Lichtgedanken 02

S C HW E R P U N K T 21 02 | LICHT GEDANKEN We are now in the anniversary year of 2017. It is exactly 500 years since Mar- tin Luther triggered the Reformation and with it wide-ranging and far-rea- ching processes of change. What was the deciding factor in your view? Luther gave people direct access to God. Whereas in the late Middle Ages, priests acted as the intermediaries between God and the people, after Luther every individual stands directly before God. In 1522 he said the following. You are responsible for yourself in your hour of death. And nobody will be with you in this hour to carry you through death – only God can do that. With this insight, Luther was contributing to a concept of individuality that is commonplace for us today. The crucial factor for him is to proclaim the gospel that awakens the certainty of faith in a person and gives them confidence in their actions in the world. How did that change the Church? The doctrine of justification states that a person becomes righteous from grace alone in his belief in Jesus Christ. Al- though a person is a sinner, they are ac- cepted by God, at no cost, without any deeds or accomplishments of his own. This insight has ramifications for the Church and the doctrine of the sacra- ments. Luther, for example, reduces the sacraments to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. At the same time, Luther’s rea- lization impinges on ecclesiastical prac- tice: the Protestant sermon, the service in German together with German hym- ns and the Lord’s Supper in both guises – i.e. with bread and wine. The marria- ge of priests is introduced, the office of priesthood raised to one of preaching and ministry and the local congrega- tion upgraded to a community of the faithful. The most fundamental effect of this process of change is the differentiati- on of western Christianity. I delibera- tely do not talk of a schism within the Church but of differentiation into sepa- rate confessions. Besides the Roman Ca- tholic Church, the Reformation spaw- ned the Lutheran Evangelical as well as the Reformed Churches; the Baptists and other groups who were thought of as dissenters in those days, must also not be forgotten. How relevant are Luther’s teachings today? Luther certainly raises questions and concerns that stimulate and inspire us today. But I would like to state clearly that the Reformation of the 16th cen- tury is behind us! It was 500 years ago. I don’t believe we can simply transpose Luther onto today’s reality. The world then – and our worldly experience too – were different. We have to see Luther and the Reformation in their historical context, otherwise we cannot do them justice. From today’s perspective, we have a larger horizon than Luther and his contemporaries. In Western Europe, we have experienced the Enlighten- ment, and have had to endure the dic- tatorships of the 20th century – those are experiences that have helped us to make progress intellectually. These ex- periences also apply to faith. Nevertheless, there are certainly ques- tions from the time of the Reforma- tion that are still relevant for us today or have become so again. If we focus on the individual, one ques- tion, for example, still relevant today is the following: What carries me through life and through death? And the answer provided by Luther and the reformers was: belief in God. And this is still valid today. But subjects such as the relati- onship between Church and State, for- mulated in Luther’s so-called »two re- alms teaching«, are still topical. Or the commitment of the individual to their fellow human beings or society. For Luther, it went without saying to cam- paign against errors and injustice and denounce the sale of indulgences even if it put his own life in danger! In my opinion, it is also important for us today to raise our voices when we discover in- justices. Although Wittenberg is considered its starting point, the Reformation took place in many locations in Europe. What significance did the Reforma- tion have for Jena and the university, and what role did Jena play for the Re- formation? Probably the most important result of the Reformation for Jena was the foundation of the university! Johann Friedrich I. founded the »Hohe Schule« in Jena from his prison cell in 1548. The »Salana« was set up because the Ernesti- nians had lost Wittenberg University to Moritz of Saxony after their defeat in the Schmalkaldic war, and Johann Friedrich I. needed a training centre for priests and officials. Here the »true spirit of Luther« was to be taught. One expression of this preservation of the »authentic Luther«, for example, was the Jena Luther Editi- on which competed with the Wittenberg Edition. Jena and especially the Church of St. Michael’s evolved to become a place of memorial for the Reformation and at the same time a place where the Protestant theology and Lutheranism were nurtured and taught. Luther himself only stayed in Jena a few times. Which people carried the Reformation in Jena in that case? Jena was already open to new ideas in the early phase of the Reformation. Tho- mas Müntzer, for example, established contacts here in 1521. He conducted correspondence with Jena’s councillors and town judge Michael Klausbeck. Müntzer even tried to win a position as a preacher in Jena but did not succeed. The most important Jena reformer until 1524 was Martin Reinhart who worked here from the autumn of 1521 or spring 1522. Reinhart who studied in Witten- berg with Karlstadt, developed inde- pendent teachings and emancipated himself from Luther. In 1523, Karlstadt moved to Orlamünde and reinforced the early reformational movement in Central Saaletal. Overall, Jena and its surroundings acted like a kind of lab- oratory for the Reformation in which many things were tested. In terms of substance, Reinhart and Karlstadt en- couraged the priesthood for all believ- ers and emphasized the independence of the parish to a greater degree than Luther. In 1524, Luther made a tour of inspection to Jena on the advice of the F E AT U R E