Matthew Levering - Was the Reformation a Mistake?: Why Catholic Doctrine Is Not Unbiblical

I am grateful to Katya Covrett of Zondervan for the invitation to write this book. In commemoration of the Reformation, she and her colleagues came up with the topic and title, persuaded my eminent friend Kevin Vanhoozer to write an evangelical response within the book, and made it possible for me to undertake the task. Let me thank Kevin, my neighbor in Libertyville, Illinois, for bringing his characteristically brilliant intelligence, wit, and grace to his portion of the book. Writing a short book (the requested length of my portion was sixty thousand words) on a wide range of dense and complex five-hundred-year-old intractable Christian controversies poses personal and professional risks. I agreed to write such a book, however, because I wanted to attend to the five-hundredth anniversary of the Reformation in a way that would show appreciation for the love of the Word of God that has been manifested to me by numerous Protestant friends and colleagues.

The generosity and collegiality shown to me by evangelical theologians in the Chicago area since I moved here in 2013 has been a tremendous consolation and gift. Without being able to be in any way comprehensive, let me mention here the support and encouragement given me by Jack Bates, Chris Smith, Craig Hefner, Ty Kieser, Daniel Hill, Jon Laansma, Nicholas Perrin, Marc Cortez, Jeff Barbeau, Beth Jones, Dan Treier, Keith Johnson, Greg Lee, Matthew Milliner, and George Kalantzis (all of Wheaton College), and also by Tom McCall, John Woodbridge, David Luy, Alex Pierce, David Moser, Lisa Sung, Doug Sweeney, Kevin Vanhoozer, and Geoffrey Fulkerson (all of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, with the exception of David Moser who is now a doctoral candidate at Southern Methodist University). My Libertyville neighbor Scot McKnight reached out to me early on, and I am grateful for our lunches together and for his inspiring love of the gospel. Joel Willitts of North Park University graciously invited me to give a presentation on theological interpretation of Scripture to his class. Among the many evangelical theologians outside the Chicago area to whom I owe a significant debtfar too many to name herelet me mention just a few: Timothy George, Hans Boersma, Peter Leithart, Chad Raith, Dave Nelson, Michael Allen, Ryan Peterson, and Adam Johnson. None of the above, of course, bears responsibility for my positions in this book.

At Mundelein Seminary, my estimable dean, Fr. Thomas Baima, has long been at the center of Chicago-area and international ecumenical dialogues; he has my gratitude for all that he does for the seminary and for the church. I could not have undertaken this work without his support and that of Mundelein Seminarys rector, Fr. John Kartje, or without the generosity of James and Mary Perry, who, among their numerous works of love, endowed the Chair of Theology that I hold. To my extraordinary wife, Joy Levering, thank you for the blessings that you bear to all with whom you interact, and for all your gifts to me and to our treasured children. Joy, you have ravished my heart (Song 4:9); may God care for you and bless you everlastingly. I also wish to thank my beloved mother and father, who are committed Quakers, and my beloved brother Brooks and sister-in-law Heather, who are evangelical Christians.

During his tenure at Mundelein Seminary as the 20152016 Paluch Chair, Reinhard Htter helped me to think about how to structure this book and gave excellent counsel. R. J. Matava read parts of an early version and offered trenchant criticism. David Luy assisted me tremendously in filling lacunae in the Luther sections and in helping me clarify the strictly limited purpose of these sections. David raised valuable questions about ways in which these sections might be misread, and I have worked to guard against such misunderstandings. Alex Pierce read the whole manuscript twice and saved me from a wide array of theological and textual infelicities. Jared Ortiz organized a reading group that read the introduction and four chapters of the manuscript, and that challenged me on numerous points and improved the final form of the manuscript greatly. The members of this reading group included Jareds Hope College colleagues Jonathan Hagood and Jack Mulder, as well as Len Baremen, Linda Baremen, Benjamin Currie, and Michael Page. Tremendous thanks to all of these generous souls. My son Andrew will be a freshman at Hope College this fall.

Let me dedicate this book to a Christian scholar and friend who has a heart for the gospel and a marvelous patience, generosity, gentleness, and brilliance: Todd Billings. We have shared many enriching times together at conferences, wonderful car rides (especially in Dallas-area ice storms!), and many a good meal. In his writings and in his person, Todd embodies the psalmists teaching, The fear of the L ORD is the beginning of wisdom (Ps 111:10).