On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses, igniting the powder keg that would be the Reformation. In the centuries leading up to the date, various factions of the European Church had assumed the cultural identity of "Christian" and started to let the Gospel slip away. Movements sprung up across Europe, and leaders like Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, Philip Melanchthon, John Calvin, and Thomas Cranmer became etched in the history books. What was the movement about? What did it accomplish? Does it still matter today?

Gateway Downtown commemorated the 500th anniversary of the start of the Reformation by tackling those questions in a short sermon series, Five for Five Hundred which looked at the five “solas” of the Reformation: sola scriptura (scripture alone), sola fide (faith alone), sola gratia (grace alone), solus Christus (Christ alone), soli Deo gloria (for the glory of God alone).

Below are some fantastic resources to read to understand the movement and its impact today. You will notice great points of unity as well as important points of divergence. Please note that Gateway Downtown does not officially endorse any of these documents or any point therein. Nevertheless, we hope that by providing a wide range of documents over the last 500+ years, you'll see how the church is always to be reforming to be brought into accord with the word of God: Ecclesia semper reformanda!

Each entry includes a title (hyperlinked to an available resource), the author or principle author, the geographic origins of the document, and (in parenthesis) the year it was written or published.