Reform (Religion)

A religious reform (from Latin re: back, again, and formare: to form; i.e. put together: to restore, reconstruct, or rebuild) aims at the reform of religious teachings. It is not to be confused with an organizational reform of a religious community, though mostly this is a consequence of a reform of religious teachings.

Religious reforms are performed when a religious community reaches the conclusion that it deviated from its - assumed - true faith. Mostly religious reforms are started by parts of a religious community and meet resistance in other parts of the same religious community. Religious reforms usually lead to a reformulation of the religious teachings held for true, and to the condemnation resp. rejection of teachings held for wrong.

Mostly the deviation from the assumed true faith which gives reason for a religious reform crept in over a longer period of time, sometimes over centuries. A religious reform is always a reorientation at the historical beginnings of a religion (therefore: re-formare, reconstruct) under the perspective of the present time and with the knowledge of the present time. A typical example for deviations from an assumed true faith are social changes within society which lead a loss purpose for ethical prescriptions, so they have to be replaced by other ethical prescriptions in order to protect the underlying, unchanged value for the future. Another typical example is the factual falsification of traditional views, e.g. by better insights into historical events or into natural science, by which the traditional views are falsified.

The eternally continuing change of society and the progress of human knowledge are the reasons why a "final" reform of religious teachings is not possible. Religious teachings have to be reformed again and again. This realization was formulated in a concise sentence by Karl Barth in 1947: Ecclesia semper reformanda est, i.e. The church is always to be reformed.

Religious reforms do not aim at an adjustment to the spirit of the time in the first place, yet they naturally bring about certain adjustments to the present time, since the religious tradition is reconsidered and reformed under the perspective of the present time and with the knowledge of the present time. A full adjustment of a religious teaching to the spirit of the present time cannot be expected from a credible religious reform. Religious reforms which do not aim at the reestablishment of an assumed true faith in the first place, yet at a mere adjustment of religious teaching to the spirit of the time without respect to an assumed true faith are no religious reforms, strictly speaking. Their purpose is questionable since those reforms are not based on the faith of the believers. Reforms of this nature are often based on compulsion and are usually not long-lasting but are reversed in the next generations. An example is the attempt of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate to restore paganism as state religion.

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