What is the Reformation?

The Reformation breathed life into a situation that had become death for so many people. It does little good, I think, to say, "The Reformation has no relevance for Orthodoxy, because Orthodoxy didn't share in the series of abuses that led up to it." In fact, there are many ways that Orthodoxy shows the same spirit--legalism, lifeless formality, hyper-materialism in its understanding of sacraments, seeing church life as a fulfillment of objective obligations, etc.--that was present in the West, shortly preceding the Reformation.
"Converts" from Protestantism, and even from Catholicism, to Orthodoxy, inevitably have imbibed of some of the critical thought and valuation of freedom that comprises the Reformation, and bring this with them into Orthodoxy. This is a good thing. The correctives of the Reformation, to the extent they address the real human condition, are treasures that should forever inform our idea of what Church is, in whatever context we find ourselves. We may like to hermetically seal East from West, but reality--and, I suspect, God--is not so easily fooled. 
I question the idea that the Reformation is primarily the rediscovery of biblical principles concerning the process of salvation. Instead, I think it  may be helpful to think of it simply as this: the Reformation is an instance in which love was allowed to inform theology.

Perhaps the spirit, if there be a spirit (and there is), will speak through these words I write. If there be a spirit, it surely is capable of doing so. I get up, and trust that it will blow through my day, so none of my steps will be in vain. I trust it for its sense of purpose. Otherwise, my life is little more than scheduled events rattling around in a can. 
I had a friend once who became utterly devoid of this sense of which I speak. He began drinking, when temper tantrums no longer did the job of capping his despair. Then he shifted to pills, made available when his doctor prescribed them for headaches. He became a walking zombie, but strangely content. He's a metaphor for what we often become, whether or not we resort to his tactics, when we lose purpose. How much of the jangle of life is an effort to collectively distract ourselves from how lost we feel! (How else do we describe the Superbowl?)
Today, though, I will begin with purpose. But how? I'll read from some ancient writings. Why? I can't avoid the conviction that if they've been around as long as they have, that they might have something worth tending to. "But, what if it's just old crap?" I hear you say. Could be. But, many things have grown in old crap, and have scarcely grown in anything else.