A Neo-Counter-Reformation

TimeWatch Editorial
February 22, 2016

The Khan Academy Website says the following in their tutorial concerning the Protestant Reformation:

“In 1517 a German theologian and monk, Martin Luther, challenged the authority of the Pope and sparked the Protestant Reformation. His ideas spread quickly, thanks in part to the printing press. By challenging the power of the Church, and asserting the authority of individual conscience (it was increasingly possible for people to read the bible in the language that they spoke), the Reformation laid the foundation for the value that modern culture places on the individual.” Khan Academy Website

Notice that the above quote mentions not just the religious impact of Protestantism, but the cultural impact as well. Since the comment includes a challenge to the power of the Catholic Church, perhaps a description of the period from a Catholic source would be in order. Alfred Baudrillart, Agnes Rowland Gibbs, and Cardinal Adolphe Albert Perraud gave a series of lectures from January to March 1904, at the Catholic Institute in Paris, France. Those lectures have been published in a volume entitled: The Catholic Church, the renaissance and Protestantism. In Chapter 1, we find the following:

"Since the rise of Christianity there has been no greater and no more important European revolution in the history of ideas than what in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries wrested a large number of souls from the Catholic Church, leading some to ancient rationalism and drawing others to a wholly individualistic conception of the Christian life, founded upon free inquiry. This twofold movement, which has been continuous throughout modern times, bears the names of the Renaissance and the Reformation.” The Catholic Church, the renaissance and Protestantism. In Chapter 1, page 1.

Too often we overlook the total impact of the Reformation. The initial freedom from restraint spread across every aspect of life. The freedom to study the Word of God led to the freedom to pursue any field of study. The release from the caste system provided opportunities to develop and advance to any level of accomplishment one could imagine. The abandonment of the feudal system, allowed for the accruing of personal property and the engagement of manufacture and free exchange of goods. the removal of dictatorial Fascism gave way to the involvement of the citizen in the decision making of the nation. This certainly was a new beginning, a breath of fresh air. But it must never be forgotten from whence all of this came. Douglas Vickers in his book entitled: Discovering the Christian Mind: Reason and Belief in Christian Confession, reminds us:

“Though it gave birth in education, in social institutions and in economic and political formations to what was subsequently consequential in the development of Western culture the Reformation was in itself a theological movement.” Discovering the Christian Mind: Reason and Belief in Christian Confession

All attempts at counter-reformation from a theological point of view have met with mere partial success; A sort of watering down of truth, or a merging of error with truth. Those who are committed to the absolute dissolution of the Reformation have realized that this can only be accomplished by the removal of all the other elements released by Protestantism. Hence we see the rise of a Global Socialism, and in some nations a returning Fascism. These two forms of government will never mention out loud their opposition to the freedoms that Protestantism provides, but quietly, gradually they both will ultimately restrain the “Liberty of Conscience” and “Freedom of the Will” that have been so carefully embraced for such a long period of time.

These two elements. Socialism on one side and Fascism on the other, have suddenly arisen as we approach an important time of decision in this nation. We need not despair for he “who changeth the times and the seasons: who removeth kings, and setteth up kings: who giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:” is still in control of the earth. It is however wise that we recognize that it is a Neo-Counter-Reformation at work.

Cameron A. Bowen