The Reformation and the “Intellectualization” of God

The Protestant Reformation brought dramatic changes to the theological and philosophical situation in Europe. Beginning around the year 1517, the German monk Martin Luther began airing grievances against political and theological abuses in the Roman church, and this initial reform movement soon boiled over into a full-on schism. With the shattering of Rome’s authority over the intellectual temperament of the age came increasingly more and more radical interpretations of Christian religion. In England, the reformation initially took the form of the moderate Church of England, which was directly controlled by the monarch and monarch-appointed bishops. Despite this, radical English Protestants, namely Calvinists, (who take their name from their intellectual founder, Jean Calvin) developed a substantial following throughout the 17^th century. Eventually, their influence would help contribute to the civil unrest, war, and revolution that wracked the British Isles.

The intellectual underpinnings of the reformers valued a “return” of sorts to a purer version of Christian faith. (Kelley 314) For many, this meant stripping away the “superstitions” that had evolved within the Roman Church. While in most places this involved simplifying and consolidating the Catholic ritual of the time, radical reformers advocated for the removal of any form of “popery.” This included religious statues and symbols, vestments, or anything without a direct scriptural reference. Their philosophical and theological writings stressed many of the same themes, removing the influence of “superstitious” beliefs and reinforcing use of scripture and scripture alone as the proper source of Christian practice. In doing so, they prioritized intellectual religious experience over more esoteric possibilities, with a number of early reformers becoming openly hostile to mysticism. And as a whole, Protestantism as it developed in the 16^th and 17^th centuries became significantly influenced by scholasticism and other intellectual traditions. And as the Reformation intensified and the Counter-Reformation began, both camps became increasingly divergent, identifying themselves as being “not” the other. For instance, Protestant, and particularly Calvinist churches became increasingly spare to focus the service on the message, while Catholic churches became more elaborate to simulate the sublime beauty of heaven.

These developments directly contrasted with the mystical, devotional literary experiences discussed earlier. As we saw in the works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, as well as in writings of non-English people such as Ignatius of Loyola, Catholic conceptions of God, expressed in literary works, usually emphasized the mystical nature of the divine. Throughout each of their works, they frequently relate accounts of the direct intervention of God into their lives in a manner that reformers considered superstitious. Margery Kempe stands out as a particularly strong example of this, as she extensively relies on visions from the divine, as well as the presence of divinity in sacraments like the Eucharist that she sees fluttering.

For a possible example of how significantly the paradigm shifts, we can look directly at the same genre of spiritual autobiography. Take, for instance, John Bunyan’s 1666 work Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Like Margery Kempe, Bunyan’s conversion occurs after a certain period of “sinfulness,” but this conversion occurs through different means. When Bunyan describes possibly calamitous events, such as a near-drowning, he continues to attribute his safety to God, though through evidently indirect means unlike Margery’s divine intervention. (Bunyan 12) Even when he does experience a direct appearance from God, he attributes it to a “voice from heaven” as opposed to an apparition. (22) Likewise, his conversion, the seminal moment of the spiritual autobiography, occurs as a result of repeated reading and meditation on religious texts. (253-264)

But Paradise Lost is perhaps the best example of this intellectualization of the Christian concept of God. Indeed, at the beginning of the poem, as Milton invokes the blessings of the Muses as many an epic writer before him had done, he writes that he means to “assert eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men.” (11) In a certain sense, this equates to a sort-of placing of himself as poet on the same pedestal as the divine, or at least a certain privileged access to divinity that he could justify God to the whole human race. Given the location of this phrase, namely, at the end of Milton’s heroic invocation of the Muses, it appears that this privileged access occurs as a result of his intellectual abilities. This prioritization of intellectual prowess appears to be a close result of Milton’s Calvinist and Protestant heritage. Moreover, Milton then goes on to create a whole theoretical universe for God, borrowing from the great classical traditions, and most importantly presenting God and Satan as tangible, knowable characters. This continues the intellectualization of Lost into something that would have been wholly foreign, both in its unprecedented mission and in its presentation of God, from what the eminently Catholic writers of the previous centuries would have recognized.

Works Cited

Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: In a Faithful Account of the Life and Death of John Bunyan or, a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to Him. Project Gutenberg, 19 Sept. 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/654/654-h/654-h.htm.

Kelley, Donald R., editor. “The Reformation.” Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, Yale University Press, 1991, pp. 311–369.

McGinn, B. “Mysticism and the Reformation: A Brief Survey.” Acta Theologica, vol. 35, no. 2, 2015, pp. 50-65.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, ed. James Simpson, 9th Edition, W. W. Norton and Company, 2018, pp. .