the title of a novel by Chaim Potok.  But I wanted to show that God has an absolutely free choice, just as we do when we vote in elections each year.  So I called them the Elect.

Kellogg:  Do you mean that God "elects" or chooses to save certain people because they have lived good lives?

Calvin:  Sacre bleu, non!  I wouldn't be a true Protestant if I taught that living a good life will be rewarded with eternal salvation.  I agree fully with Martin Luther that none of us deserves salvation, in spite of how good we are.  God makes his choice even before we are born.  That's why I call God's election of certain persons for eternal happiness predestination. We don't know why God chooses, from his own free will, to save certain people, even though because of our sin no one merits that gift. 

    I didn't originate the concept of predestination; you'll find it in Paul's letter to the Romans, chapters 8 and 9.  In Romans 8:28-29, Paul said, "We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God -- those who are called in accordance with God's purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brothers and sisters." 

    I also established my ideas on the more thoroughly developed understanding of predestination by St. Augustine.  He was the Bishop of Hippo, in North Africa, and he lived about a thousand years before me.  Augustine had a profound influence on Christian theology, including the concept of the elect who are recipients of God's grace.

Kellogg:  So that's your understanding of the doctrine of predestination.  But it doesn't seem fair to some of us.  It means that the people whom God doesn't choose are eternally lost.  We recognize the sovereignty of God's will, even though there is much that we don't understand.  But we still have a burning question (no pun intended):  how can we know whether we are among the elect or among the damned?

Calvin:  You can't know!

Kellogg:  Are you saying, John Calvin, that you worked so hard for God all your life, without even knowing if God had chosen you to be among the elect?

Calvin:  Oui, c'est vrai!  Yes, that's exactly right!  

Kellogg:  Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!  I've got to admire you for that!  Now we can see how the Calvinist work ethic came about.  You and your followers accept Christ's death on the Cross and live as if you are among the saved, even though you don't know for sure.  So your good life is -- you hope -- a result of salvation, evidence of your closeness to God.  That's why those Calvinists who came to New England in the 1600's worked so hard:  not to earn salvation, but to show that they were among the ones who were predestined for salvation.

Calvin:   Fred, I've been trying to learn everything I can about the history of the Christian faith in America.  What were those Calvinists called?

Kellogg:  The ones who came over on the Mayflower in 1620 were known as Pilgrims.  But the more general term was Puritans, because they wanted to purify the church in the way that you, M. Calvin, purified the church during your lifetime.  Later American Calvinists would call themselves Presbyterians.

Calvin:  I'm glad that some of my later followers applied my teachings in America.  In the Institutes, I named three institutions as divinely established to help people live a Christian life:  the church, the sacraments, and civil government.  Now you may think that the church and the sacraments are natural, but how about government as an institution of God?  For that you'll have to go to back to Paul's letter to the Romans, which has meant so much to Martin Luther and me.  You'll find the idea of government as a divine institution in chapter 13.  

    Like Plato, I felt that my principles were not just theoretical.  I wanted to create a model for these institutions.  My opportunity came when I was given leadership of the Swiss city-state of Geneva.

Kellogg:  I know that city!  Today it's the European headquarters for diplomatic activities to bring about world peace.

Calvin:   Macte virtute!  Increase in excellence!  I really organized Geneva thoroughly.  In fact, my discipline was so strict that it aroused a lot of opposition, and I had to leave the city for a few years.  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because I was much more successful in developing Strasbourg (you may know it as Strassburg), on the French-German border, into a Protestant community.  There I met Idelette de Bure, who became my wife.  We were very happily married.  When I returned to Geneva, I had learned a lot about civil and ecclesiastical leadership.  Now I established in Geneva a model government for Christian citizens, under the guidance of God.

Kellogg:  Would we call such a government a theocracy -- government by God, just as democracy is government by the will of the people?

Calvin:  Yes, that would be a good term.  I fully reorganized Geneva to live by a code that was solidly anchored in the Bible, as I understood biblical standards.  Someone even coined a more precise term for the particular form of theocracy that I developed:  bibliocracy, or government by the Bible!  During the next couple of decades, I achieved my goal of making Geneva a shining example.  It was almost like the City of God here on earth.

Kellogg:  Say, wasn't the description of the City of God given by a person whose writings were a strong influence on you?  Who was that?

Calvin:  Yes, St. Augustine, that same person who helped me to understand predestination.  He called one of his main writings the City of God, and it certainly inspired me.  His Confessions also helped me understand basic standards of right and wrong.  And it was Augustine who helped to clarify for me the understanding of predestination that he found in Paul's letter to the Romans.  So even though he lived a thousand years before me, he helped me in many ways!

