“Here We Stand: Reformation and its 500-Year Legacy”

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his "Ninety-Five Theses" to a church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Little did he know that this gesture would launch doctrinal debates that tore apart the Christian Church, and with it, Europe. Luther would go on to rethink the very foundations of the individual’s relationship with God, and he inspired a widespread challenge to the authority of the traditional ecclesiastical hierarchy. The movements Luther inspired unleashed civil wars, made new media a tool of religious propaganda, rethought the relationship between church and state, and spread the idea of religious toleration as a virtue. Is the Protestant Reformation responsible for making us who we are today? This presentation will explore the lasting impact of the Protestant Reformation and ask how revisiting its history 500 years later might help our understanding of the complex role of religion in public life today.