Monthly Archives: September 2017

Reforming the sacraments, with Jennifer Powell McNutt [MIPodcast #68]



Martin Luther believed the Bible proved that the Catholic Church had gone astray. His efforts to bring reform to the church wound up leading to his excommunication and the Reformation was off and running. In the previous two episodes we heard from Craig Harline and Brad Gregory, talking about Martin Luther’s life and the Reformation more broadly. In this episode, Jennifer Powell McNutt talks about the Bible during the Reformation.

If Protestants believed the Bible was the supreme source of doctrinal truth, they, like Catholics, were still left with the problem of how to interpret it. The “people’s book” was revered by different people with different ways of interpreting. McNutt has written about how Christians grappled with the Bible’s words about Christian sacraments like baptism, marriage, and ordination. She lays out some of that back-and-forth history here, and also talks about her experiences teaching Christian students at Wheaton College.

About the Guest

Jennifer Powell McNuttis associate professor of theology and history of Christianity at Wheaton College. She is the author of Calvin Meets Voltaire: The Clergy of Geneva in the Age of Enlightenment, and the co-editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation. Her most recent book is called The Peoples Book: The Reformation and the Bible.

The post Reforming the sacraments, with Jennifer Powell McNutt [MIPodcast #68] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.


How the Reformation rebelled against Luther, with Brad S. Gregory [MIPodcast #67]



When Martin Luther published his 95 Theses in October of 1517 he had no intention of starting a revolution. But he became a rebel and the Reformation took off. And then the Reformation rebelled against Luther, and we’re still dealing with consequences that would have horrified the reformer five hundred years later.

That’s how historian Brad S. Gregory tells the story in his new book, Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts that Continue to Shape Our World. His historical narrative shows how many of today’s most contentious issues are legacies of the Reformation. How did church separate from state? What should Christianity’s relationship be to political and social structures? What would the reformers think about the aftershocks of their courageous efforts to create a godly world?

About the Guest

Brad S. Gregory is a professor of European history at the University of Notre Dame and an award-winning author of books like Salvation at Stake and The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society. His latest book is called Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts that Continue to Shape Our World. He’ll be in Provo on September 15th at the Maxwell Institute’s “Living Reformation” conference, celebrating five hundred years of Martin Luther. Go to mi.byu.edu/Luther500 for details.

The post How the Reformation rebelled against Luther, with Brad S. Gregory [MIPodcast #67] appeared first on Neal A. Maxwell Institute | BYU.