Although the concept of reformation is popularly so
exclusively associated with the Protestant Reformation
of the sixteenth century, “the hinge,” James Froude
declared, “on which all modern history turns,” the
religious idea of reformation is of great antiquity and
of equally great complexity. It requires careful defini-
tion in order to distinguish it from other forms of
renewal, renovation, revolution, rebirth, or restoration.
The idea of reformation must be distinguished from
deterministic, naturalistic, or supernaturalistic con-
ceptions of renewal. Reformation is a free act or a
repeated series of actions which are intended by the
reformer to recover, reestablish, augment, and perfect
certain essential values which at one time existed in
human society but which subsequently were lost or
impaired by willful neglect or due to a general decline
(Ladner, 1959). To be sure, ideas of renaissance and
renewal were frequently amalgamated with the idea
of reformation. Nor did programs for reformation
always correspond to the supposed historical original
or come up to the hoped-for potential reality. Never-
theless, reformation was always characterized by man's
evocative and creative effort to restore a more perfect
condition which the reformer believed to have existed
at some previous time. But while the reformer
emphasized recovery and restoration, remaking so as
to eradicate defects, he in some cases viewed reforma-
tion as an essential preliminary to further advance.
Thus in Western history the idea of a return to a golden
age has often been associated with a theology of hope,
an eschatological expectation that the kingdom of God
might be realized in whole or in part as a result of
successful reformation. The words “reformation” and
“reform” in certain contexts are interchangeable when
used in the general sense of improvement or restoration
of a better condition. But the term “reformation” has
come to be preferred for a movement which has
effected significant changes or improvements particu-
larly in morals or religious tenets and practices. “Re-
form” is preferred for an attempt to correct corrupt
practices, remove abuses, and change for the better
in any way and can be applied to a specific amend-
ment, frequently a political or legislative act, as the
term “reformation” cannot.
The idea of reformation in Western intellectual his-
tory was essentially a Judeo-Christian conception asso-
ciated first of all with personal regeneration and the
reformed life of the individual, secondly with the res-
toration of the ideal community life in the monastic
movement, and thirdly with a reform given institu-
tional status within the Church as the papacy under-
took to make the world safe for ecclesiastical ideals.
The advocates and carriers of individual and social
reformation in the sixteenth century reached a
prominence never again equalled in history, but the
religious idea of reformation has remained a vital force
down to the present time.
