The Reformation

Issues: Bible Study

Against this position there arose in the fifteenth century a radically different approach to the Bible. It was articulated best in groups like the Brethren of the Common Life, laymen who came together to try to lead a more pure Christian life. Unable to find spiritual nourishment in their local churches, disillusioned by the moansteries (the traditional haven for the ardent lay Christian), some men and women simply began sharing a common life on their own. Bible study was an important element in this movement.

The Brothers read the Bible and discussed it in study groups, with no priest to guide them. The Brethren stayed orthodox, thereby demonstrating that Bible study was not only possible but was an important part of an active spiritual life.

In the same century, humanists began to discover errors in the Vulgate. Some had crept in over the centuries, and some had been made by Jerome himself. Some humanists began working on new editions, in pursuit of a purer version of the Word.

When the impetus for Bible study joined with humanistic training, the result could be radical. Both Luther and Calvin had received humanistic training, and both were believers in Bible study. And both produced vernacular translations of the Bible.

The printing press gave their work a revolutionary social impact, not so much because the press could turn out thousands of copies, as because the press made each copy affordable. Not only could a German artisan read the Bible for himself, he could own that Bible, and he could be guided in his reading by the many essays and tracts of Luther and others.

So, even as some Christians were becoming persuaded that they did not need the Roman Catholic Church to ensure their salvation, they were discovering that they did not need the priests to teach them their religion. They could read it for themselves and they could teach one another.

Nor did they worry about misinterpretations; for, they argued, God would not allow the true Church to perish or go astray. The truth of the Bible, they said, was simple and open; that it was difficult and hidden was a popish lie.

This was heady stuff, especially for that first generation or two, when people really felt they were liberating their religion from the grip of the Devil, and were seeing their faith for the first time. Much of that feeling stemmed from the fact that they were reading the Bible itself for the first time.