Reformers' Impact on Modern Spirituality

Noteworthy in this regard is the contribution of the Reformers, particularly Martin Luther, though John Calvin’s contribution is also very significant. Both called for a spirituality in the world that took seriously the home and the marketplace. On the one hand this meant that they affirmed the common and the ordinary; as Calvin put it, “In following your proper calling, no work will be so mean and sordid as not to have splendor and value in the eye of God.”5 He therefore insisted that each person should respect his or her own calling.

Both Reformers refused to make the sharp distinction between sacred and secular that was so characteristic of the medieval world and still is evident in the language of contemporary Christians. But Calvin went further and affirmed that each person has been assigned a station or calling from the Lord; this vocation is not something accidental. Consequently, it is our sacred duty to accept and even embrace what God has called us to. The sacred is not distinct from the secular; rather the sacred is that which sanctifies the ordinary and thus makes it good and noble. For Luther, this was critical to his assumption that every Christian believer is a priest.