Faith and Toleration: A Reformation Debate Revisited: 2017 J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series & John and Margaret Friesen Lectures

The 2017 installment of the John and Margaret Friesen Lectures is jointly presented as part of the 2017 J.J. Thiessen Lecture Series.

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther composed 95 theses for debate in Wittenberg, sparking what we have come to call the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s understanding of salvation by faith through grace initially led him to conclude that matters of belief and conscience must be left to the individual and God, and cannot be coerced by any external means. But Luther’s theological principles were divisive, and brought on a crisis of governance. Kings, princes and city magistrates, faced with contradictory faith claims, now had to decide how best to govern. Should dissenting religious beliefs be tolerated on religious principle and toleration established as civic policy? These lectures will explore some of the ensuing Reformation events and debates, drawing some conclusions for our day.

Lecture 1 | Scripture Alone, Faith Alone, Toleration Doubtful

One might have thought that the central evangelical teaching that faith is a God-given, spiritual, inner, and personal matter would have led to a wave of religious toleration accompanying the Reformation. This never materialized. Instead, a tsunami of intolerance and violence swept away thousands of people into prison, exile and martyrdom. What happened?

Lecture 2 | “Compel them to come in”: The Theology of Intolerance Examined

Protestant theologians, both Lutheran and Reformed, soon became champions of state churches that required all subjects and citizens to attend their churches and swear allegiance to state-sanctioned confessions of faith. How did these Christian theologians justify coercion, torture and even execution in the name of true faith?

Lecture 3 | Hiding in Plain Sight: Anabaptism and Toleration in Switzerland

Anabaptism was officially outlawed in every state of the Swiss Confederation, with all Reformed pastors and civil officials under oath to report violations. Nevertheless, Anabaptist communities survived into the seventeenth century. Archival records shed important light on the phenomenon of de facto toleration that made Anabaptist survival possible in Switzerland.

Also see these lectures in print.