The Need for Clarification: Is the Reformation Over? (I)

Introduction

In 2015, the Evangelical Reformanda Initiative was established to describe and analyze the Roman Catholic Church’s beliefs and practices.  It was created because many Evangelicals seem to be uncertain about what Roman Catholics actually believe. Do they believe in the same Gospel, or something significantly different?  One of the first articles produced by the Reformanda Initiative was “What Do You Think About Pope Francis?”, co-authored by the writers of this paper, Leonardo De Chirico and Greg Pritchard.[i]

In response to this article, Thomas Schirrmacher (with Thomas Johnson) wrote the article “Why We, As Evangelical Reformed Christians, Seek to Dialogue with Pope Francis.”[ii] Unfortunately, the article was emotionally reactive and lacked academic rigor, even including many simple misspellings and grammatical mistakes.[iii] But more seriously, it accused our article “of painting a very negative picture of the Pope’s character” and charged that we “impugn both the Pope’s motives and his character.  They seem to suggest that Pope Francis is an expert at deluding people.”[iv]  At that time, we did what one often should do in response to false accusations: nothing. 

In October of 2016, the Reformanda Initiative released the statement “Is the Reformation Over?” (“Is the Reformation Over?” Statement or the Statement), which was signed by over two hundred global Evangelical leaders and scholars and translated into French, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Slovakian, and Romanian.[v] 

Schirrmacher and Johnson (this time as a co-author) wrote a response to the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement with the article “Let the Reformation Continue!”[vi]  Again, this article makes very strong accusations against not just us, but also against the hundreds of Evangelical leaders who either helped craft or signed the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement:

The statement seems to assume that the Pope purposely deceives us or even lies to us and the public without providing clear evidence.  We are afraid this could violate the ninth commandment by bearing false witness against our neighbor (in this case the Pope and other Catholic leaders).[vii]

This is a very serious charge. As we will see shortly, this accusation is also false, but it cannot be ignored as the first article was.  The hundreds of leaders and scholars who signed the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement will be tarred by this accusation, and so we believe we must respond.   

The present article is a response to both Schirrmacher’s first article and Schirrmacher and Johnson’s second article.[viii]  We have to acknowledge that this article has been painful to write.  It is not pleasant to publically critique two brothers in Christ. Both Schirrmacher and Johnson have knowledge of Roman Catholicism and extensive experience working with Roman Catholic leaders, and we would have welcomed a critical response that advanced the discussion. However, because their articles have so many inaccuracies, distortions, and false accusations, we need to respond in a candid and straightforward way. 

Our hope is that this article may serve a wider audience. Because the topic of the relationship between Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism is crucially important, especially given that this year is the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, our anticipation is that this article may be useful to clarify why the Reformation is not over and what both Roman Catholics and Evangelicals actually believe. 

We will first make a few comments about both articles’ general method of argumentation and then evaluate the central argument of the Schirrmacher-Johnson article. 

Articles’ Method

There are multiple problems with both articles’ basic method.  We will only mention two here:

1)  Inaccurate and Misleading Statements

There were an alarming number of inaccurate statements in both articles, and we do not have space to respond to all of them.[ix] However, we will briefly respond to Schirrmacher’s accusation and Schirrmacher-Johnson’s accusation mentioned above. 

Schirrmacher writes that the authors of “What Do You Think About Pope Francis?” are “painting a very negative picture of the Pope’s character,” “impugn both the Pope’s motives and his character,” and “seem to suggest that Pope Francis is an expert at deluding people.”[x]

What does the article “What Do You Think About Pope Francis?” actually say about Pope Francis?

The article explains that the Pope is “one of the most liked leaders in today’s world” and his message is “inclusive and nonjudgmental.”  Personally, Francis is “sincere, kind, and loving,” “charming” and “relationally warm.”  He is described as “magnetic” and able to “winsomely communicate,” with an enormous capacity for “empathetic listening” and “profound political gifts.”  He is described as having an “extraordinary openness and warmth toward evangelicals.”[xi]

The article does explain that Francis is a Jesuit (he is), who is also a “gifted and canny politician” (he is), and that some have described him as a “chess player” (they have).[xii] At one point, Schirrmacher accuses the authors of falsely describing Francis as a chess player, and yet in the same article he asserts that “you have to be [a chess player] if you have to deal with the Curia!,” in effect disagreeing with himself. [xiii]

Schirrmacher seems offended by the article’s description of Francis’ extraordinary communication and political gifts as comparable to one of the greatest public communicators of the day, former U.S. President Barack Obama.  But both Francis and Obama have an amazing ability to listen to and empathize with others and communicate effectively, and the article seeks to help readers to understand Francis by using Obama’s extraordinary gifts as a point of comparison. 

