LUTHER AND THE 9.5 THESES
By Kenneth Brownell
10Publishing. 103 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 911 272 366
This is a call for the recovery of ‘Reformational Christianity’ prompted, of course, by the 500th anniversary of Luther’s hammering his parchment to the Wittenberg church door.
Ken Brownell, pastor of East London Tabernacle, is an accomplished historian and, after a brilliant synopsis of Luther’s life in the opening couple of chapters, he boils the 95 theses down to 9.5, to the spirit of the original that needs to grip the church again today.
He acknowledges that Luther’s theology was still somewhat in flux in 1517 when he published the theses. Luther did not come, for example, to a clear view of justification by faith alone until 1519. Nevertheless, all the seeds which blossomed into the flower of the Reformation were there from the beginning on the Wittenberg door.
Rooted in the protest against Catholic indulgences there is a biblical and theological dynamic which challenges the whole contemporary church. Here is a flavour: Reformational Christianity must be nourished by reverent and rigorous theological learning, must truly understand and apply justification by faith alone, be willing to reform in the light of Scripture, have preaching the Bible central and embrace a theology of the cross rather than pursue pragmatic ‘success’.
This is a clear, stimulating and well-researched book which will drag the Reformation anniversary out of history and into the present. Make it October’s book of the month for your congregation?
