Saving Martin Luther

Nearly 30 years ago an extremely learned theologian and scholar wrote this:

‘[Martin] Luther, in the conflict between his search for salvation and the tradition of the Church, ultimately came to experience the Church, not as the guarantor, but as the adversary of salvation.’ Those are the words of Joseph Ratzinger! At the time he wrote them, he was the Prefect of the Doctrine of the Faith for the Church of Rome and, of course, he later became Pope Benedict XVI.

How Ratzinger would reconcile his statement with that of the Council of Trent, which declared: ‘If anyone says that the sinner is justified by faith alone’ – which Luther did – ‘let him be anathema’ is an interesting problem. But his statement about the Church in the late Middle Ages is totally accurate. The late medieval Church had lost its way when it came to answering the vital question which a Roman jailor in Philippi once asked: ‘What must I do to be saved?’