The Reformation Quotes

“The tension between autonomy and expertise had been, at a basic level, fundamental to the Protestant experience itself from the Reformation forward, as the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, increasing literacy, and vernacular translations of the Bible undermined the clerical caste's monopoly on spiritual authority. In the twentieth-century United States, professional specialization, the Progressive emphasis on technical expertise, and simply the ever more complex nature of modern urban life pulled readers toward greater reliance on literary guidance, while the logic of consumerism, rooted in the all-powerful choice to buy or not to buy, further reinforced the notion of reader autonomy.”
― Matthew Hedstrom

“The fathers [the Old Testament saints] knew the promise about the Messiah, that God for the Messiah’s sake had chosen to forgive sins. Therefore, since they understood that Christ would be the price given to pay for our sins, they knew that our own works are not a sufficient price for so weighty a matter. Accordingly, they enjoyed free mercy and the forgiveness of sins by faith, just like the saints in the New Testament."
"Psalm 130:3 “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” Here David acknowledges his sins and does not speak of his merits. He then adds: “But there is forgiveness with You” (verse 4). Here David comforts himself by his trust in God’s mercy, and he quotes the promise: “My soul waits, and in His Word I hope,” (verse 5), i.e., because You have promised the forgiveness of sins, I am supported by Your promise.
Therefore the [Old Testament] fathers too were justified, not by the law, but by God’s promise and by faith.”
― Philip Melanchthon, The Apology of the Augsburg Confession

“We explain justification simply as the acceptance with which God receives us into His favour as righteous people. And we say that it consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”
― John Calvin, Institutes 3: 11: 2

“Maybe you go to mass every day. But if you live for your own selfish benefit, and have no concern for the difficulties of your neighbour, as if they did not touch you at all, then all you have done is take part in the sacrament in a merely outward way. The sacrifice of the mass, in a spiritual sense, means that we become one body with the Body of Christ, living members of His Church. If your love for things is guided by Christ, if you think all your possessions to be things you hold in trust for the good of all, if you take upon yourself the difficulties and sufferings of your neighbour as if they were your own, then you may take part in mass very fruitfully, because now you take part in a spiritual way…
But to worship Christ with nothing more than outward ceremonies, as if such worship were the height of spirituality, while all the time you are puffed up with self-importance, and condemn other people, and think yourself secure because you live and die in your outward worship: well, the very ordinances of worship that were meant to draw you to Christ will withdraw you from Him. Your religion is a rebellion against the spirit of the Gospel, a falling back into the superstitions and rituals of Judaism ...
The apostle Paul, the foremost defender of spiritual religion, never ceased trying to get the Jews to give up their confidence in outward works and rituals, and to lead them to spiritual realities. Yet I feel that the great majority of Christians have fallen back again into that sickness.”
― Erasmus The Dagger of the Christian Soldier, 4th and 5th Rules

“If [John] Piper's beliefs on authority clash with the doctrine of the Reformers as I argue, one would expect that Piper would have much less conflict with Roman Catholicism than the Reformers did. This is indeed the case. In fact, Piper's mystic hedonism is leading evangelicals on a fast trot back to Rome, where mystics have long nestled under its skirts.”
― Enoch Burke, The Hedonism and Homosexuality of John Piper and Sam Allberry: The Truth of Scripture

“in the outcomes of the greatest movements in German history—the Reformation and the Peasant War, the events of the period of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, the Revolution of 1848 and the movement for the national unification of Germany. In all these major events the scales turned, in the long run, in favour of the reactionary classes.”
― Mark Borisovich Mitin, Marx and Engels on reactionary Prussianism,