Tomorrow is Reformation Day, the anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences. I keep reading online about how tragic the Reformation was, how unneeded it is now, and how it’s wrong to celebrate the breaking up of the church.
But does anyone think that the medieval church did not need to be reformed? Can anyone say that the sale of indulgences was a good thing? Can anyone defend the corruption of the Renaissance popes–their selling of church offices, their bribes, their mistresses, their illegitimate children whom they made cardinals, their inquisitions, their wars? The great medieval authors–Dante, Chaucer, Langland, and many others–all criticized these abuses in the church.
Even the Roman Catholic Church came to admit these evils. Luther’s Reformation provoked the Counter-Reformation, which finally the moral and financial corruption. It also set in stone some theological issues that were not all that clear when Luther first proposed his reforms. (more…)
We were on our own for several days in Copenhagen, so on Sunday we attended a service of the Church of Denmark. Gabriel had invited us to a congregation in fellowship with the LCMS, but the service was at 4:30 p.m., and we had to meet up with our hosts around then. We had earlier come across a magnificent church (“the Marble Church”) near the palace (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are all constitutional monarchies, like England). We thought we would go to a service there. So we set forth from our hotel for a trek of probably just over a mile or so.
When we saw it as tourists, we saw a sign that the building would be closed to the public during services, so we hoped that they would let us in. We were graciously received by the usher. There was a far bigger crowd than I was expecting, around 100 people. We were given an English translation of the liturgy. We could have probably followed it without the translation, since it was the basic service that we had in the United States. The tunes of the hymns were some of the same that we sing.
The Scandinavian countries are often called among the most secular in the world, with researchers citing the low rate of weekly church attendance (only 3% in Denmark). But what goes on in the state churches is only part of the story of Christianity in northern Europe. There is the church, but there are also the Mission organizations.
The Pietist movement, as early as the 18th century, was accompanied by the rise of independent groups and organizations in which Christian laity met for spiritual growth and good works. In Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, these groups came together as “Mission” organizations and institutionalized themselves as part of the nation’s religious culture.
The “Outer Mission” sent countless missionaries around the world and is largely responsible for Africa today being one of the most Lutheran areas in the world. The “Inner Mission” took on the task of evangelism and promotion of the faith inside their countries.
There is energy even in a vacuum. But the amount predicted by quantum physics and the actual measurements are off by a factor of 1 followed by 120 zeroes. This discrepancy is described as “one of the most confounding (and embarrassing) problems in modern astrophysics.” It would suggest that there is something wrong with the mathematical models behind quantum physics, something scientists are reluctant to admit. So they are looking for other explanations, including the final all-purpose answer when scientists don’t know something: the invocation of multiple universes.
After the jump is an excerpt from an account of a panel discussing this problem, which develops into a discussion of multiverses. That solution is simply that if there are an infinite number of universes, we would have every possibility, including this unusual math fact, as well as the evolution of life, which they also get into. (But that isn’t right, is it? According to the mathematics of probability, random events continued on into infinity will not result in every possible action, much less result in a particular event. Monkeys at typewriters will not eventually give us the works of Shakespeare, even in an infinite number of universes.)
Some time ago, I stumbled upon a discussion of Christian anthropologist Rene Girard and Pay Pal founder Peter Thiel. It had to do with vengeance, competition, new technology start ups, and why both Girard and Thiel came to embrace Christianity. (more…)
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