Fundamental Christianity

Forwarded from Catholicism and Orthodoxy

“one can find in the early and medieval church many accounts of justification that speak of justification as a process and particularly emphasize the role of works in the process. The pre-Reformation church did not speak with one voice about justification. Thus, both Roman Catholic and Protestant positions can find precedent in the pre-Reformation church. Here is how the eminent church historian Jaroslav Pelikan summarized it: Every major tenet of the Reformation had considerable support in the catholic tradition. That was eminently true of the central Reformation teaching of justification by faith alone. . . . The Council of Trent selected and elevated to official status the notion of justification by faith plus works, which was only one of the doctrines of justification in the medieval theologians and ancient fathers. When the reformers attacked this notion in the name of the doctrine of justification by faith alone—a doctrine also attested to by some medieval theologians and ancient fathers—Rome reacted by canonizing one trend in preference to all the others. What had previously been permitted also (justification by faith alone), now became forbidden. In condemning the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent condemned part of its own catholic tradition. 23”

— What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church by Gavin Ortlund

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858 viewsDec 21 at 15:02

“one can find in the early and medieval church many accounts of justification that speak of justification as a process and particularly emphasize the role of works in the process. The pre-Reformation church did not speak with one voice about justification. Thus, both Roman Catholic and Protestant positions can find precedent in the pre-Reformation church. Here is how the eminent church historian Jaroslav Pelikan summarized it: Every major tenet of the Reformation had considerable support in the catholic tradition. That was eminently true of the central Reformation teaching of justification by faith alone. . . . The Council of Trent selected and elevated to official status the notion of justification by faith plus works, which was only one of the doctrines of justification in the medieval theologians and ancient fathers. When the reformers attacked this notion in the name of the doctrine of justification by faith alone—a doctrine also attested to by some medieval theologians and ancient fathers—Rome reacted by canonizing one trend in preference to all the others. What had previously been permitted also (justification by faith alone), now became forbidden. In condemning the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent condemned part of its own catholic tradition. 23”

— What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church by Gavin Ortlund

BY Fundamental Christianity