If Scotland’s protestant cultural transformation was revolutionary, the mechanisms by which it was achieved we have found to be measured, flexible and comprehensive — and all of these precisely because its agents, the sessions, were local.

MARGO TODD, THE CULTURE OF PROTESTANTISM IN EARLY MODERN SCOTLAND, 403.

Taking their local witness in session minutes together with the material culture they have left us, we now have a Reformation more complex than the textbooks have offered, ridden with tension and contradiction, but for all that more credible than the received version and certainly more illuminating of the larger population’s multivalent perceptions and receptions of the new ideas.

Margo Todd, The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland, 404.

When, as tradition has it, Martin Luther ( 1483–1546 ) nailed his theses on indulgences to the door of the castle church of Wittenberg in 1517 , the hammer blows appeared to usher in a new era for the church. Luther’s act is often considered the beginning of the Reformation. However, a close look at the theses will make it clear that they do not condemn indulgences as such, but only the misuse of them. When it comes to content, Luther’s first act of reform was therefore more medieval than has commonly been assumed. But the form of this important act in the history of the church also must be seen against a medieval background. Nailing theses to a door was not an unusual thing to do, since theological disputations were regularly held on theses that previously had been made known. When Luther nailed those famous theses to the door, his intention was to enter into a theological disputation . The disputation genre had developed in the medieval schools and formed an important part of the scholastic method . Luther’s hammer blows may have drawn the curtains on the Middle Ages and heralded a new era in church history, but as such his first act of reformation was entirely medieval.

“The Method of the Schools: Medieval Scholasticism” by Pieter L. Rouwendal in WILLEM J. VAN ASSELT, INTRODUCTION TO REFORMED SCHOLASTICISM, 79.

In the Retractions , a look back over his life and work, Augustine describes the polemics with the Pelagians as a God-given opportunity to deepen his understanding of the doctrine of grace.

“The Teacher of the Ancient Church: Augustine” by Maarten Wisse in Willem J. van Asselt, Introduction to Reformed Scholasticism, 75.

And we shall deal first with the justification of the sinner in the sight of God, as this is easily the foremost locus in theology, and for us the one most salutary. And if this locus is suppressed, falsified, or overturned, it would not be possible to keep the purity of the teaching in other loci or to maintain a true Church. Now the main point and basis of this locus is the fact that a merciful and just God pardons the sins of believers through the righteousness of his Son and causes then to be saved.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 2, 384.

True Gospel-based repentance consists of two types. Universal repentance occurs whenever someone crosses over from a state of sin to a state of righteousness and is converted to God for the first time. And particular repentance occurs when someone who has already been converted and believes is overtaken by sin and then grieves over it and repents from it.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 2, 381.

From the very beginning the promise about “the seed of the woman that will crush the head of the serpent” (Gen 3:15) included the doctrine of God’s will about resurrection.

Synopsis of a Purer Theology, Vol. 2, 718.