Tuesday, January 3, 2017

The Reformation 500 years on: do we need 95 New Theses for the 21st century?

From "Archbishop Cranmer"-

‘Protestants’ acquired their name because they were first and foremost, protesters. They publicly declared their dissent. In the expressing of dissent from and rejection of prevailing mores, they understood themselves to be testifying to older, deeper truths. 2017 commemorates the 500th anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 theses – his protest against abuses that were rife in the church of his age. He hammered his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg – such doors serving as the town and church noticeboards of his time.

And so with apologies to Martin Luther (1483-1546), we offer 95 New Theses – now hammered on to today’s ‘virtual noticeboard’ – and a protest against the debilitation of the church. These are offered with gratitude to Gerald Hiestand and Todd Wilson (The Pastor as Theologian: Resurrecting an Ancient Vision, Zondervan, 2015), and Kevin Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan, (The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, Baker Academic, 2015). The new Theses published here also pick up on my earlier article in Modern Believing (Vol. 55, iss. 3, 2014: ‘Growth and Management in the Church of England: Some Comments’).

More here-

http://archbishopcranmer.com/reformation-500-years-95-new-theses-21st-century/

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