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Adventures in Philosophy |
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Select: The Protestant Reformation - Philipp Melanchthon - John Calvin - Jacob Boehme The Catholic Counter-Reformation - Johann Amos Comenius |
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THE PROTESTANT REFORM AND THE CATHOLIC COUNTER-REFORMATION General Observations In an immanentist philosophy, if fully developed logically, there is no place for a revealed religion based on transcendence, for this would involve a contradiction in terms. Immanentism leads to naturalism, to the adoration of the very forces of nature proclaimed divine, to Humanism, to idolatry, and to all forms of superstition. Still, the Renaissance had its revealed religion. In Italy, cradle and seat of the Renaissance, recourse was had to the Catholic religion, which, although battered in the speculative field, was recognized in practice. In Germany the tie with the Catholic Church was broken and Protestantism made its entrance. It is the office of history to relate how the Reform or Protestant Reforms were put into effect, and what were the proximate and remote causes that determined them, just as it is the office of theology to enumerate and refute any errors affirmed by the Reform in opposition to Catholic doctrine. Philosophy simply has to judge the speculative value of these systems. Elsewhere On the Internet
The reforms of John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, and Henry VIII, in their speculative aspect, can all be grouped with the Lutheran Reform, both because Martin Luther is the preeminent thinker in these events and because, if the others differed from the Lutheran Reform in effect, they had borrowed from Luther their basic principles. Thus what can be said of one, can be said of all. The Lutheran Reform is considered by Catholic authorities to be nothing other than a heretical movement which denies certain fundamental truths or vitiates them to the point of heresy, in opposition to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church. The principal tenets of primitive Lutheranism may be reduced to the following: (1) the radical corruption of man -- intellect and will -- through original sin; (2) the redemption effected by Christ, without human cooperation, and assimilated by man without any kind of effort, either religious or moral; (3) the positive predestination by God of each man either to salvation or to eternal damnation; (4) the exclusive authority of the Scriptures, without the aid of the tradition or interpretation of the established Church; (5) the substitution, for the authority of the Church, of that of the state, which becomes legislator and judge in religious matters also. Many of these doctrinal points of the Reform are in exact opposition to the predominant ideas of the Renaissance. The Renaissance exalted man to divinity; Protestantism, by harshening the doctrine of original sin and predestination, denies man the possibility of doing a good work. He must and can only appeal with an act of trust to the merits of Christ. Luther's work De servo arbitrio cost him the friendship of the most celebrated Humanist of his day, Erasmus of Rotterdam. On the other hand, there are points in the Reformation that are in perfect accord with the characteristics of the Renaissance; the struggle against the Catholic Church, under the pretext of a simple return to the origins of Christianity; free investigation without regard for any authority. But neither the points of coincidence nor those of divergence with the Renaissance give us the nucleus of Protestantism. The nucleus of Protestantism consists in the doctrine of internal experience as the supreme rule of life, along with the doctrine of free examination. This latter is manifestly, according to traditional Catholic thought, a dogmatic error consisting in attributing to the Divine Spirit assistance to man and not to the collective body (the Church). This error leads logically to complete anarchy -- doctrinal and practical, moral and religious, social and political -- and enables man to adapt himself to any of the fallacies of Empiricism, including those most opposed by Christianity, and indeed those opposed to primitive Protestantism and even to human reason. Subjective sentimental experience certainly can never replace objective criticism and rational construction. The doctrinal precedents of Protestantism can be found in the German mysticism of the Middle Ages, which was tainted with naturalism and pantheism, and which annuls the limits of matter and the spirit (Master Eckhart); in Neo-Platonism; and in some elements of Augustianism. Among the theorists of Protestantism who sought to give scientific form to the Reformation are: (1) Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), who wrote a series of manuals in which Scholastic terminology is used, notwithstanding the author's aversion for Aristotelianism (Melanchthon exercised almost undisputed influence in Protestant universities for two centuries); (2) John Calvin (1509-1564), who through St. Augustine was orientated toward Platonism; (3) Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), in whom the Lutheran theme of original sin becomes transformed into a metaphysical principle. Consequently, all reality comes to be composed of good and evil. This opposition becomes conscious in Man. Boehme can be considered the first theorist of Protestant and German pessimism. His principal work is Aurora.
1. Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560) A theologian born in Bretten, Baden, Germany, Philipp Melanchthon (picture) decided early in favor of the Protestant Reformation and brought to the aid of Martin Luther great attainments in learning, unusual acuteness in dialectics and exegesis, a remarkable power both of clear thinking and of clear expression, and withal a gentleness and a moderation that most advantageously tempered Luther's vehemence. In 1521, he published his Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum, the first great Protestant work on dogmatic theology. In 1530, by drafting the Augsburg Confession, he made a most important contribution to the cause of Protestantism. After Luther's death, he lost, in some measure, the confidence of the Protestants by those concessions to the Roman Catholics which his anxiety for peace led him to make, while the zealous Lutherans were no less displeased because of his approximation to the doctrine of Calvin on the Lord's supper. He sincerely endeavored to bring about Christian unity in an age of fanatical strife and was one of the most judicious and progressive leaders of the Protestant Reformation. Elsewhere On The Internet
Considered one of the great Protestant reformers, John Calvin (picture) was born in Noyon, France in 1509. He entered the College de la Marche at Paris in 1521 and there laid the foundation of a mastery of Latin which enabled him to make this international language a vehicle for the ideas he was later to spread. He was then sent to Orleans University to study law under Peter de Stella, but religion began to claim his chief interest. Later he continued his studies at Bourges. He learned Greek, began to preach the reformed doctrines, and, in 1528, openly avowed himself a disciple of the Protestant Reformation. The next year, he preached at Noyon, and, shortly afterward, he proceeded to Paris, whence he was obliged to flee because of a sermon which he preached on justification by faith alone. Religious persecution forced Calvin to remove himself to Basel, where, in 1536, he published in Latin the first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion. In this work, he elaborated a system of theology based upon the sovereignty of the will of God and including as integral parts the doctrines of predestination, election, and reprobation. From Basel, Calvin went to Ferrara. Driven thence by the Inquisition, he returned to Paris, and, as he still found no security there, he went to Geneva in August 1536, intending to proceed shortly to Basel. In Geneva, he was constrained to join Farel in his struggle to establish over that city a theocratic government, in which license and frivolity should be replaced by a strict moral severity. Calvin and Farel were successful for a time; but a rebellion broke out in 1538, and Calvin was expelled from the city. He went to Strasbourg, where, the next year, he married Idelette de Bure. In 1541, Calvin was recalled by the Genevans and established a thoroughly theocratic rule under his own direction. It was marked by controversies with various heretics, one of whom, named Servetus, was burned at the stake in 1553. The party opposed to Calvin, known as the Libertines, was expelled two years later. The power of Calvin, thus firmly established, was used vigorously for the defense of Protestantism throughout Europe. The amount of Calvin's literary work seems incredible, when considered with his other labors. He established an academy at Geneva in 1559, where he taught theology. His zeal brought into one body of doctrine the scattered and unsystematized reformed opinions of Europe. As a religious teacher, social legislator, and writer, Calvin's fame is second to none of his age. In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
One day, Jacob Boehme (picture), a shoemaker, turned from his work and stared at the cupboard, gazing at the reflection of a sunbeam on pewter. He interpreted this as the manifestation of divine truth, revealing the universe as the theater of an eternal conflict between spirit and matter. Boehme regarded matter as an embodiment of evil, but a necessary condition for the existence of all beings. Without its existence, even the divine spirit would evaporate. He thought that contemporary events reiterated and confirmed Neo-Platonic and Gnostic ideas. Untiringly he contrasted his vision of the divine order with the reality he saw dominated by evil. His intrepid criticism of church and state, of economic exploitation and political oppression caused the authorities to charge him with heresy in 1612. Boehme's Aurora and other writings were interdicted. When Boehme tried to penetrate the mysteries of creation and salvation, his unschooled mind often appeared more confused than enlightened. He displayed a powerful originality, but became entangled in fallacies. His descriptions of the anxieties and temptations of the soul have interested many modern readers who dislike his metaphysical speculations. He exerted considerable influence among German romantics and mystics in France, Russia, England, and the United States. In The Radical Academy
Elsewhere On The Internet
