Journey to Wittenburg:
A New Reformation
By Matthew Fox

When Cardinal Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005, I was preparing to go to Germany for a speaking engagement on a Pentecost theme. I could not in good conscience speak on the theme of ecclesial rebirth without addressing issues surrounding the new pope, particularly as I knew him personally, had been silenced and then expelled by him from the Dominican Order in 1992.

Looking to Martin Luther
I prayed about it and in the middle of one night, I awakened with an idea: Why not draw up theses as Martin Luther did five hundred years ago -- theses that would speak to my concerns about modern day Christendom? Admiring Luther for his protests and believing that today’s churches need reformation as they did centuries ago, I decided to reenact Luther’s pounding of his theses onto the door of Castle Church in Wittenburg, Germany.

I sat down and began to write and, one after another, 95 theses tumbled out. They seemed to represent a certain reformation and transformation of church and religion for our times.

Martin Would Have Loved This
Arriving in Germany, I found that permission was required to perform an action at Castle Church door in Wittenburg, now a major tourist attraction. City officials said, “You have one hour only and you must be at least 45 feet from the doors.” After much haggling, they allowed me to present my reenactment at the doors themselves. Next, realizing that the bronze doors engraved with Luther’s words were unsuitable for nails, I created an A-frame sturdy enough to withstand the pounding in of my scroll.

During the reenactment, a bus drove up, full of English-speaking South African tourists. After their tour guide explained the doors and their meaning, I said, “Excuse me! I am a theologian visiting from the United States and I’m here not just to look back 500 years in history, but also to make history. Will you listen to what I have to say?”

The guide snorted, “We are on a tight schedule. How dare you interfere with our trip? Everyone is to get back on the bus immediately!” She marched off toward the waiting bus with the tourists trailing behind her.

Tourists, Not Pilgrims
This was ironic, as I note in my book how Christian churches have become museums rather than living, breathing spiritual centers. In the case of Castle Church, it is a tourist stop for thousands of visitors who snap photos of the doors and Luther’s tomb inside. While I was at the door, tourist groups and individuals with cameras arrived, snapped photos, and left, often within just a few minutes -- many tourists, few pilgrims.

One of the South African visitors said to me, “What you are talking about is much more interesting than our tour. We would love to stay and learn more but we have to get on the bus.” I had a number of the English versions of my new book with me. I gave several away and wished everyone well.

I spoke a few words and someone asked an important question: “Is this call for a New Reformation only an issue for the Roman Catholic Church, brought about by the election of Cardinal Ratzinger?”

Churches and Christians around the world, I believe, need a reawakening for several reasons. Just one is the deep corruption in the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church at this time in history -- corruption symbolized by the hypocrisy and horror of priestly pedophilia, the canonizing of a fascist admirer of Hitler, and other scandals.

Protestantism Has Lost Its Juice
The call to Reformation is a call to Protestants as well. While not suffering from the same public display of corruption, the Protestant tradition has lost its juice as a protesting and prophetic body. It has fallen into comfort and, in its worst instances, has entered in a cabal with imperial powers, as is the case with the kind of fundamentalism in America that gives religious legitimization to government entities.

Present-day Protestantism suffers from what our ancestors called acedia -- a kind of spiritual sloth. Among the terms I use to describe it are anemic, boring, unmystical, preoccupied with trivia, one-dimensional and burned out. Protestantism has lost the vibrant, compassionate spirituality that grew out of its original and courageous break with orthodoxy.

Today, our churches are sleeping giants mowed over by anti-intellectual fundamentalism. Both Protestantism and Catholicism need radical wake-up calls to move from religion to spirituality, and that is the basis of my 95 Theses or Articles of Faith for a Christianity for the Third Millennium as laid out in my book, A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity.

As Luther did, I see a call for Reformation as a vehicle for opening debate at a critical time in our history, when the earth is being ravaged by war, poverty, sexism, homophobia and eco-destruction. A look back at the original Reformation gives us the strength and the motivation to embrace a deep ecumenism; to radically alter our relationships with tradition and institutions, and to invent creative new ways to worship.

Theologian and scholar, the Reverend Dr. Matthew Fox is the author of the new book, A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality and the Transformation of Christianity.