Kellogg:  John, I've learned that you brought industry to Geneva, you established laws for public health and safety, you founded the University of Geneva, and meanwhile you continued to preach, teach, and visit the sick.  I don't know how you had so much energy!  When I went to Geneva a few years ago, I stood in the cemetery where you were buried.  You were so humble that you didn't allow your followers to mark your grave.  All your concern was for God's glory, not your own.  You remind me of an Old Testament hero who was "buried by God," according to the Bible.  Nobody knows the place where he was buried, either.  Do you know the person I'm describing?

Calvin:  You must be talking about Moses, because he died while standing somewhere on Mount Nebo or Mount Pisgah, looking out over the Promised Land.

Kellogg:  Yes, a few years ago I stood on Mount Nebo near a beautiful Catholic church commemorating Moses, and I looked out over the view that Moses had.  Moses had led the people out of Egypt, through the Sinai wilderness, to the Jordan River.  He died on Mount Nebo, viewing the land promised by God to the Hebrews.  By the time you died, M. Calvin, the Reformed and Presbyterian churches were your "Promised Land."  You knew that new leaders would continue in the directions that you had set.  Like Moses, you could rest in peace.  We'll let you do the same now.  Merci beaucoup for this interview!

Calvin:  Au revoir, Frédéric! 

    John Calvin's vision was not limited to Switzerland.  Thus the Reformed tradition moved from continental Europe to the Scottish Highlands.  Later Scots immigrants brought the Reformed tradition to America, and especially to the Appalachian Highlands.  The American version of the Calvinist heritage came to be called Presbyterian.  The basic meaning of the church's name is the Greek term presbyter, meaning "elder," because the denomination emphasizes the role of elders in church government. 

    When we celebrated Emory & Henry's Sesquicentennial in 1986, we recognized Methodist leaders such as Tobias Smyth, who were important in the founding of the college.  I'm sure we'll do that again in the Bicentennial in 2036.  But a number of leading Presbyterians from this area, especially from Glade Spring Presbyterian Church, were also active in raising the funds and the community support which were essential for the college.  One of the most important of those Presbyterians was Col. William Byars, who was so significant for our history that Byars Hall is named after him.

THE ENGLISH BRANCH OF PROTESTANTISM

    The English Reformation, the third major branch of the Protestant Reformation, developed in quite different circumstances from those of the Lutheran and Calvinist Reforms.  The King of England couldn't get permission from the Pope to divorce his wife and marry another woman.  So he declared that the King of England, not the Pope, was head of the Anglican Church.  This king was of course Henry VIII.  Let's ask him for an interview.

Dr. Kellogg:  Your Majesty, we have interviewed two great leaders in the Protestant Reformation:  Martin Luther and John Calvin.  You lived about the same time as they did.  You were intellectually brilliant, and you studied theology as well as political science.  Were you influenced by Luther's and Calvin's teachings?

King Henry VIII:  No, of course not.  I am the King!

Kellogg:  We don't wish to commit lèse majesté, Your Majesty, but that answer is wrong.

Henry VIII:  All right, I admit that some aspects of the Protestant Reformation came across the English Channel.  But my real concern was for the English people.  And in my heart of hearts, I remained a Catholic all my life.  My only real disagreement with the Catholic Church was that I felt that the King, not the Pope, should be head of the church in England.  Like other English people, I had a strong loyalty to my nation.  To a large degree, church and state had a good working relationship, and most people did not see Rome as a threat to English patriotism.

Kellogg:  There must have been a drastic situation that led to the break between Canterbury and Rome.  We've heard that a woman was involved in the crisis.  Who was she?

Henry VIII:  You must be talking about Anne Boleyn.

Kellogg:  No, Anne Boleyn didn't enter the picture until your problems with your first wife could be resolved.  I know you probably can't remember all of the women in your life, but think of the name of your first wife.  Remember:  she had the same name as several other outstanding women, including a Russian empress; a saint from Siena, Italy; and the wife of Martin Luther, who spelled her name slightly differently.

Henry VIII:  Oh yes, that was Catherine of Aragon.  I've tried to forget her.  Cathy had many powerful European connections.  She was the daughter of Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella, the aunt of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and the niece of Pope Clement VII!  She was also the widow of my older brother Arthur.  I had to receive a papal dispensation to marry her, since church law prohibits marriage to the spouse of a sibling.

Kellogg:  But your marriage ran into problems that no marriage counselor could resolve.  Catherine of Aragon did not give you a gift which you really, really wanted.  What was that gift?

Henry VIII:  I wanted her to produce a boy baby, who would be the heir to the throne.  She couldn't, and I blamed the failure entirely on her.  Catherine produced six children for me, but only one lived beyond infancy, a girl named Mary.  Since England had never been ruled by a queen, I was afraid that civil war might tear England apart if I died leaving no male heir.

