The Lost Legacy of The Reformation: An Apocalyptic Metanarrative

An Augustinian neoplatonic demythologised perspective came to dominate post-apostolic Christendom whereby Adam replaced Satan in the Bible’s metanarrative. Such went unchallenged by the 16th century Reformers. Subsequent biblical research, particularly of Second Temple Judaism, suggests that Augustine had departed from the Jewish understanding of their own Scriptures. The Reformers embraced an historical-grammatical approach to Scripture using all the resources at their disposal and overturned much reception history of the church to date. To revaluate the Reformers’ acceptance of the Augustinian understanding in light of recent scholarly research is consistent with that legacy. When this is done, an apocalyptic metanarrative emerges clearly from the page of Scripture.