The Catholic Counter-Reformation The doctrine, tradition and discipline of the Catholic Church had been attacked by the Renaissance and by Protestantism. In consequence of these attacks a vast movement of reaction called the Counter-Reform or the Counter-Reformation, sprang up -- a movement which culminated in the Council of Trent, in which were determined the doctrine and discipline of the Catholic Church, in answer to the attacks of the Renaissance and Protestantism. As during the Middle Ages the religious Orders of St. Dominic (Dominicans) and St. Francis (Franciscans) had assumed the task of defending the Catholic Church against the errors of Neo-Platonic pantheism and Arab and Latin Averroism, so now new religious institutes arose to combat the results of the Renaissance and Protestantism. Among these Order the leadership was taken by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), which was founded by St. Ignatious of Loyola. Among the countries where the Counter-Reformation succeeded were Italy, Spain, France, and the southern half of the Low Countries (Belgium). The Counter-Reformation extended to the fields of religion, dogma, discipline, and morality. The transcendence of God was reaffirmed in opposition to Renaissance immanentism, and dogmatic truths were restated in opposition to the errors of Protestantism. The doctrine of grace, of the necessity of cooperation with grace, and of predestination were defined. Disciplinary rules, especially those regarding the education of aspirants to the priesthood and the instruction of the laity, were drawn up. Furthermore, the Counter-Reformation originated a movement toward the better evaluation of the concrete and individual, which was quite different from Renaissance and Protestant subjectivism. According to Catholic authorities, this latter destroyed the common life, while the Church defended a subjectivism that also was suited to life in a community. Religious life took on new manifestations. Spiritual exercises, tridua, novenas, and particular devotions that were compatible with reaffirmed doctrinal and disciplinary principles became widely popular. In the field of thought, however, the Scholasticism of the Counter-Reformation was not very fruitful. Primarily, the purpose of the Counter-Reformation was to defend religion against the errors of Protestantism. Hence, the exponents of the Counter-Reformation did not attempt to construct a new system but rather demonstrated the legitimacy of what the Church had always been teaching. It has to be admitted, moreover, that the new theories were not evaluated with exactitude simply because their underlying immanentism was not understood. Thus it was that in the speculative field the Counter-Reformation was content with the thought of Aristotle and remained isolated from the development of modern philosophy. Conclusion and Evaluation Summing up, the observation can be made that Humanism and the Renaissance, rising from humanistic and aesthetic motives, soon embraced all the problems of human activity and thought, both theoretical and practical, historical and political, philosophical and religious. The negative results were an aversion for Aristotle and Scholasticism, whose theories were replaced by Neo-Platonism, with its principle of pantheistic immanentism, the reduction of metaphysics to physics, a contempt and scorn for the Middle Ages, and in general a neglect of all that transcends experience and the concrete. Along with these negative aspects, there are several positive values: the rise of physics as a natural science, which before Galileo was reduced to magic and was part of metaphysics; the love of concreteness, which determined the rise of history in the modern sense. The classic land of the Renaissance is Italy, and from Italy the movement was diffused throughout Europe. Nicholas of Cusa, for example, lived for many years in Italy; Bruno traveled to England and Germany; Campanella retired to Paris. It is astonishing that during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Italy was in a state of deplorable political unrest, it should have given the laws of culture, of art, and of elegance to the rest of Europe. The Renaissance, as diffused throughout Europe, assumed a different character. In Italy its cultural motives prevailed; the aversion to the Catholic Church was limited to the struggle against Scholasticism. In other countries, on the contrary, religious motives prevailed. This explains why almost all Europe was a battlefield of religious strife. Religious and Catholic problems are treated in Thomas More's Utopia. So also are they presented in the work of the greatest humanist of the times, Erasmus of Rotterdam. In his Encomium moriae or Insaniae elogium, Erasmus considers life as a comedy; the sage is not a Stoic but a madman; the author defends a natural religion to which all the sages of antiquity contribute.
ANOTHER IMPORTANT THINKER OF THE PERIOD Johann Amos Comenius (1592-1670) A bishop of the Bohemian Brethren and the first great democrat among Christian educational philosophers, Johann Amos Comenius (picture) fled from Czechoslovakia in 1628 when that country lost its liberty and its national culture was threatened with extinction by the Hapsburg emperor. He roamed throughout Europe working untiringly for the salvation of his nation and the realization of his educational, political, and scientific projects. Despite his misfortunes and precarious existence, Comenius never lost confidence in the rational mind or in human progress. His ultimate aim was universal peace. He recognized that the necessary steps, preliminary to the attainment of this goal involved the unification of rival Christian denominations, fundamental reforms in education, and a new approach to natural science. It was largely the result of his initiative that scientific societies promoting research were founded throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. He insisted that education should be free, universally available, and compulsory for every child; that automatic memorization should be replaced by teaching words with perceptual objects; and that the sensual faculties of school children should be taken into consideration. Comenius stands as a transitional figure in the area of science -- halfway between the medieval Aristotelianism and modern empiricism. He believed that independent study and observation offered greater intellectual rewards than did constant reliance upon Aristotle or Pliny. His textbooks, translated into more than seventeen languages, were used in the early years of Harvard University, and throughout the seventeenth century schools of New England, Asia, and Europe. His principal works were: The Gates of Unlocked Tongues (1631); The Way of Light (1642); Patterns of Universal Knowledge (1651); and The Great Didactic (1657). In The Radical Academy Elsewhere On The Internet
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