Kellogg:  Because the church did not permit divorce, you requested from the Pope an annulment of your marriage.  This would have meant that a valid marriage never existed, and it would have freed you to marry a woman who could give you a son.  But for various reasons, the Pope refused.  According to the National Inspirer, you fell in love with another woman while all this was going on, and you secretly married her.  Who was she?

Henry VIII:  Now I can talk about Anne Boleyn:  she was a member of my court, and she simply lost her head over me!  I used my royal power to pressure Parliament into naming me Supreme Head of the Church of England, and I appointed one of my supporters, Thomas Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury.  He declared my marriage to Catherine of Aragon null and void.  Anne then gave me not a son but a daughter, Elizabeth.  When the Pope threatened to excommunicate me from the church, I took the final steps to separate the Anglican Church from any obligation to Rome.

Kellogg:  I can't admire you for your views on capital punishment.  You executed Sir Thomas More, a distinguished scholar who had been your friend for many years, simply because he wouldn't accept your supremacy over the church.  A beautiful movie, "A Man for All Seasons," tells how he remained true to his Catholic principles.  When you got tired of Anne Boleyn, who also failed to produce a male heir for you, you had her beheaded.  Finally your third wife, Jane Seymour, gave you a successor named Edward VI.  How old was he when he became King of England?

Henry VIII:  He was only nine years old -- old enough to be a Cub Scout, but not yet a Boy Scout.

Kellogg:  Let's discuss what the Church of England was like under your leadership.  Even though you personally leaned toward Catholicism, you took a middle path, between the ardent Reformers who wanted to create a Lutheran or Calvinist church and the "high-church" Anglicans who wanted to remain as close as possible to Catholic traditions.  You acknowledged the need for an English translation of the Bible, and Archbishop Cranmer saw to it that work began on one.  In 1611, a translation authorized by a later English king would become one of the greatest Bibles ever produced:  the King James Version.  Some of the liturgy was translated into English, but it would be a couple of years after your death before Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer would become the standard for worship.

Henry VIII:  Yes, that's a great book of worship; I'm glad that it's still the standard for Anglicans and Episcopalians.  Did you know that I established for Anglicans two key historical confessions of faith?  One was of course the Apostles' Creed, and the other was the Nicene Creed. 

Kellogg:  Your Majesty, I've heard those creeds recited in Episcopal churches, and of course the Episcopalians received most of their liturgy from you Anglicans.  I can see how they represent very thoughtful approaches to the doctrine of the Trinity, which is so hard for many of us to understand!

Henry VIII:   I agree; for most Christians the sacraments are much more important than any creeds.  I recognized the special role which the two sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist have in the life of the church, since they were instituted by Jesus Christ.  My view of the Eucharist stressed the Real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, almost identical to the Catholic understanding of transubstantiation, although I didn't use that particular term. 

Kellogg:  Some of the Episcopalians in America in the 21st century agree with you, while others believe that Christ is present "in, with, and under" the elements of bread and wine, but their essence is not changed.  The true change comes about in the lives of the believers as they partake of the Eucharist. 

Henry VIII:   In addition to those two sacraments, I saw valuable significance in five "commonly called sacraments" which are considered channels of God's grace by Catholics.  You remember those:  confirmation, penance, ordination, marriage, and anointing the sick.

Kellogg:  In the 21st century, many Episcopalians see sacramental significance in these five.

Henry VIII:    I'm not surprised -- the Anglican tradition is a bridge church between Protestants and Catholics, with elements that we draw from both traditions.

Kellogg:  Your Majesty, we appreciate the opportunity to talk frankly with you about the origins of the Church of England.  We've been so impressed by your sincerity in answering our questions that we're going to propose to our Board of Trustees that our college be renamed after you:  Emory & Henry VIII College.  Goodbye!

Henry VIII:  Rule, Britannia!

    After Henry VIII, England swung back and forth between Catholicism and Anglicanism as the established official church.  Finally one ruler brought England fully over to the Protestant side.  After this time, England was the foremost Protestant nation in all of Europe.  That ruler was Queen Elizabeth I.  The Commonwealth of Virginia was named for Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.  Anglicanism has been very important in the history of Virginia.

EPISCOPAL CHURCHES

    After the Revolutionary War, Anglicans in America changed the name of their church to the Protestant Episcopal Church in order to indicate their independence from England.  The two most important Episcopal bishops in those early years were William White and Samuel Seabury.  They led the Episcopalians in organizing a full-fledged church, independent of foreign authority yet part of the tradition of apostolic succession. 

