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Discussion Board Initial Post – Michael Ryan Norton
The Reformation was perhaps one of the most influential periods for modern Christianity. It was the Reformation period that paved the way for modern Protestantism and denominationalism. Lutherans, Baptists, Charismatics, Methodists, and many other sub-sects of the Christian faith all find their roots in Luther’s stand against the Roman Catholic Church. Before the Reformation period, anyone who professed to be Christian also needed to profess to be Catholic. However, total control over the Christian faith and theology led to many moral compromises within the Catholic leadership. The Church became its nation and began competing with other nations for land, money, and power. This put the Church on a slow-burn course for change. Eventually, Christians would not be able to stand idly by as the work and teachings of Jesus Christ were so wildly misrepresented by the papacy.
Even the Catholic Church as we know it today was largely shaped by the Reformation. Luther’s overwhelming support for reform forced the Catholic Church to take a long look at the ugly issues it had spent centuries sweeping under the rug. This uncomfortable introspection gave way to the Counter-Reformation. Where the Church opted to correct some issues and doubled down on others. It also provided the canonical acceptance of the Apocrypha, which the Catholic Church still widely accepts as canon in the Modern world. This period positioned the Catholic Church to remove the worldliness which it had collected over the centuries. It also led to widespread missionary work and education by the Jesuits. The Council of Trent established many wide-sweeping reforms that are still enforced by the Catholic authority today. Had it not been for the reformation, these reforms would likely have never happened.