There are so many reasons for people to celebrate the Reformation, and every year at this time I try to point out some facet of the impact of this great event.

This year I am pleased to announce that the Ryan Center for Biblical Studies at Union University is planning REF500, a festival celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation to be held March 9-11, 2017. The event is still about 16 months away but we’ve already been working on it for a couple of years, and today we officially launch the event website. We will examine the impact of the Reformation on life as we know it across the wide spectrum of life with lectures from Union faculty from various disciplines and plenary lectures from Timothy George, Carl Trueman, Peter Leithart and David Lyle Jeffrey. In addition we will have a musical performance, theater, and a film showing all related to the Reformation.

Here is my brief attempt to highlight why we should celebrate the Reformation.