I have recently been reading Eric Metaxas’ book on Martin Luther. He did a brilliant job of detailing much of Martin Luther’s life. Incredibly fascinating for me was reading about the relational experiences he had with his father, mother, and the church before he nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg.
Luther’s Complicated Early Relationships
His relationship with his father was complex. His father was a powerful authority figure who knew exactly what he wanted his son to become a lawyer. Hans Luther was a hardworking smelter but wanted to climb in status, and his son Martin would be the way that could happen. Like most fathers of that period, corporeal punishment was commonplace. Hans was just a little more intense. And so was his mother. Metaxas (2017) states, “In later years, Luther would recall how his dear mother once beat him – ‘until the blood flowed’—for the terrible crime of having filched a single nut.” (p.13, Kindle Edition)
But it was a complicated relationship because Martin also loved his father. Metaxas (2017) states, “There is ample evidence that Luther loved his father and that Luther’s father loved his son. Indeed, when Luther’s school-yard chum Hans Reinecke wrote to him of his father’s death, Luther wrote, ‘Seldom if ever have I despised death as much as I do now.’ He said that it ‘has plunged me into deep sadness not only because he was my father but also because he loved me very much.’ Even more, he says, ‘through him, my creator has given me all that I am and have.’” (p.13, Kindle Edition)
What if Luther Had Corrective Relational Experiences?
What was most fascinating was the deep depression that Luther experienced when he considered how fragile his life was and that he could die at any time. Would he go to heaven, or would it be purgatory or even hell? Metaxas (2017) points out, “We know that Luther was too smart not to consider these things deeply and soberly and too sensitive not to have been bothered by them, often to the point of debilitating depression, which he called Anfechtungen.”
This is one of the main reasons Luther changed his mind at the last minute, from being a lawyer to entering the monastery. He felt that the answer to his debilitating questions and consequential feelings of deep, deep sadness were somewhere contained in the Bible.
I am glad for this because many great things came out of it for the church. But I think about what it would have been like for him if he realized the answer to his depression was in relational experiences he should have had if the Catholic Church was centered around relationships (like the first-century church and how Paul saw it functioning) instead of a book. If only the Catholic Church saw God and Jesus as warmly wanting to connect with Martin, even amid sin or messing up, instead of a distant, punitive God. No wonder he experienced so much shame and guilt that drove his depression.
Grace is Embedded into Our Neural Fabric
When we look at most recent findings in neuroscience regarding how the brain changes and examine the Bible and Jesus’ actions through a relational rather than an analytic, reason-focused lens, we see they arrive at the same conclusion. The brain changes quicker, deeper, and more permanently through relational experiences instead of reason, logic, or prescriptive behaviors. Neuroscience has discovered the brain is experience-dependent and driven by affect more than cognitive insights or information (yet these do lead to change, just not as long-lasting).
Wiley & Turner (2011) summarize this in their article (click here for a summary) as they describe the helpful benefits of the neuroscience revolution that started at the turn of the century. We easily see the relational emphasis in Scripture, beginning with the nature of God being three persons in one. Relational experiences are the essence of reality. God said it wasn’t good for “man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 reminds us of the power of relationship in not being overcome by difficulties and feeling comfort. There are over 40 “one another” verses in the New Testament. Paul needed Titus when he was overwhelmed (2 Corinthians 7:4-7). Even Jesus needed the relationships of the disciples when he was overwhelmed with sadness and fear to the point of sweating drops of blood. Even more so, he needed Peter, James, and John closer to him.
The revolutionary discovery from neuroscience is that the central change mechanism for the brain is called “Memory Reconsolidation.” They discovered how God designed grace into our neural fabric. When you are interacting and you begin to feel in the moment the negative affect from a previous painful relational experience, your brain enters a very pliable state. It is subject to change, called neuroplasticity. If this happens in the context of a relational experience—sharing the emotion with someone—and you have a different relational experience “in the moment,” your brain updates (like a software update) the original affective memory and begins to replace it with this new relational experience (in counseling it is referred to as a “corrective relational experience”). In other words, it reconsolidates the original memory, creating a new neural pathway. Your brain is physically rewired at the synaptic level. You still have the memory, but the accompanying emotions—and resulting cognitive schemas and adaptive behaviors—are now different.
Relationships are Central to the Church
If Martin Luther had realized God’s design for life change, he would have sought out safe, intimate relationships that would have drawn closer to him, accepted him, and still respected him even when he sinned or messed up. These corrective relational experiences would have updated the neural pathways that were initially developed by his dad, mom, and the church. Their response was always harsh, “You are bad” (the number one way guilt is created), filled with disgust and emotional distancing (the number one way that shame is created). They tried to shape him up to do better or be eternally damned to hell. He received from them that they didn’t want anything to do with him unless he was sinless.
The Bible points out grace and corrective relational experiences (see the one Jesus created for the Samaritan woman at the well), but knowledge isn’t enough; we must experience them. That is why Jesus left us the church, the family of God, the body of Christ, that we belong to when we turn and follow Jesus.
The primary focus of the first-century church was not worship, but instead building strong relationships and utilizing spiritual gifts to support and uplift each other, nurturing a close-knit community, fostering growth, and motivating outreach to those in need. This is evident from the absence of any mention by Paul or other New Testament writers that the main purpose of gathering as a church is for worship.
Robert Banks (2020), author of one of the most in-depth studies of the first-century church, points out Paul understands worship is what believers should be doing all the time, in all of life. Worship isn’t limited to a specific place or time. Banks (2020) also points out that sometimes churches view the primary purpose of gathering as evangelism, social justice, or centered around a book (i.e., the Bible). While these elements were undoubtedly part of the regular gathering (Acts 2:42), they were not the primary reason for gathering as a church. (Banks, 1980, p. 25)
For Paul, deepening and strengthening relationships with one another was the primary reason for gathering as a church. He states in I Corinthians 14:26 – When you come together, each of you has a hymn, a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything must be done so the church may be built up [edification]. Banks states “…the most general form of the meeting centered around eating a meal and exercising ministry for one another’s benefit.”
Reforming Church Practices to Resemble the First-Century Church
So here is my craziest thought: If Martin Luther had been aware of memory reconsolidation and had belonged to a small church resembling the first-century church, his 95 theses would have sparked a reformation centered on transforming the practices of the church rather than challenging the Catholic Church’s reliance on tradition and rituals in favor of the Bible’s central role. As we commemorate the Reformation, I am hoping there is another Martin Luther out there who will inspire a Reformation of how we do church, returning to how Paul and the first-century church carried out Jesus’ revolution of restoring and redeeming his “good” creation using the church as the primary vehicle to make things right on “earth as they are in heaven.”
References
Banks, R. J. (2020). Paul’s idea of community: The early house churches in their cultural setting. Rev. Ed. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Metaxas, E. (2017) Martin Luther. Penguin.
Wylie, M.S. & and Turner, L. (2011). The attuned therapist. Psychotherapy Networker, March/April, 2011.