Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Ultimately the real relevance of the Reformation for the twentieth century lies in its common *doctrinal* emphases. Against the optimistic view of man's capacities which the Renaisaance and some of the late medieval theologians affirmed, it asserted a native and radical sinfulness in man. It recognized that man can perceive, learn, know, reason, decide, will, and create; but it limited the level of these operations to this transient world, and to human society. Thus it took no dim and pessimistic view of man's social potentialities, but it saw clearly the mortal organic defect in man's moral construction. Therein it furnishes a realistic basis for understanding man's perennial inability to achieve in practice that standard of virtue which he correctly senses exists objectively and which he approves even when he violates it. -- Piepkorn, *Sacred Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions* p. 76