SLFS Review – 500: THE IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION TODAY

500: THE IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION TODAY screens Tuesday, July 18 at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis Filmmaker’s Showcase. Ticket information can be found HERE

Review by Mark Longden

Since 2002, Cinema St Louis has held the St Louis Filmmakers Showcase, a way for movies made by locals or with very strong local ties to be shown to the wider public. A huge number of fascinating features have been given exposure in this way and joining the wide variety (narrative features, experimental shorts and local documentaries) comes 500: THE IMPACT OF THE REFORMATION TODAY, made by the local Concordia Seminary, one of the world’s premier locations for Lutheran studies and teaching.

It’s the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, which I can say without fear of hyperbole is  one of the most important single events in world history. Host Sandy Miller, a news anchor for Fox 2 here in St Louis, introduces the documentary and guides us through it, giving us an extremely large amount of information presented in a surprisingly informal and interesting way. She’s great, too, a natural TV host.

Allow me to explain a little of what the documentary brings you. The Catholic Church considered the only important religious work to be that done for the Church, whereas Luther (quite reasonably) suggested that if you wanted to glorify God, you could do so by just being the best person you could possibly be – if you were a breadmaker, be the best breadmaker possible, don’t overcharge people, use healthy ingredients, and so on. While this seems self-explanatory to us, in the 15^th century daring to say that a priest was no better than a breadmaker was tantamount to heresy, and the fallout from Luther’s proclamations is the main thrust of the film.

It goes through, methodically, the main threads of Reformation thought and how they echo down to the present. Lutherans suggested that boys and girls should be educated (girls!), inspired the Calvinists, and talked about how marriage could be holy – in pre-Reformation Europe, apparently, celibacy was a serious drain on the birthrate. It talks about how the Reformation inspired both religious art and allowed the first flowering of secular art, and introduced me to the wonderful and slightly strange world of the spurting blood school of paintings (showing Jesus on the cross, but his blood spurting out to cover his followers. It’s pretty interesting).

Towards the end of its 104 minute run time, we get a discussion of how the Reformation inspired the Founding Fathers, and how the separation of church and state can be seen to come from Luther’s teaching about “two realms”, and how God rules in two separate ways – by looking after our bodies, and after our spiritual lives. It discusses religious violence, and mentions the Mennonites, that offshoot who are so staunch in their pacifism that they refuse to serve in the Armed Forces.

Now, strong praise can be given to “500” in that it held the interest of me and my wife – me, a devout atheist, my wife, Jewish. There’s a lot of really interesting discussion and information here! But, while the movie manages to find time for a quote from Calvin about how some usury is okay, it didn’t find the time to mention Luther’s extremely vicious anti-Semitism, such as his pamphlet called “On The Jews And Their Lies” or his equating of Jews with the Devil. While I have no reason to think the modern Lutheran faith shares the views of its founder on this particular issue, and the documentary even goes out of its way to say how it’s okay that people can be of any faith or none, should they choose, it’s a glaring oversight for anyone who has any knowledge of the history talked about.

I think, for most of its run time, it’s a fascinating insight into the debates that helped shape modern Europe, and indeed the people who founded the USA. You will grow to love some of the talking heads, such as Erik Herrmann (a professor at the Concordia Seminary), who has a gift for making pretty dry subjects come alive. If your political views are of the left, you might be less thrilled at one of the other Lutheran scholars who quotes George Will approvingly, or the unquestioning approval given to Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit Of Capitalism”, but it was made by Lutherans to explain their world view, not to provide every side of every debate they’ve been involved in down the centuries. Provided you understand it in that way and go into it ready to do some research afterwards, there’s a heck of a lot to enjoy here and I highly recommend you support Cinema St Louis by buying a ticket to go and see it.