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Reformation issued catechisms, aimed at instilling Christian doctrine in the
lives of European believers. The Reformation has often been criticised for un-
dermining the institution of the monastic life. However, another interpretation
would be that it aimed not so much at eliminating monastic discipline, as mak-
ing it possible for all Christians. Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer, with its
recommendation that Christians should pray regularly, morning and evening,
was in effect a form of the monastic pattern of devotion, adapted for every
Christian, whether in the home or the workplace, rather than purely for those
who had entered the monastery.
In response to the threat of Islam, and the prospect of Europe being
dominated by a growing Muslim presence, the reformers urged not so much a
military response to the Islamic threat, but renewal of Christian life and discip-
line.
Other factors could be cited in this story of the Reformation as a re-
sponse to a range of social and economic problems facing Europe at the time.
Yet at its heart was the doctrine of justification by faith, which although more
central to Luther’s teaching than any of the other reformers, still occupied
pride of place as perhaps the main doctrine that united the various branches of
the Reformation. This idea gave a new basis for self-worth and value in an age
which left the individual exposed and uncertain. It made possible a new ap-
proach to social inequality and poverty, resolving the dilemma of its necessity
within mediaeval schemes of salvation, and making possible a wholesale assault
upon poverty as a social ill. It was a doctrine that led in an egalitarian direction,
th
felt left behind in the social rat-race of early 16 century Europe. It also advoc-
ated a response not of force and violence, but of faith, repentance and prayer
to the threat of a vigorous and potentially violent Islamic presence on the
edges of Europe.
The Reformation was, to be sure, a deeply flawed movement. Its polem-
ics and aggression towards its enemies, and even within the different branches
of the Reformation itself, helped lead to the breakup of a unified mediaeval
Christendom, and to a fragmented form of Christian faith, which has split into
ever increasing numbers of denominations. Such fragmentation has arguably
led to the hyper-pluralism of the modern age, and perhaps even to the rise of
acquisitive capitalism, as people gave up on theological debate, shrugging their
shoulders to go shopping instead. These are arguments well made in Brad

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