Why Was the Reformation Important? Why Is It Still Today?

Leonardo De Chirico discusses how the Sixteenth Century Protestant Reformation called the church back to the biblical sources (formal principle) and back to the central message of the Gospel of justification by faith alone (material principle). The controversy revolved around the authority of Scripture over the traditions of the church, the primacy of grace over the meritorious nature of religious works, the orientation of the whole of life towards the glory of God over against a spirituality marked by the veneration of the saints and unbiblical practices. These unresolved issues are still with us and urge us to believe that the need for a biblical reformation is not over in Europe and throughout the world.

After the story of Leonardo’s family and how the gospel came to them, Luther’s visit to Rome in 1511 will be used as a narrative to present the Catholic gospel then and to present it as it is now. A sketch of the Catholic gospel is presented in biblical perspective and the need for the Reformation to continue will be argued for.