A History of the Anglican Church—Part XXIII (Sec
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ST. LUKE’S INN OF COURT “Law & Religion Forum” Volume 1, Apostolate Paper #35 ____________ “A History of the Anglican Church—Part XXIII (Sec. 2): An Essay on the Role of Christian Lawyers and Judges within the Secular State”© By Roderick O. Ford, Litt.D., D.D., J.D. ______________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Introduction Summary Part XXIII. Anglican Church: “Christian Theology and Protestant Dissent in England (1530-1650)” (Sec. 2) Section 2. Bro. Martin Luther’s Theology of Justification and Grace A. Life and Times of Martin Luther (1483-1517) 1. Early Life, (1483-1505) 2. The University of Erfurt, (1501-1505) 3. Augustinian Monastery; Priesthood, (1505- 1512) 4. The University of Wittenberg, (1512-1517) 5. Born-Again Experience (1517) B. Ninety-Five Theses Posted (October 31, 1517) C. Diet of Augsburg (1518) D. Sermons and Other Written Works (1519-1524) 1. Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) 2. On the Freedom of the Christian (1520) 3. Christ’s Holy Suffering (1520) 4. Enemies of the Cross of Christ & the Christian’s Citizenship in Heaven (1521) 5. Christ Our Great High Priest (1521) 6. On Faith & Coming to Christ (1522) 7. Of the Office of Preaching (1522) 8. The Twofold Use of the Law’s Gospel: ‘Letter’ & ‘Spirit’ (1522) 9. On the Bondage of the Will (1523) 10. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church: A Prelude (1520) E. The Diet of Worms (1521) F. The Peasants’ War (1524-1525) G. The Protestant Reformation Comes of Age (1525- 1546). Conclusion Appendix A World Wide Impact of Lutheranism Appendix B “A Protestant Perspective of the Roman Catholic Church” The ideas expressed in this Apostolate Paper are wholly those of the author, and subject to modification as a result of on-going research into this subject matter. This paper is currently being revised and edited, but this version is submitted for the purpose of sharing Christian scholarship with clergy, the legal profession, and the general public. PREFACE The organized Christian church of the Twenty-First Century is in crisis and at a crossroad. Christianity as a whole is in flux. And I believe that Christian lawyers and judges are on the frontlines of the conflict and changes which are today challenging both the Christian church and the Christian religion. Christian lawyers and judges have the power to influence and shape the social, economic, political, and legal landscape in a way that will allow Christianity and other faith- 2 based institutions to evangelize the world for the betterment of all human beings. I write this essay, and a series of future essays, in an effort to persuade the American legal profession to rethink and reconsider one of its most critical and important jurisprudential foundations: the Christian religion. To this end, I hereby present the thirty-fifth essay in this series: “A History of the Anglican Church—Part XXIII (Part 2).” INTRODUCTION1 “When Martin Luther sought to democratize the Roman Catholic Church, with theories such as the ‘justification by faith alone,’ ‘the priesthood of all believers,’ ‘Sola Scriptura,’ ‘the right of the Christian faithful to judge and select pastors and bishops,’ etc., he unwittingly laid the foundations for the modern Western democratic nation-state and modern-day constitutional law.” “Without Martin Luther, many of the freedoms that we today take for granted—freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and press, and the separation of church and state—would either not exist or would have come into existence much later in history.” “It was altogether the work of Divine Providence that the great civil rights leader in the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), was named after the great German theologian, Dr. Martin Luther (1483-1546). Both of these men were ordained ministers of the Christian faith; both led oppressed national minorities groups; both men grappled with great theological, legal, and constitutional questions; both men were suppressed by their own governments and treated as outlaws; and, in a very real sense, both men sealed their indelible mark upon Western civilization.” – Roderick O. Ford, Esq. ________ In this paper, we turn to the theology, life, and times of the great German theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546). The emphasis in this paper is on Luther’s theology and its lasting impact upon Anglo-American constitutional jurisprudence. As we shall see throughout this paper, Martin Luther was one of the few people in history who stood toe-to-toe with King Henry VIII of England (1491- 1547); who called Henry VIII profane epithets such as a “Satan worshiper”; and who argued and disagreed with Henry VIII, and lived to tell about it. This was, in essence, that democratic spirit within western democracy that is fundamentally 1 This paper on the Protestant Reformation in England (1530-1650) is dedicated to Bishop George Augustus Stallings, Jr. and to the Immani Temple African-American Catholic Congregation of Washington, D.C. I met Bishop Stallings in 1998 at a rather casual setting inside of a local Afrocentric bookstore in Columbia, South Carolina. 3 “Lutheran.” The foundation of this democratic spirit was Luther’s theological conception of the common man, who, when converted to Christ, is both “priest” and “king.” Christian lawyers and judges may take special interest in knowing that Martin Luther felt that Christians had a fundamental duty to not sit still and permit injustice, but rather Luther admonished Christians to hold the secular government accountable for establishing justice. Luther once wrote: “Christ has instructed us preachers not to withhold the truth from the lords (rulers) but to exhort and chide them in their injustice. Christ did not say to Pilate ‘You have no power over me.’ He said that Pilate did have power, but he said, ‘You do not have this power from yourself. It is given to you from God.’ Therefore he upbraided Pilate. We do the same, we recognize the authority, but we must rebuke our Pilates in their crime and self-confidence.” This Lutheran spirit—the idea that God had authorized the common man to hold both ecclesiastical and secular rulers accountable-- was interwoven into England’s political and social consciousness. Indeed, during the 16th century, Martin Luther moved the forceful English monarch Henry VIII and indeed the whole of England and Europe, in a way that few others had been able to do. Today, the Church of England honors Martin Luther on its liturgical calendar as a saint and leader of the Protestant Reformation. ************** In the spirit and legacy of the great Saint Augustine of Hippo, I consider Martin Luther to be a true Christian and fellow Augustinian brother. For I, like Martin Luther and John Calvin before me, was an avid student of St. Augustine during my formative years as a college and law student during the late 1980s and early 90s. My liberal arts education at Suwannee High School—where I selected “Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation” as the topic of my senior paper-- opened the door to St. Augustine of Hippo in college. And St. Augustine of Hippo’s writings, in turn, opened the proverbial theological door to Martin Luther’s writings, several years after I had finished law school, during which time I was still seriously grappling with whether or not I should convert to the Roman Catholic faith. When I held in my hands a copy of Martin Luther’s essay, An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (a reprint located inside of a general book on Protestantism), in many ways my theological journey had come full circle. 4 In many ways, this journey began in high school with the German theologian Martin Luther, and after more than fifteen years later, returned home to Luther. My theological journey with Martin Luther had taken an interesting twist: first, high- school research; then a ten-year hiatus, during which period I studied Roman Catholicism; and, finally, a sudden burst of theological energy in 1998! In high school, I first learned about the life of Martin Luther and his contributions to western civilization.2 My high-school English teacher, Ms. Crawford, was so impressed with my research design, outline, and topic, that she held them up as a model for other students to follow! In college and law school, from between 1987 and 1995, I lost track of Martin Luther, for I was too engulfed with my fascination with Catholicism, grappling with my decision to convert to the Catholic faith, and with my new career as a practicing attorney. Then came the year 1998—this was a watershed period in my Christian development. During the year 1998, while attending the Bethel A.M.E. Church in Columbia, South Carolina, I was first introduced to the idea, or proposition, that the Methodist Church was indeed “catholic.” I asked myself, How can this be? They repeated the Apostle’s Creed, circa 390 A.D., which says: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, 2 I had known, in general outline, what all of the theological concerns and issues were, which moved Martin Luther to nail his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenburg.