A Walk With The Reformers: Reformation Reflections From Southeastern Seminary’s Reformation 500 Study Tour -- By: Stephen B. Eccher

Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 08:2 (Fall 2017)
Article: A Walk With The Reformers: Reformation Reflections From Southeastern Seminary’s Reformation 500 Study Tour
Author: Stephen B. Eccher


A Walk With The Reformers: Reformation Reflections From Southeastern Seminary’s Reformation 500 Study Tour

Stephen B. Eccher

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

2017 marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. But while scores of events, conferences, and pilgrimages to Germany are being undertaken to celebrate the Reformation, what exactly is being commemorated? Moreover, how should Luther be remembered? And how does what took place five hundred years ago have any relevance to and impact upon the church today? The following essay is a reflective journal based upon an eleven-day study tour to Germany and Switzerland undertaken during the summer of 2017 through Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. This essay considers the perplexing and at times paradoxical world of the Reformers. It explores not only the Reformers’ victories, but also their failings.

Key Words: Anabaptist, Buchenwald, Jews, Luther, Marburg, Protestant, Reformation, sola, Wittenberg, Worms, Zwingli

Introduction

The story of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation is a compelling one. It includes a tireless search for absolution before God, challenges to the known religious and cultural norms of the day, unwavering commitment to biblical truths in the face of death, and one monk’s pursuit to find a gracious God and the assurance of his salvation. It is a drama of celebration, suffering, love, jealousy, bravery, and much more. The narrative is ready made for a Hollywood motion picture, but just as complicated as it is compelling. As celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation continue throughout 2017, certain key questions will shape how this story is told. Which Reformation will be remembered? The life and ministry of Martin Luther will undoubtedly dominate most reflections, but which Luther? How we choose to tell the story will shape not only our interpretation of the Reformation, but what we learn from it as well.

In the summer of 2017 I was privileged to lead a team of students, faculty, pastors, and friends of Southeastern Seminary on an eleven-day journey to Germany and Switzerland that afforded us an opportunity to

consider these questions. We made our way to Europe to engage the story of the Protestant Reformation in the very locales in which this grand narrative once took place five hundred years after Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. We wanted to stand where history had been made, to walk where the Reformers once walked. Given the long shadow cast on both doctrine and church practice in today’s church, we also wanted to consider the relevance o...

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