More classic art masterpieces used as illustrations
TL;DR:
At times, the church has allowed materialism to distort its spiritual mission. One notable example was the sale of indulgences to raise money for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Although indulgences did not officially grant forgiveness of sin, their commercialization created the impression that spiritual benefits could be obtained in exchange for money.
Did a church fundraising scheme help ignite the Protestant Reformation?
“When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’
“Peter answered: ‘May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!’”
— Acts 8:18–20
Many people consider St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to be one of the most magnificent Christian church buildings in the world. The sanctuary is more than two football fields long and has about 140,000 square feet of floor space. That is approximately the size of 70 average houses in the United States.
The church’s enormous size is not its only impressive feature. Many illustrious architects and artists contributed to it, including Michelangelo. St. Peter’s is noted for its remarkable works of art, ranging from Bernini’s bronze baldachin over the main altar to Michelangelo’s marble Pietà.
Unfortunately, in his zeal to complete the huge basilica, Pope Leo X relied on a practice that seems foreign to the spirit of Christ. He used revenue associated with the sale of indulgences to help finance the enormous building project. In Roman Catholic teaching, an indulgence did not forgive sin. Rather, it remitted temporal punishment for sin whose guilt had already been forgiven. In practice, however, indulgences were sometimes promoted in ways that made them appear to offer spiritual benefits in return for money. They were often even marketed on behalf of people who had died and were believed to be undergoing purification in purgatory.
Some preachers proved especially effective at promoting indulgences, including Johann Tetzel in Saxony, now part of Germany. Tetzel turned indulgence promotion into an art. One of the jingles associated with his campaigns declared:
When a coin in the coffer rings,
A soul from purgatory springs.
Tetzel’s methods—and, indeed, the commercialization of indulgences itself—would likely have provoked the same condemnation Jesus directed at the commercialism He encountered in the Jerusalem Temple. Could money actually purchase spiritual favor?
These abuses associated with fundraising for St. Peter’s aroused the ire of a monk named Martin Luther and helped ignite the controversy that led to the Protestant Reformation. [ PowerPoint on Luther ]
Profiteering and commercialism can never be justified in the church simply because they seem to be producing good results. The laudable goal of constructing a church building does not—and cannot—justify questionable means of achieving it.
Of course, Jesus knew that the merchants in the Temple would probably return. But in this dramatic episode, He managed to point out to the people in Jerusalem the need to restore purity to their worship.
Not long after His cleansing of the Temple, Jesus was challenged by the Pharisees. He responded by telling a story about some vineyard workers. These wicked men eventually killed the vineyard owner’s son in an effort to seize the vineyard for themselves.
The vineyard workers represented religious leaders who wanted to take, take, take, and never give. Those leaders viewed the Temple almost as their personal possession.
When Jesus began to challenge that view, He knew how they would react. When Jesus’ claim to Sonship became clear to the religious leaders, they responded by putting Him to death.
Jesus used the parable of the vineyard workers to illustrate that a person’s response to the Son is the key issue. The important thing is not how well the vineyard is kept. Instead, what counts is the response to the owner’s son.
That same challenge faces us today. People still seek religious and material security, forgetting that they are merely workers in the vineyard, not its owners.
Let us be good stewards of the things God has temporarily placed in our hands. Let us also remember that we are only stewards. We should be prepared at any moment to turn everything over to the Owner as an expression of His lordship in our lives.
— Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
I wrote this devotional blog post while Barbara and I were serving as missionaries in Italy. It is one of a series of 52 brief devotionals written for The Standard, a weekly Faith Connections take-home curriculum piece for adult Sunday school classes published by what is now The Foundry.
The granting and selling of indulgences were practices historically associated with the Roman Catholic Church, particularly during the Middle Ages. Indulgences were understood to remit or reduce temporal punishment for sins whose guilt had already been forgiven, whether for oneself or for someone who had died and was believed to be undergoing purification in purgatory.
Here is how it worked:
The original St. Peter’s Basilica, built in the fourth century, had fallen into disrepair by the late fifteenth century. Pope Julius II initiated construction of a new basilica in 1506 to replace the old structure. The sale of indulgences became a major source of revenue for the expensive project. Pope Leo X, who succeeded Julius II, intensified this fundraising effort. He authorized itinerant preachers to travel across Europe promoting indulgences. These campaigns were particularly aggressive in Germany.
The promotion of indulgences as a way to reduce the time deceased loved ones would spend in purgatory became a major point of contention during the Protestant Reformation. Reformers such as Martin Luther strongly criticized the practice. The Ninety-five Theses, which Luther circulated in 1517 and traditionally are said to have been posted on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, protested the commercialization of indulgences and the impression that spiritual benefits could be obtained through monetary payments.
The Council of Trent, convened by the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century in response to the Reformation, addressed abuses associated with indulgences. While reaffirming their use, the council condemned abuses and ordered the elimination of the financial abuses associated with them.
Although indulgences still exist in Roman Catholic theology today, the practice of selling them has been abolished. Indulgences are now granted under specific spiritual conditions and are not exchanged for money.
Purgatory is not explicitly taught in the Bible, though Roman Catholics believe it can be inferred from three or four Bible verses. Catholic teaching describes purgatory as an intermediate place or state of purification after death. It is for people who die reconciled to God but who, for some reason, need more cleansing before they can be allowed to enter heaven. It is not a second chance for unrepentant sinners.
Protestants reject purgatory because no biblical passage clearly describes an intermediate place or process of punishment and purification. They emphasize passages such as Luke 23:43, Romans 8:1, 2 Corinthians 5:8, and Hebrews 10:14, which portray Christ-followers as forgiven and entering His presence after death. They further note that it is not mentioned in either the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed.
Conclusion: Purgatory is a concept based on inferences drawn from several biblical passages and early Christian tradition, but it is not plainly or directly described in Scripture or in historic Christian creeds.
The biblical themes of faithful stewardship, true worship, and responding rightly to the Son appear throughout the New Testament, including in the Gospel according to John.