    We can trace that key concept of apostolic succession back to Jesus' giving to Simon Peter the keys to the Kingdom in Matthew 16:18-19.  We saw that Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons in the late 100's A.D., helped to develop the key idea that the leaders of the church, and especially the Bishop of Rome, should all be a part of that unbroken line of authority going back to Peter.  In Catholic, Anglican, and Episcopal traditions, apostolic succession is preserved by ordination -- a ceremony including a bishop's laying his hands on the head of a candidate for the priesthood.  It was very important for White and Seabury to be part of that unbroken line, and you remember how we studied the adventure of bringing apostolic succession to the new Episcopal Church in America. 

    Many Episcopal traditions are solidly anchored in the past, reflecting an English heritage which goes back many centuries.  The 1928 Book of Common Prayer was an attempt to express in modern form and language the beautiful liturgies developed during the time of Henry VIII, which in turn drew on rituals from earliest Christianity and from the medieval church. 

    But in 1976 the Episcopal Church took a step which represented a radical departure from the past and a decisive break with Roman Catholic practice, even though, as King Henry VIII told us, Anglicans and Episcopalians usually see themselves as a "bridge" church between Catholics and Protestants.  That radical new step was the ordination of women as priests.  Many Protestant denominations ordain women, but the Catholic leadership is firmly against ordination of women.  Another radical new action in recent years was the consecration of an openly gay bishop, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.  Then in June 2006 the church elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop, the first woman chosen to lead the whole denomination.  The Episcopal Church is traditional in many ways, but its "middle path" approach doesn't keep it from taking bold new positions on controversial issues!  

METHODIST CHURCHES

    The Anglican and Episcopal Churches have a daughter group of churches known as Methodist Churches.  The story of Methodism begins in England in the 1700's.  You're probably familiar with the name of the founder, John Wesley.  But his mother, Susanna Wesley, deserves a lot of credit too.  As the wife of an Anglican priest, she organized Bible studies for people in the small town of Epworth.  She led them in such a spirit of openness and sincerity that her children grew up with a love of religion.  John Wesley owes a tremendous debt to her for the principles which he developed in the Methodist societies.  We ask Susanna for an interview, but she prefers that we talk with her son.  So let's see what he tells us.

Dr. Kellogg:  Mr. Wesley, I understand that you grew up as a P.K.  Your father was the rector of the parish of Epworth, and your mother Susanna taught Bible studies in your home.  You had a lot of brothers and sisters. 

John Wesley:  Yes, my siblings and I had a lot of good times together.  I was especially close to one of my brothers, Charles.

Kellogg:  Hey, that's great!  We have African American churches named for both of you:  Charles Wesley United Methodist Church in Abingdon, and John Wesley United Methodist Church in Bristol.  

Wesley:  Well, I'm glad for that!  I wrote and preached against slavery, because I see all people -- English and Anglo Americans, Africans and African Americans -- as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Kellogg:  I've heard that your brother was the Bruce Springsteen of your time...?

Wesley:  You're right.  Charles really learned how to make songs popular.  In fact, throughout his lifetime, he wrote 6,000 hymns.  Most of them were based on singable tunes that were already in circulation.  He gave them new Christian words.

Kellogg:  I'm trying to remember which one was Charles Wesley's most famous hymn. 

Wesley:  That was "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."  Here's the first verse:

    ♫ O for a thousand tongues to sing
    My great Redeemer's praise,
    The glories of my God and King,
    The triumphs of his grace! ♪

Kellogg:  Great, John, but that hymn originally had eighteen verses -- I'll bet even Steve Sieck or Anita Coulthard couldn't sing all eighteen of them!  By the way, we United Methodists in America did a survey, and we found that it was our very favorite hymn.  So it's the first song in our hymnal.

Wesley:  I knew that you American Methodists believe in such radical things as democracy and decisions made by popular vote.  I really thought you would be better off as an English colony under the wise guidance of His Majesty, the King.  Do you know how we came to be called "Methodists"?

Kellogg:  I've heard that you and Charles formed a group at Oxford University that sang, prayed, studied the Bible, and helped people in prisons and hospitals.  People called you "Methodists" because you were so methodical.  

Wesley:  Correct as usual, Fred!  Like CCF, we had a very close fellowship.  Like the members of Kerygma, some of the members of our group went into church vocations.  Like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, our group emphasized openness and caring.  Other nicknames given to our group were the Holy Club, because of our lifestyle, and the Bible Moths, because we devoured the Bible in study!  But the nickname that stuck with us was Methodists.

Kellogg:  John, your placement file in the Oxford Career Services Office has a blank space for the first three years after you graduated from college.  Naturally, my imagination has suggested some possibilities for those three years.  Right after I got out of college, I worked in a Holey Food shop in Dallas, named Tasty Bite Donuts.  Since you had been in the Holy Club, did you work in a donut shop?  Or did you apply the teachings of the Holy Club to prayer groups in England?

