Indulgences: “Christ’s Satisfaction of Sins was Not Enough”
I’m reading
The Roots of the Reformation: Tradition, Emergence and Rupture (by G.R. Evans, Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, ©2012). This is a work that looks at the issues that were prominent in the Reformation, and traces them back to their origins, either in the Scriptures or in the history of the church. I’m finding this to be a highly useful work in understanding those theological and doctrinal issues that the Reformers addressed.
One of those issues still around is “indulgences”. In 1999, Pope John Paul II issued his Papal Bull
Incarnationis Mysterium, on “the mystery of the Incarnation” of the Son of God, which provided the rationale and modern justification for the notion that “indulgences” are still valid and can be given out by the pope.
I’ll look first at how Pope John Paul explained these indulgences, then how they actually “developed” in church history.
