500 years to eternity : The Reformation and Western Civilisation

Martin Luther

It would be exactly 500 years tomorrow since a German friar nailed 95 provocative statements to a church door.  It was this action that triggered what we now call the Reformation.  To be sure, the statements were centred on corruption in the Roman Catholic Church.

What the friar, Martin Luther, wrote caught the attention of people throughout Europe and within two decades the continent was split between Catholics and Protestants.  This conflict was to continue for hundreds of years with the first century becoming bloody and violent.



Those statements from Luther that started to go viral in 1517 have thus shaped most lives -from the books that are read, to the jobs that people do, to the political systems that we have.  We have much to be thankful for considering the way that the Reformation led to the development of language and communication technologies.



The Reformation opened the way to the development of much stronger ideas of the nation state.  The arts, sciences and literature flourished, thanks to the bible becoming available in each person's language rather than only in Latin and people began to own books.


Economically, there were creative and innovative developments - especially in finance and banking.  It became acceptable to charge interest on loans.  This led to the sort of economic development that had not been possible before.  If you are reading this on your way home from work, your work is partly down to that German friar.



At the heart of the Reformation was the fact that God offers forgiveness of sins, and the promise of heaven.