There are various ways to celebrate 31 October. Some dress up to celebrate the ancient Celtic harvest festival of Samhain, some “trick or treat for UNICEF,” and others close their doors, turn off the lights, and hope no children come to their doors looking for candy.
For those in the Reformed tradition or, even more broadly, any Protestant tradition, 31 October brings to mind The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences that Martin Luther (apparently) nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. Whether or not this dramatic story is apocryphal or real (the minimalist in me comes shining through!), it has been embedded in our Protestant psyche as a moment of triumph, of one Augustinian monk-turned-priest-turned-Professor standing up against the Roman Church. Many look to this point in history as a shining moment for orthodoxy, a moment that snowballed into an era that produced the likes of John Calvin, Theodore Beza, and ultimately led to some of the great Confessions of orthodox Christianity.
To emulate this moment is a popular past time for Protestant Christians. There are numerous books Read the rest of this entry »
