Study Guide on
“Repentance”
OCTOBER 31, 1517:
M A R T I N L U T H E R A N D T H E D AY T H AT C H A N G E D T H E W O R L D
Recommended by Martin Marty for individual or group studies
Getting Started:
Use this guide together with your copy of October 31, 1517: Martin Luther and the
Day that Changed the World. Either individually or as part of a group, consider these
questions, which are organized according to the chapters of the book. Then journal
your answers.
An Invitation
1. Martin Luther said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘repent’ he intended
the entire life of believers to be repentance.” What is your initial response to the word
repentance? Do you think of repentance as an important part of your own spiritual
journey? Why or why not? Are there times of the year—Lent perhaps—when you
might think more about repentance?
Repentance Here Means a “Change of Heart”
2. The concept of “repentance” is not popular today in secular circles, and indeed in
some Christian ones. Does that influence your own understanding or appreciation
of repentance? If you consider repentance as a “change of heart,” does that cast the
concept of repentance in more positive light? Repentance can be an individual or
corporate exercise of a nation or congregation. How does personal or corporate
repentance have any “effect” when the past is done and gone? Has personal repentance
in your own life helped you to develop new patterns or resolves?
A Five-Hundred-Years-Ago Argument over “Penance”
3. Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses took place at a time of great discontent and upheaval
in the church specifically about the “rites of penance”—or the means of repentance
in the Catholic Church at that time. Today confession and repentance are important
in both Catholic and Protestant traditions, but they are practiced in different ways.
Consider how integral confession and repentance are in your own life.
Justification by Faith vs. the Penance System
4. At the time of Martin Luther, many disagreed on whether we are made right with God
through good works, or faith, or a combination of the two. What do you believe about
good works vs. faith as the means to salvation? How has that played out in your own
life?
Five Hundred Years of Conflict
5. This chapter focuses on repentance as a “change of heart,” a joyful response to God’s
activity, a liberating turn. Have you experienced this change of heart in the lives of
fellow Christians?
Repentance Calls for Dialogue, Dialogue calls for Repentance
6. In order to find common ground with other Christians of differing beliefs, it is often
necessary to widen our understanding and have a “change of heart” in our opinions or
preconceived ideas. Have you had positive, or negative experiences in dialogue with
people of different belief systems?
Ecumenists Repent: The Change of Heart
7. This chapter discusses some of the documents signed by Lutherans and Catholics in
the decades leading up to this commemorative year. The document From Conflict to
Communion states that we should “direct our critical glance first at ourselves and not
at each other.” Consider ways that this approach has (or could) transform difficult
relationships.
From Mere Diversity to Reconciled Diversity
8. There are now forty thousand Christian denominations in the world today. Many
Christians are uninvolved and/or unaware of any advances in ecumenical relations
between Protestants and Catholics or other denominations. How is Christian unity
viewed in your particular church tradition? Have you participated in any services
or gatherings focused on Christian unity? Have they made a difference in your
community?
Reconciled Diversity over “Justification”
9. Lutherans and Catholics agree that “it is solely by grace and by faith in Christ’s saving
work and not because of any merit in us that we are accepted by God and receive
the Holy Spirit who renews our hearts and equips us for and calls us to good works.”
Often, in order to come to a place of repentance, we must first recognize our inability
to do “good works” without grace, no matter how strong our good intentions are.
Consider how “getting to the end” of our human abilities brings humility that then
enables us to receive grace.
Sacraments And Practices Among Repentant Christians
10.This chapter outlines differences between Protestants and Catholics,
particularly in their practices of the Eucharist. However, one area where
Lutherans and some other Protestants and Catholics agree is the importance
of baptism. In Luther’s Large Catechism he called baptism “a daily dying
to sin and rising to new life. This it is a continual call to repentance, faith
and obedience to Christ.” Do you think of your baptism on a regular basis?
Would remembering that God’s grace is always ready and available if we
would just turn to him be an antidote to discouragement with our own sins
and inadequacies?
Can One Day Change the World?
11.The final chapter states that Luther and his followers advocated a theology
always centered in God and God’s action, and not in human-centered
initiatives. Are there ways in your denomination, or in your own life where
you are more centered on what people are doing rather than what God is
doing? Do you believe that your personal journey of repentance—your
“change of heart”—has any effect on the wider world? Why or why not?
“Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth;
help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart”
—M A RT I N LU T H E R