Every week I say in Church: “I believe (…) the holy catholic Church”. Oftentimes this causes me to meditate on this truth of the Christian faith. I do confess the catholic Church, but in everyday language, I call myself a Protestant and not a Catholic. Protestantism is often perceived – even by Protestants themselves – as a new religious movement which has severed its ties with the existing Church and attempts to reconstruct Christian theology from scratch using Holy Scripture as the only foundation. In some ways, this is a true picture. The Reformation indeed finally broke with the “old” Church and set God’s Word as its ultimate authority above the received tradition. But from the Reformers’ point of view, taking this course was not leaving the Catholic Church. Some time ago, I was reminded about this through the reading of a Johannes a Lasco biography written by Oskar Bartel. Here is what Bartel says about the self-perception of the Reformed Christians in 17th century Poland:
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