The History Channel has been playing a two hour documentary called The Protestant Reformation. It begins with the obvious in Martin Luther’s revolt against the Catholic church and the papacy. There were a few new insights that I did not know about Luther’s story. They talked about how once he was excommunicated from the Catholic church, he essentially lost his “identity” and ceased to be a citizen. Therefore, no crimes could be committed against him. Essentially Luther was fair game. If someone were to kill him, they would not be punished for their crime, etc.
Also, it was pretty amazing to see that Luther basically took on the government through his dissension. The Pope and the Catholic church controlled the government in Europe at the time, so Luther was not just fighting against the Catholic church, but the whole of Europe.
However, the most intriguing part was the hour that dealt with the world post-Luther. This documentary rests on the idea (or fact) that Luther is responsible for the scientific revolution of Isaac Newton and the enlightenment. The industrial revolution was also an outflow of the reformation. Basically, before Luther, science was discouraged as it was seen as something that could cause one to question God. However, for example, Newton was a great man of faith and saw science as something that only made God more glorious.
The only disappointing part of the documentary was the segment on Calvin and the Puritans. Sure, the Puritans were a little over-the-top and Calvin was a very serious and austere man. But, the History Channel pretty much butchered his theology. They also made the mistake of saying that Calvin and Luther disagreed on predestination. Essentially, Calvin saw everything as an outgrowth of election while Luther saw everything as flowing into the doctrine of election. They both came to the same conclusion at the end, but they just got there in a different manner.
It’s definitely worth watching.