Schirrmacher’s description of the article as “a very negative picture of the Pope’s character” which “impugn[s] both the Pope’s motives and his character” is clearly incorrect.[xiv]

In short, the article “What Do You Think About Pope Francis?” portrays Francis as an sincere, kind, and extraordinarily gifted Jesuit from South America who is also a canny political leader and the most ecumenical Pope yet -- who is relationally reaching out to Evangelicals (and others).  It encourages Evangelicals to do their homework regarding how to understand Francis and his role as the Pope of the Catholic Church as he is (according to Catholic sources) seeking to establish a new relationship between Catholicism and Evangelicalism.  

Schirrmacher-Johnson’s article continues the pattern of inaccurate statements and character assassination of the over 200 signers of the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement.  We quoted their comment before, but it bears repeating: 

The statement seems to assume that the Pope purposely deceives us or even lies to us and the public without providing clear evidence.  We are afraid this could violate the ninth commandment by bearing false witness against our neighbor (in this case the Pope and other Catholic leaders).[xv]

There are only two references to Pope Francis in the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement. The first explains one of the reasons why some claim that the Reformation is over:

The challenges for Christians worldwide (e.g., secularism and Islam) are so daunting that Protestants and Catholics can no longer afford to remain divided. A unified witness (with perhaps the Pope as the leading spokesman?) would greatly benefit global Christianity.[xvi]

The second describes the Roman Catholic theology of indulgences:

Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church’s view is revealed by its continued use of indulgences (i.e., the remission of the temporal punishment for sin allotted by the Church on special occasions). It was the theology of indulgences that triggered the Reformation, but this system has been invoked most recently by Pope Francis in the 2015-2016 Year of Mercy.[xvii]

It is likely that Schirrmacher and Johnson’s accusation is referring only to a short section of the Statement that they quote immediately beforehand, in which the Pope is never mentioned:

The fact that millions of Catholics have become Evangelicals in recent years has not gone unnoticed by Roman Catholic leaders. They are seeking to respond strategically to this loss of their faithful by adopting traditional Evangelical language (e.g. conversion, gospel, mission, and mercy) and establishing ecumenical dialogues with churches they once condemned.[xviii]

If they mean this paragraph when they use the term “the statement,” they seem to believe that this passage is asserting that because Catholic leaders in recent years have been strategically using Evangelical language and seeking to establish ecumenical dialogue, the Pope is exercising intentional deception by misrepresenting Catholic beliefs. However, that is clearly not what this quote states or implies.  At no point does the Statement, or the article about the Pope Francis, assert that Pope Francis is dishonest.  So again we have a false accusation with no evidence.

The fact that Schirrmacher and Johnson make such a false accusation is disconcerting, and should encourage a careful reader to question any of their assertions. A similar problem exists in how both articles distort the most basic descriptions. 

2)  Distortions not Descriptions

A key element of good scholarship is an ability to describe another writer’s argument fairly and honestly. 

At the beginning of the article “Let the Reformation Continue!”, Schirrmacher-Johnson summarize their main point in extra-large bold font: “We respectfully believe that the statement ‘Is the Reformation Over?  A Statement of Evangelical Convictions’ is not a sufficient description of our present theological situation.”[xix] The remainder of the article then seeks to unpack why the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement is not a “sufficient description of our present theological situation.”[xx]

But this was not the point of the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement.  There is an extensive list of topics one should address in attempting to provide “a sufficient description of our present theological situation.”[xxi] To list only a few issues from an Evangelical perspective, one would need to include the health and wealth gospel, Islam, Evangelicalism’s discipleship crisis, new perspective movement, higher critical approaches to the Bible, theological education, etc. However, the goal of the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement was only to provide a 2-page summary of Evangelical convictions regarding Roman Catholicism on the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.

Imagine walking into a typical Italian restaurant and asking for sushi. They don’t serve sushi.  Why would you ask for something they don’t have? This is similar to what Schirrmacher and Johnson have done with their article. They inaccurately describe the goal of the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement and then say it has not achieved the false goal they have foisted on it. This fundamental distortion is embedded in (and garbles) their entire article. 

There are many distortions and wrong characterizations in how Schirrmacher and Johnson formulate the issues and questions in their articles.  In particular, Schirrmacher-Johnson list seven statements that, they assert, are stated or assumed in the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement and then explain why they disagree with each statement.  However, these seven statements distort the most basic issues and do not provide a fair description or analysis of the “Is the Reformation Over?” Statement’s claims. The rest of this article seeks to clarify and evaluate just a few of these distortions.   

Leonardo De Chirico is the pastor of Breccia di Roma and Vice Chairman of the Italian Evangelical Alliance. He also is the Director of the Reformanda Initiative.