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Five hundred years ago, the theology of Protestant Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli was designated the official religion of Zurich.
The turmoil of the Reformation was just beginning. As education expanded, literacy led to more people reading the Bible and more curiosity about theology. The family sent their best and brightest sons to be ordained priests. Seminary becomes a gathering of intellectually curious men in his teens. Rather than accept the authority of the status quo, these seminarians questioned church practices compared to reading the Bible.
Like Martin Luther, Zwingli did not want to depart from the established church. Instead, he simply wanted to reform the church and bring its practices in line with his biblical understanding.
Zwingli, feeling a certain degree of academic freedom when discussing theological issues, asked the Zurich city council to call a debate to decide which doctrines would be allowed to be preached in the city.
At this point there was only one church, both literally and figuratively. Zwingli was ordained pastor of the church in Zurich. He was well educated and influenced by the humanist Erasmus to study not only the Bible, but also other scholarly works of the virtuous pagans. Zwingli was a charming and innovative preacher, known for ministering to the sick and oppressed.
When he began preaching in Zurich, his unique style of worship included reading Bible verses in the language of the congregation, which was mostly illiterate. As he read each passage, he commented on the words that provided interpretation and application to the current problem.
As Zwingli read through the Bible, he began to notice differences between church customs and biblical passages. His sermons expressed ideas that contradicted certain established customs and traditions.
At first some of these differences were minor, but as he preached through Scripture they became more significant. When some complained, Zwingli decided that the best way to deal with the accusations of error was to host a debate. I asked them to discuss the 67 points.
Amazingly, by January 1523, Zwingli had never heard of Martin Luther or his 95 Theses, but in many ways his concerns were very similar. .
It’s hard to imagine that the city council’s agenda would include a theological debate that would decide which biblical teaching the city would accept, but it happened in Zurich.
The separation of church and state was a foreign concept. Government officials and clerics worked together as the faith was established, recognized, and supported by the government. Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion were effectively heretical abstractions.
It makes as much sense today for a city to determine the faith of its citizens as it does to determine the distribution of zoning.
A discussion took place. When the bishop’s scholars were unable to discuss Zwingli effectively and were not ready to answer his 67 questions, the councilors voted to ensure that Zwingli continued to be the pastor and that his teachings were the foundation of Zurich. established beliefs.
Zwingli’s victory marked the beginning of the Swiss Reformation, which would have a lasting impact on Protestant goals, beliefs and techniques. But with cities establishing churches and churches taking on the role of the state, a collision course was inevitable. And it did.
Rather than allow discussion of issues and differing ideas, Zwingli did what others accused him of doing. He developed a self-righteous dogmatism, accepting only his own beliefs as correct and crushing all his objections. As a result, he used the power of the state on behalf of the church to punish and even execute dissidents. Instead of becoming a bastion of tolerance, Zurich became known for persecution.
Zwingli’s zeal for the faith was so great that he encouraged warfare with other Swiss cities that rejected his system of beliefs but continued to recognize the papal authority. Zwingli will die tragically on the battlefield, literally fighting for his faith.
Zwingli’s beliefs influence Protestant Christianity today. However, his practice of defending a politically established church and imposing his beliefs as an irrefutable official religion did not survive.
What Zwingli and other reformers failed to understand was that the faith they developed from reading the Bible was also experienced by others. But like any sentence, people find different interpretations based on different grammatical conventions, preconceptions, prejudices, or personal experience.
In establishing a state-sponsored religion, Zwingli should have realized that the ability to discuss beliefs and enable open discussion is as good for faith as any thought process. He, dissent makes the faith stronger. A healthy dose of skepticism is good for checking aspects of faith. Tolerance of diverse beliefs is perfectly appropriate for a political community to thrive.
Learning from this experience, the United States Constitution was an attempt to allow all creeds to compete for the souls of their believers. Americans realized that the personal nature of their faith made it impossible for any government to enforce it. , choosing freedom of conscience instead. Governments cannot designate and endorse any particular religion, but they can limit practices so that beliefs are neither a permit nor an excuse to violate established laws.
Zwingli and other reformers have shown that participating in discussions about faith is intellectually progressive. But governments can only provide a framework that allows for open debate so that faiths are debated and dissent is respected. But the debate should never stop, but should continue while ideas are challenged and debated to provide the moral fabric of virtue, peace, tolerance, and goodwill to stabilize the nation.
Will Sellers He graduated from Hillsdale College and is an Associate Judge of the Supreme Court of Alabama.The best way to reach him is jws@willsellers.com.
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