Michael Reeves und Tim Chester gehen durch die zentralen Themen der Reformation und zeigen, wie die Reformatoren (besonders Luther und Calvin) grundlegende Wahrheiten des christlichen Glaubens propagiert haben, die bereits vor ihnen zentral waren und (daher) auch in unserer Zeit zentral sind.

Das Buch eignet sich gut als Überblick über grobe theologische Schwerpunkte der Reformation. Leser, die das Erbe der Reformation schätzen lernen wollen oder systematisch mit den Kernthemen der Reformation und ihrer Bedeutung für alle Zeiten auseinandersetzen wollen, finden hier einen guten ersten Anlaufspunkt. Mir persönlich war das Buch an manchen Stellen nicht differenziert genug (verschiedene Strömungen innerhalb der Reformation wurden zwar erwähnt, aber nicht klar beschrieben), vor allem aber fehlten mit teilweise historische Informationen und noch genauere theologische Definitionen. Allerdings sollte faiererweise erwähnt werden, dass das Buch nicht den Anspruch hatte, die Reformationstheologie historisch zu rekapitulieren, sondern die wesentlichen Aspekte systematisch darzulegen und in die heutige Zeit zu übertragen. Dieses Grundanliegen erfüllt das Buch, so dass ich es weiterempfehlen kann.

Einige ausgewählte Zitate aus der Kindle-Version (nicht zusammenfassend erstellt – Kernbotschaften der Kapitel könnte ich noch ergänzen):

2 Scripture
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 808
If you view preaching as simply a process of education, then you will tend to pursue novelty, and that is a dangerous path to pursue. Instead we come to the preaching of the Word as those who need to hear Christ’s voice and encounter his presence.


3 Sin
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1046
Because sin is a slavery or addiction, Luther saw that he could not simply hector or order people out of it. That might bring about behavior change, but it would only reinforce a deeper self-dependence. Ears need to be opened to the message of Christ and him crucified so that eyes can open to the unfathomable kindness and glory of the living God. Only in that gospel light can true humility, goodness, and charity grow.

4 Grace
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1127
This [Rome’s theology], then, was a theology of salvation by grace: without this grace, we could never become the sort of holy people it claimed belong in heaven. But it was absolutely not a theology of salvation by grace alone.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1131
This might all have been the theology of sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism, but it does not feel too unfamiliar to twenty-first-century Protestants and evangelicals. “Grace” is still routinely thought of today as a package of blessing doled out by God. And, small details aside, that picture captures well a common and instinctive view of salvation: that while we know God saves by grace, we still look to ourselves and our performance to know how we stand before him. Our prayer lives are often painfully revealing of this.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1157
Not many today find themselves wearing hair shirts and enduring all-night prayer vigils in the freezing cold to earn God’s favor. Yet deep in our psyche is the assumption that we will be more loved when (and only when) we make ourselves more attractive —both to God and to others.

Markierung (Pink) - Position 1161
Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1163
In Reformation thought, grace was no longer seen as being like a can of spiritual Red Bull . It was more like a marriage.

*Luther on the great exchange and the image of the bride/wife*
Markierung (Pink) - Position 1170
Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers?
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1177
She is—and until death will remain— at the same time both utterly righteous (in her status before God) and a sinner (in her behavior).
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1179
Her behavior and her status are distinct. The prostitute will grow more queenly as she lives with the king and feels the security of his love, but she will never become more the queen. Just so, the believer will grow more Christlike over time, but never more righteous. Thus, because of Christ, and not because of her performance, the sinner can know a despair-crushing confidence.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1188
we are so instinctively self-dependent that while we happily subscribe to salvation by grace, our minds are like rocks, drawn down by the gravitational pull of sin away from belief in grace alone.

5 The Theology of the Cross
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1473
What reason and romanticism, modernity and postmodernity have in common is the autonomous self.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1474
Postmodernity is about autonomous individuals determining truth for themselves.

7 The Spirit
Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1848
This theology made for the most practical difference in Reformation circles. The Reformers saw that the root of our problem before God does not lie in our behavior: it is not as if we have done wrong things and simply need to start doing right things. All our outward acts of sin are merely the manifestations of the inner desires of our hearts. Therefore, merely to alter a person’s behavior without dealing with those desires would only cultivate hypocrisy, the self-righteous cloak for a cold and vicious heart. And, some noted, ministers who sought only superficial, behavioral change in their people were invariably cruel browbeaters. This Reformation insight meant that hearts had to be turned, and evil desires eclipsed by stronger ones for Christ.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 1864
The gospel, then, cannot be treated simply as a message for unbelievers, as the doorway into the Christian life; in order for Christians to grow they must be kept in the sunshine of the gospel.

11 Joy and Glory
Markierung (Pink) - Position 3003
For whatever the philosophers may have ever said of the chief good, it was nothing but cold and vain, for they confined man to himself, while it is necessary for us to go out of ourselves to find happiness. The chief good of man is nothing else but union with God.

Markierung (Gelb) - Position 3006
Against everything we are told today, happiness is not found in ourselves— in appreciating our own beauty or convincing ourselves of it. Deep, lasting, satisfying happiness is found in the all-glorious God. All of which is really just another way of saying: Question: What is the chief end of man? Answer: Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. ( )