European Geopolitics then and now

Luther, der Ketzer: Rom und die Reformation 

Reinhardt, Volker. 

C.H.Beck. Kindle Edition. 

"So lautet die Nutzanwendung aus diesen Überlegungen: Nur wenn man auch die römischen Quellen betrachtet, lässt sich der Prozess der Ablösung, Spaltung, Trennung und Verteufelung adäquat nachvollziehen, dessen Auswirkungen bis in die Gegenwart reichen. Dabei geht es – anders als im 16. Jahrhundert – nicht darum, wer recht oder unrecht hat und wer über die besseren Argumente oder gar die höhere Moral verfügt. In der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Luther und Rom ging es um Glaubensfragen, das heißt um unterschiedliche Auffassungen von heiligen Texten, priesterlichen Vermittlungsfunktionen und Wegen zum «Heil». Das waren und sind bis heute Fragen, in denen es kein objektives Urteil geben kann. Stattdessen geht es darum zu beobachten, wie auf beiden Seiten Ängste und Heilserwartungen, Loyalitäten und Feindbilder, politische und gesellschaftliche Ordnungsvorstellungen, Denkstile und Glaubensweisen zu der subjektiven Überzeugung führen, objektiv auf der richtigen Seite zu stehen. Das ist der Standpunkt, der in diesem Buch vertreten wird, und deshalb gibt es darin keine «Guten» und keine «Bösen», keine Parteinahme für oder gegen die eine oder andere Seite. Es geht nicht darum, aufzuzeigen, wer wen zuerst angeprangert, verleumdet und verteufelt hat, sondern darum zu zeigen, warum es zu dieser Zuspitzung kam. Die Eskalation des Konflikts wurde dadurch vorangetrieben, dass es in diesem Streit nicht nur um unvereinbare theologische Lehrsätze, sondern von Anfang an auch um Machtfragen ging. Auf beiden Seiten formten sich schnell Netzwerke heraus, deren Mitglieder intensiv miteinander kommunizierten und gemeinsame Interessen verfolgten. Diese Interessenverbände schlossen sich umso schneller und fester zusammen, als sich ähnliche Gruppierungen schon vor 1517 in kirchlichen und weltanschaulichen Streitigkeiten voneinander abgegrenzt hatten." (158-172).

Well, I just got under the wire with my read of an historical analysis of the Reformation period in this 500 year anniversary. If you read German and have not done anything so far to acquaint yourself, I can recommend this book because of all the Vatican archival material it brings to light in German translation, but also because I think it is a great piece of history writing and deserves to be known and discussed from any number of points of view.

Whether Reinhardt thinks this way or not, his book provoked a reflection in me on the state of affairs in the Church today. I think his analysis of the past leaves Catholic ecumenism today, its premises and objectives, in tatters. There is no reason as well why we shouldn't be anxious about general developments within the Church in our own day and time, as not all that foreign to the type of unraveling which shattered the unity of faith in Europe five centuries ago. Reinhardt's historical analysis of the failures of the leadership in papal Rome and in imperial Germany to grasp the gravity of the turn of events in their day seems not without implications for our day and time. Reinhardt makes cautious allusions to the crisis within the European Union but I think he has every reason to put forward his concerns and doubts.

From my own perspective and abstracting from this historical event of the Protestant Reformation, I know of no other way to put it than perhaps to say, I must be growing up, losing it or something. I am dumbfounded, if you will, by the consequences for today of the Reinhardtian description of the Reform of yesterday, where there were no giants, no bigger-than-life-like protagonists on the world stage who contributed to this major tectonic shift in the life of the Church; things just sadly and stubbornly deteriorated over the course of decades. Pettiness and ego had the upper hand. Reinhardt describes a "1517" made up of little men on both sides of the aisle. The popes throughout that period show themselves not only as flawed characters, but as utterly so at the expense of the Petrine Ministry; few if any of their closest collaborators were any better. In his epilogue, Reinhardt even points out that Luther's teaching has not stood the test of time, that nobody on the protestant side of the aisle today would still hold to the teaching Martin held central to his reform. Far from a work in progress, it seems little more than a devolution. Drift, yes, little more than drift with cataclysmic consequences for the light on the lamp stand, the city on a mountain top. I do not think mine is a jaded growing up, but certainly represents a more sober appreciation of the implications of serious things perpetrated within the Church by little men even yet today.

Some months back I was sharing with the Swiss bishops on what I see as an enormity here and elsewhere which goes on week for week and year for year, without consequences, namely the number of Catholic priests who no longer include the Creed in Sunday Mass. Yesterday, I was confronted with a harrowing example from Turin, Italy of a fat old priest who explained to his Christmas crowd the decision to substitute the Creed (which he said he didn't believe anyway) with the all time Italian Christmas carol Tu scendi dalle stelle... The erosion of the faith, Trinity, divinity of Christ, virginity of the Mother of God, transubstantiation... is moving ahead by drift and brainless substitution, not driven by a single "name" in theology or what not. 

Reinhardt documents how for geopolitical reasons that the Council of Trent was decades late in coming. I wonder what our excuse today is for not intervening to set right some of the folly... 

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