Spiritual, Cultural and Philosophical Origins of the Reformation

Abstract

The article highlights the maturation of the Reformation movement in the Middle Ages based on two factors – the crisis of late medieval Catholicism and the high achievements of Renaissance humanism. The statement is substantiated by the terminological similarity of the terms “Renaissance” (“Revival”) and “Reformation” as the return to life of a quality that once had the fullness of being: in the Renaissance - to ancient culture, in the Reformation – to the apostolic times of the Catholic Church. Therefore, the Renaissance and the Reformation simultaneously and steadily matured in the Middle Ages, but their specific results – humanism and church reform – manifested themselves in different time frames: several decades before the appearance of the famous “Dispute of Dr. Martin Luther on Repentance and Indulgences (95 Theses)” on “human dignity” was proclaimed by the representative of the early Renaissance Pico della Mirandola in “900 theses inspired by philosophy, Kabbalah and theology”. It is concluded that Renaissance cultural and reformation religious movements formed different views on the way out of the late medieval spiritual and institutional crisis and inevitably came to a conflict of professed values. Therefore, reformation theology and confessionalization grew on the denial of Renaissance humanism no less than on the anti-clerical struggle. As a result, Protestants developed a new doctrine of salvation by one faith, proposed a radical renewal of dogmatic principles in order to approach the spirit of early Christianity, revised the structure and essence of church sacraments, rejected the authority of church tradition, gave a leading role to the laity in church life and administration, rethought the function of the Church and priesthood, denied their role as mediators between man and God. The result of the Reformation was a new confessionalization of Christianity: the Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican Churches and the sects of Anabaptism and Nontrinitarianism emerged from Roman Catholicism.