Luther has come up within this thread, as it meanders along, beyond all calculation. Or at least, the way of being he intitiated.
I implied that there was a comparison to be made between Luther and the Japanese Buddhist Shinran. Both were confronted with an elitist form of their own Faith which each perceived as having become divorced from those things that perhaps matter far more than anything else.
The Pure Land way was not initiated by Shinran, but he looked at it afresh from his own particular place in time and space. In the Pure Land way, prior to him, it was said that to be "saved" one must entrust themselves fully to the Vow of Amida. Such entrusting was seen to have three aspects, i.e. sincerity, trust itself, and aspiration - these also known as sincere mind, deep mind, and the mind that aspired for birth (in the Pure Land) and for the directing of virtue. These conditions needed to be "fulfilled."
Shinran (13th century) fundamentally altered this understanding by taking "sincere mind" not as the devotees "sincerity", but rather the true and real mind of Amida. Thus, a person does not "sincerely" entrust themselves, but rather the "sincere mind" of Amida is given - by grace - to the person, and this manifests as the person's entrusting and aspiration. Simply put, a Pure Lander trusts the "nature" of Amida (Reality-as-is), not their own, however directed or understood, within or without.
(Or, in Christian terms, one trusts/surrenders to Grace, not in the strength of ones own belief. And this is within the context of realising that which is eternally , of recognising the unchanging nature of the Divine. Such recognition grants us nothing for it is already the reality in which we "live and move and have our being." We just did not know it.)
"Faith does not arise
Within oneself.
The Entrusting Heart is itself
Given by the Other Power" (Rennyo)
Anyway, the above for anyone interested. It is the bread and butter of inter-faith dialogue, which many today find life affirming.