Wesley:  Neither one.  Charles and I asked to go as missionaries to a frontier area out in the Wild West:  Georgia!  There in Savannah I fell in love with a pretty young woman named Sophy Hopkey.  I tried to apply to our relationship the principles that we had developed in the little Methodist society at Oxford.  But my love life was a disaster, and I'd rather forget those three years as a missionary in Georgia.  Let's change the subject.

Kellogg:  OK, John.  Your own religious experience was shaped by a variety of Christian denominations.  You were inspired by the writings of several Catholic saints.  The Moravians impressed you with their deep spiritual life and helped you to realize what was missions in your own relationship to God.  Your heart was "strangely warmed" when you went to an Anglican prayer meeting, where the group was studying Lutheran writings.  You felt that all Christians could work together, in spite of their different beliefs.

Wesley:  Yes, the way I put it was something like this: "If your heart is like my heart, give me your hand."

Kellogg:  We now have a term that represents this cooperative spirit among churches:  ecumenism or the ecumenical movement.  The term comes from the Greek oikoumene, meaning "the whole inhabited earth."  The ecumenical movement has been especially strong in the 20th and 21st centuries.  Cooperation is gradually replacing competition among Christian churches.

Wesley:  I'm glad of that!  Although I was an ordained Anglican priest, I began to work more and more with small groups outside the established churches.  I developed Methodist societies all over England, in many cities and towns.  Some of the strongest societies were organized in and around the mining town of Bristol, England. 

Kellogg:  Modern scholars see in your writings, Mr. Wesley, some patterns of thought which you yourself may not have recognized.  For instance, you combined the Protestant emphasis on scripture with the Catholic emphasis on tradition.  But you suggested throughout your writings that in any major decision about basic beliefs or morals, the Christian should also draw on two other crucial sources.   You taught us that the experience of the Christian in his or her closeness to God, especially through prayer and worship, is a key part of any big decision.  You also taught us that the reasoning ability of the human mind is a gift from God; we should think through any issue, using the best knowledge available to us.  These four together -- scripture, tradition, experience, and reason -- make up what scholars today call the Wesleyan quadrilateral.  Even though you haven't heard that term, it describes your approach well.

Wesley:  My brother Charles once said, "Let us unite the two so long divided -- knowledge and vital piety."  He meant the same thing that you just said about reason and experience.

Kellogg:  You'll be happy to know that Emory & Henry College, which was founded by some of your followers, Mr. Wesley, has that goal too.  It seeks to help people think clearly and logically too, with academic freedom to ask about anything at all, using the best intellectual tools to find answers.  The college also tries to provide opportunities for each person to experience God in his or her own way.  We may not be Oxford, but we're a mighty good college in our own right!

    John, I'd like to ask you a question which I hope won't embarrass you.  If you could live your life all over again, where would you find the ideal person to marry?  ABX, DOP, DRD, KFA, PSK, SUN, or the Georgia Greeks?

Wesley:  After Sophy Hopkey, I won't ever fall in love again with any woman from Georgia!  I might find myself like Rhett Butler saying to Scarlett O'Hara, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a darn!"  But I would be happy with a woman from any of the other sororities.  Many a happy marriage has grown out of friendships that began in college!  And I'm now happily married to Molly Vazeille, even though she thinks that I love my horse more than I love her -- because I spend so much time with my horse, going out to preach the gospel.

Kellogg:  John, you gave us many "quotable quotes" that express something of your character.  There's one that is often associated with a typical picture of you sitting on a horse:  "The world is my parish."  In my home state of Louisiana, we have parishes rather than counties, because they are based on the area originally served by a Catholic church.  What did you mean?

Wesley:  I meant that God was calling me to preach the Good News to the whole world, not to be limited by boundaries of geography.  My circuit riders have also made that goal their mission.

Kellogg:  Thank you for this interview, Mr. Wesley!

Wesley:  You're welcome, Fred.

 BAPTIST CHURCHES

    We have looked at three branches of the Protestant Reformation that have produced churches which we are likely to encounter in our area of Virginia.  A fourth group, called the Radical Reformation, doesn't have many heirs in America who trace their lineage directly back to it.  But it does have a lot of spiritual heirs, who came to some of the same conclusions through different ways.  The Radical Reformers were often called Anabaptists (the Greek prefix ana- means "again").  They didn't believe that baptism of babies was scriptural, so they baptized again any believers who had been baptized as children.  The emphasis on adult baptism, usually called believers' baptism, is a major theme of many American churches today:  Baptist churches, Christian Churches, Churches of Christ, Mennonite churches, and others.

