How Do You Solve a Problem Like Church Reform?
"The church is in need of reform." This is one of those statements that is true, but obviously true in such a way as to have limited value. The church is always in need of reform with regard to something, Augustine went so far as to say that " ecclesia semper reformanda est "--the church is always to be reformed. But "reform" is not a specific enough concept to be useful. Before you can reform something, you must figure out what needs to be reformed. This is always a tricky and controversial bit, and often reform agendas never get off the ground as a result of fights over what to change and what to keep. But even if you were to get consensus on what to do, there is the other tricky question of how to go about accomplishing these reforms. Because, of course, reforms are not self-executing, and many a reform movement has sputtered and died as a result of execution problems. The Catholic Church spent the better part of the Middle Ages...