18
“The first thing I ask is that people should not
make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans, but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone. St. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 3, would not tolerate Christians calling themselves Pauls or Peters, but only Christians. How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?” —Martin Luther
19
“Reformation ends not in contemplation, but
in action.” — George Gillespie (1613-48), theologian
20 21
“God is decreeing to begin some new and
great period in His Church, even to the reforming of the Reformation itself.” —John Milton (1608-74), author
“If we Protestants are ‘reformed and
always reforming,’ then commemorating the Reformation should cause us not so much to celebrate the past as to renew our mission and ministry in the present.” —Christopher Gehrz, professor
22
“The anniversary of the Reformation in
2017 becomes the focus for a multiyear global process of reflection, repentance, and celebration in all congregations and expressions of the communion. As one part of this emphasis, the [Lutheran World Federation] Assembly in 2017 will be planned as an occasion for the joyful celebration of the power of the Lutheran witness to the gospel and at the same time a space for the self- critical acknowledgement of failures in faithfulness and of the continuing pain of division among Christians.” — Lutheran World Federation strategic plan
23
“In commemorating the Reformation, we cannot
just see it as a jubilee, but should also admit our guilt for past errors and repent on both sides for the past 500 years.” — Heinz Josef Algermissen, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fulda in Germany
24
“The time is ripe to acknowledge that
translating Luther to new contexts involves a process of transfiguration by which the old, relevant as it is in its reappearance, also passes away. … The contours of the Reformation now are to be
defined over against this new background in which powers and principalities exert control now as they did when the Reformation erupted as a cry for freedom and a call for the gospel. The Reformation defined them then; it is left for us to name them today, yet the spirit is the same.” — Vítor Westhelle, author, Transfiguring Luther
25
“The radical gospel of justification by faith
alone does not allow for a middle-of-the-road position. Either one must proclaim it as unconditionally as possible, or forget it. We must somehow muster up the nerve to preach the gospel in such fashion as to put the old to death and call forth the new. … If Lutheranism is to recover a sense of its identity and mission today, it must begin to consider what it means to preach the gospel in radical fashion.” — Gerhard Forde (1927-2005), theologian
Read 25
more
Reformation quotes at
LivingLutheran.org.
This list was compiled by John Potter, a content editor of Living Lutheran, and Rod Boriack, a writer and editor living in Des Plaines, Ill.
32 JANUARY 2017
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