    The Radical Reformers were quite concerned to separate themselves from the world, in order to live in purity.  They shared their goods with others, refused to swear oaths, and practiced nonresistance.  Although they were few in number, their commitment was an example to others.  One Anabaptist group has continued to practice those ideals in a very thorough way in the world today. 

    You may be thinking of Mennonites.  If so, you're close.  Mennonites also came from the Radical Reformation.  But as a whole, they are much more adaptable to the conditions of modern life.  Have you ever seen a basketball game between E&H and Eastern Mennonite?  The most conservative groups, such as the Old Order Mennonites, are similar to this particular group, which separated from the main Mennonite church 300 years ago.  Here's a hint:  they wear simple, dark clothing, and they were portrayed in the movie "Witness," in which Harrison Ford starred.

    Here's the answer:  the American group which is most fully devoted to Anabaptist ideals and practices is known as the Amish.  Their distinctive black clothing, alternate forms of education, rejection of automobiles and electricity, and other practices enable the Amish to maintain their distinctive faith.  Many Amish live in close-knit farming communities in Pennsylvania; others live in Ohio and western New York; and for several years a number of Amish families lived in Burke's Garden, Virginia.  Jakob Amman, for whom the Amish were named, led his followers out of the Mennonite Church in the 1600's.

    Even though Baptists in America don't trace their denominational heritage directly back to Anabaptists, they do share some of their concerns.  The earliest Baptists that we can identify with historical certainty were English Separatists in the 1600's, people who believed in the separation of church and state.  They wanted to do away with an established church (one which was favored and supported by the government), so these separatists were also called disestablishmentarians.

    But the movement to separate religion and government also produced opposition.  Some people thought that the government should support organized religion, as beneficial for good citizenship.  This movement against separation of church and state is identified by some with the longest word in the English language.  The word generally acknowledged as the longest authentic word in the English language refers to the opposition to the removal of the state sponsorship of religion:  antidisestablishmentarianism.  This movement is against (anti-) the removal (dis-) of the government support (establishment) of religion in national life.   

    Just for fun:  E&H alumnus Ernie Braganza has found a word which may be even longer, but you probably won't find it in your dictionary:  pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis = coal miners' black lung disease.  Mary Poppins suggests as the longest word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but that's not in most dictionaries either.  Ernie also gave me the longest word that Shakespeare ever used:  honorificabilitudinitas -- a grandiose extension of honorableness.

    In addition to working for separation of church and state, the earliest Baptists also stressed that baptism was only for persons old enough to know what they were doing when they accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  We call that believer's baptism, in contrast to baptism of infants as practiced in many other Christian denominations..

    The leader of the first Baptist congregation anywhere in the world -- was a person who gathered together a small group of Separatists who fled from England to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (also called Holland), so that they could practice their religion in freedom.  He bore two familiar names:  his first name, John, was the same as the "Baptizer" of the Bible, and his last name, Smyth, was the same as that of one of the founders of Emory & Henry College.  He spelled his last name in the southwest Virginia way, rather than in the traditional American way, and pronounced it as if it were Smythe. 

    John Smyth organized a small group of English refugees into a congregation in Holland.  When some of those returned to England, they were led by Thomas Helwys, who enabled the Baptist movement to grow and flourish.  They baptized each other and were very active on behalf of religious liberty in England.  But I'd really like to go way back in time and interview John Smyth's namesake, whom we call John the Baptist.  I'll bet we can find him down by the edge of the Jordan River, wearing camel hair and a leather belt.  There he is!

Dr. Kellogg:  John, I understand that you are the founder of today's Baptist churches.  Now before you object, let me say that I know that you didn't ever use the word "church" -- that's a Greek Christian term.  But it refers to a group of people trying to live in accordance with God's will for their lives.  There are lots of different kinds of churches, and often their names point to specific characteristics that they emphasize.  The name "Baptist" points to one main thing which you did in your ministry:  you baptized people in a particular way.

John the Baptist:  You're right, Fred.  Many of us Jews practiced immersion in a mikveh, which is a special kind of bathing pool or tank for ritual purification.  Immersion just means "dipping fully in the water," like dunking a donut in a cup of coffee.  I gave new meaning to the concept:  I taught that immersion was symbolic of how a person dies to his or her old life, while coming up out of the water represented new life.  So baptism is like rebirth.

Kellogg:  Baptists today agree with you.  They believe that this new life is a gift of God, offered to anyone who is old enough to understand and accept it.  That's what you preached too, isn't it?  

John the Baptist:  Yes, Fred.  I urged people to repent of their sins and be forgiven by God.  Obviously babies and young children do things that are wrong, and they need to be disciplined by their parents.  But most people wouldn't consider them sinners. Baptism is for adults who know they've done wrong, and who make the decision to accept God's forgiveness.

