Happy Reformation Day

491 years ago today, Martin Luther took action to begin an in-church debate on 95 points which Luther thought reflected needed areas of reform in the church. Luther nailed a list of these 95 points to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. He did not know at the time that his request to debate points of church reform would lead to the largest reformation movement in church history.

To my Protestant Christian brothers and sisters around the world, I wish you a truly Happy Reformation Day from the School of the Solitary Place.

For a list of the 95 Points (95 Theses), click here

The Courage To Be Protestant

In the summer, I had the chance to read the book The Courage To Be Protestant by Dr. David Wells. It contains a summary of the thought which Dr. Wells first introduced in 1993 with his book No Place For Truth and followed over the next 15 years by God In The Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue and Above All Earthly Pow'rs. David Wells believes that American Evangelicalism is distancing itself from its own theology and now stands ready to move in any direction without the guidance of the Bible and Christian thinkers who have applied the Bible's teachings into theological categories.

In his most current book, Wells sees a separation of current Evangelicalism into three sections. One is Classical Evangelicalism, the second is the Seeker Sensitive/Purpose Driven movement and the last is the Emerging Church. The Perichoresis blog has a great set of summaries of each chapter. See the Link

http://theperichoresis.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/review-wrap-up-the-courage-to-be-protestant/

I highly recommend the book. It has been very instrumental in helping me take stock personally of what it means to defend Classical Protestant Christianity as well as the theology of the church.