Kellogg:  Today some Christians use the term christening to indicate the ceremony at which a baby is sprinkled with water, given a Christian name, and perhaps anointed with holy oil.  But Baptists consider christening or sprinkling of infants to be a childhood "rite of passage" or acceptance into a community of faith, rather than being the same as baptism. 

John the Baptist:  I didn't want people to be immersed and then go on living in the same old way, so that their baptism would run off them like water off a duck's back.  When I saw lots of people treating baptism with such a careless attitude, I got really angry.  Can you guess what I called them?

Kellogg:  My Bible says that you called them snakes!

John the Baptist:    Yes, I called them a "brood of vipers"!  That got their attention, and then I gave them a powerful prophetic message!  I was concerned about ethics as well as salvation.  I told the people with lots of clothes to share them with people who had almost no clothes.  I dressed pretty strangely, in camel's hair and a leather belt.  Do you know who else dressed like me?  Here's a hint:  an Old Testament prophet wore those same distinctive clothes as I did, so I was identifying with him.

Kellogg:  Oh, that was Elijah!

John the Baptist:    Right, Fred.  Many people believed that the prophet Elijah would return to earth to prepare the way for the Messiah.  So I saw myself as a forerunner, getting the people ready for the fulfillment of Messianic prophecies.  I didn't have any idea that my cousin Jesus was the Messiah, until he came to the Jordan River to be baptized by me!

Kellogg:  You didn't just encourage people to share their clothes with those who needed clothing.  You also urged people to share their food.  I understand that you liked an unusual food.  Was it snails?  I ate snails once in my life, at a sidewalk cafe in Paris.  Never again!  They're just too gritty.  You wouldn't enjoy them either.

John the Baptist:  You're right -- I liked something crunchier.

Kellogg:  Corn Flakes?

John the Baptist:  No, Corn Flakes are a food for Fred the Methodist, not John the Baptist.  I ate the kind of food that was easily available out in the Judean wilderness, far from the Jerusalem McDonald's.  I dipped crunchy locusts in wild honey for my breakfast food.  The honey made them taste a lot like chicken nuggets!  The kosher food law in Leviticus 11:22 specifically authorized us Jews to eat locusts, just as the Hebrews did in the Sinai wilderness.

Kellogg:  Baptists don't follow kosher food laws as your followers once did, John.  But they do feel that what people eat and drink is important, showing their Christian commitment.  Many of them abstain from alcohol, like the devoted Nazirites of your day.  Even in the Lord's Supper, Baptists use unfermented grape juice rather than wine in most of their churches. 

    And Baptists do not use the term sacrament for the Lord's Supper.  Instead, they call it a memorial, because Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me," as he shared his last supper with his disciples.  The Lord's Supper is a memorial of Christ's death until he comes again.  Baptists also use the term ordinances for baptism and the Lord's Supper, to stress that these two were ordained, or instituted, by Christ himself.

    When some tax collectors came to you and asked how they should live, what did you say?

John the Baptist:  I told them, "Don't collect any more taxes than you are required by the authorities to collect."  And when some soldiers asked for moral guidelines, I instructed them not to terrorize people with their weapons, and to be satisfied with their wages, rather than trying to rip people off for more money.  Even though I was proclaiming the nearness of the Kingdom of God, I was also advising people to live as good citizens of their nation. 

Kellogg: Your emphasis on good citizenship has remained a Baptist theme.  Baptists pay their taxes, serve in the army, and express their patriotism in many other ways.  The problem, John, is that your followers haven't always been allowed to live out their own religion.  Throughout their history, they have been persecuted so often for their faith that they must remain vigilant to keep that from ever happening again. 

    Baptists maintain firmly the principle of religious freedom; even a large number of Baptists living in Russia have worked over the years to try to establish that principle.  Baptists who really know their heritage want that liberty to extend to everyone, not just to people who believe as they do.  So they work hard to make sure that atheists, agnostics, and members of other religions are not forced to accept the majority Christian religion of America.  The freedom of the individual to accept or reject salvation through Jesus Christ is a central Baptist principle!

John the Baptist:  I've spent much of my adult life preaching about repentance and God's forgiveness.  Do my followers still have preaching as one of their main emphases?

Kellogg:  You'll be happy to know, John, that Baptists have continued your tradition of great preaching.  In fact, preaching is so important that in many Baptist churches the pulpit is smack-dab in the center of the front section.  Behind it are the choir and the baptistry -- a tank for immersion, since many churches don't have a river handy as you did.  To either side are usually an organ (or a praise band) and a piano.  The centrality of preaching is also shown is some of America's great Baptist preachers, such as Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I hope, John, that this interview shows some of the important things that you and your followers have contributed to the Christian faith.  Thank you for talking with us!

John the Baptist:  Shalom!

OTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN AMERICA

    Among major American denominations, the nineteenth century was a time of growth, movement, and acculturation.  Lutherans, for instance, had to decide whether to stress the Old World culture and European language, or to build a new American Lutheranism.  Several of the groups within Lutheranism reflect these discussions, as well as the ethnic backgrounds of their members -- Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Germans, and other such groups. 

    Only recently have Lutherans moved toward uniting several of the largest groups into one very large Lutheran church.  In the twentieth century this new denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, was formed as the third largest Protestant denomination in the country.  After many years of working together on their basic beliefs and ceremonies to find their common grounds, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church are now in full communion.  Methodists are the second largest group of Protestants in America, with The United Methodist Church accounting for most of the membership.  Baptists are the largest Protestant group in America.  There are various groups of Baptists; of these, the Southern Baptist Convention is by far the largest.  Today most Protestants and Catholics feel much closer to each other than ever before.

UNIT 2 MAP REVIEW: 
PROTESTANTISM IN EUROPE

    Now please turn to Map 2 in the back of your syllabus.  I'll be your tour guide, as we resume our journey to some key places for the Protestant Reformation in Europe.  This time we'll begin in Germany.  In the German university town of Wittenberg, we see on the university chapel a list of 95 Theses which were posted by the pastor-chaplain, Martin Luther.  These "talking points" can be seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.  Eventually Dr. Luther would have to defend his ideas at an interrogation held in the German city of Worms.  His basic points were rejected, and although he was a Catholic priest and Augustinian monk, he became a persona non grata within the Catholic Church.  But Wittenberg became the center of a rapidly spreading reform movement. 

    One outpost of the Protestant movement was Herrnhut in Moravia.  Today that area is part of the Czech Republic, and Gershom takes us there.  We find that a pietist leader named Count Zinzendorf founded a spiritual retreat center in Herrnhut that would influence many devout Christians, including John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  Another Protestant center was Geneva, where John Calvin established a model city uniting church and state.  There Calvin wrote his Institutes to guide Protestant Christians in purity of doctrine and purity of living.  Not far from Geneva is Paris, where John studied Latin, law, and logic.

      John Calvin's model for the Kingdom of God in Geneva became the guiding vision for John Knox, a Protestant who wanted to apply it to the whole of Scotland.  When we travel to Edinburgh, we can see where Knox debated Mary, Queen of Scots, in her own palace.  She supported Catholicism as the state religion, while John Knox argued for Protestantism.  Scotland eventually became a Protestant nation, following the outlines set up by Calvin and Knox, and this form of Christianity would make its way to America, where it would be known as Presbyterianism.

    From the Scottish highlands we go to the little English town of Epworth, where John Wesley grew up.  John was influenced by his mother, Susanna Wesley, even more than Augustine was influenced by his mother Monica.  He took to his college studies at Oxford a love of the Bible, and there he and his brother Charles organized Bible study groups.  We find at Oxford University a highly respected academic institution that has shaped English culture for many centuries.  The Methodist movement which began at Oxford was given a very special character by heart-warming experiences that John and Charles both had in London.  John's account of what happened to him in a little prayer meeting on Aldersgate Street in London is one of the great classic spiritual stories, like that of Augustine's conversion.

    London is also very important for the Baptist movement.  It was in London that John Smyth and other Separatists found themselves harassed and persecuted by the government of King James in the 1600's.  They fled across the sea to the Netherlands.  Let's reenact his journey.  Ah, here we are in Amsterdam, where John Smyth and his small group of English refugees established the first Baptist congregation in the whole world.  Some of those would return to London to found the first Baptist congregation in England, with Thomas Helwys as their leader.  Later pioneers would establish the first Baptist congregation in America -- we'll visit that place when we review the map of America in the next unit.

     It's time to give Garuda our flight plan to return to the Virginia Highlands Airport near Abingdon.  It's been a long trip; I hope that you have enjoyed interviewing great Christian leaders and traveling to key Christian sites in Europe.  I also hope that this program has helped you to understand more about the churches of the Reformation.  Your comments and suggestions on this review will be gratefully accepted, so that I may improve it.  If you like, you can send me e-mail: fkellogg@ehc.edu

To look at one of my other syllabi or to review a unit in a different course, go to my Home Page.

To review a different unit in the Christian Faith course, go directly to one of the following:

    Unit 1:  Historical Foundations

    Unit 3:  Churches with Distinctive Emphases

    Unit 4:  What Christians Have in Common

If you prefer, you may return to the Emory & Henry College Home Page.

Last updated:  February 19, 2008