Introduction. This point paper is devoted to the Martin Luther King and his theology. It is based on the book Luther, the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career by James Kittleson. This work contains a review of the plot, its main issues, and the internal and external conflicts of the main character. There is also an outline of the main theological principles introduced by Martin Luther King and their influence on the Lutherans.
Martin Luther was born in the age of Renaissance, which was blossoming with its artists and their works and which indisputably had a positive impact on the development of his personality, enriching his internal world.
Despite the beauty of the age, those were “times that were hard” in which “the people were hardened by the world” (Kittelson 34-35). Such hardness, as the author points out, played a great role in shaping the religion of that time and of young Luther. “The religion that Martin Luther learned was very much like the world in which he lived. Much as the world sometimes added good fortune to a person’s labors, in this realm the church added grace to one’s good works so they would be complete and acceptable to God. But in each realm, hard work was still essential,” (Kittelson 43).
The family played an outstanding role in forming Luther’s points of view.
The father wanted Luther to become a lawyer and strongly disagreed with his son’s determination to serve God. This turned his life into a struggle from the early years.
Education was a real challenge for Luther.
Luther’s father gave him a proper education in the schools of Mansfeld and Magdeburg. These establishments were a “purgatory” for the young man.
He also finished the University of Erfurt but was totally disappointed with the time he wasted there. He felt insecure and hoped to find piece in praying. In his chaotic life he discovers the letters of Paul to Romans, which shows the young man a world of holy principles and encourage Luther to keep looking for harmony. After receiving his master degree, Luther starts to study theology.
Luther joins the Black Cloister of the Augustans and later on he defeats his degree in theology, and there had been a set of conditions which preceded such events.
The religion of the age was one of the key reasons for such determination. In the 15th-16th centuries Christ was often pictured with a sward and a lily as symbols of hell and heaven. The main question for the Christians of the period was, according to Kittleson, “How can I avoid the sword and earn the lily?” (Kittelson 41). This question Luther also asked himself, and the pursuit of the answer lasted for all his life.
One of the greatest factors which influenced Luther’s determination in life was a situation described in the book, in which the author tells about a lighting bolt strike near Luther during a thunderstorm. Being afraid of the death, Luther prayed and promised to devote his life to God in case he survives. These words were treated by him as a vow which he could never break.
The key theses of Luther’s theology are based on denying the religion of his time. In fact, disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church and its doctrine encouraged Luther to create his own system of religious values. The author illustrates this with the events of early 16th century. At that time the church of St. Peter in Rome was building and therefore the popes were looking for some material support. To raise the needed money the church introduced indulgences which were sold among people. These documents could be purchased by the laity in order to decrease the amount of time a deceased relative had to spend in purgatory. The author mentions the world famous name of a salesperson, Tetzel. Deeply concerned about such policy, Luther immediately started working on his “95 Theses” which he later sent to the Schlosskirche church in Wittenberg, and on which the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz and Magdeburg never replied.
Monastic life was the main ground for Luther’s further conclusions about Christianity.
When Luther became a monk, he devoted himself to fasting, long hours of prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession. Luther was very dedicated to God and tried to do anything to gain the lily. But the paradox of his devotion lies in the phenomena that the more he wants to please God, the more sinful he becomes.
Luther tried to search for some drawbacks in his own behavior in order to correct them. These thoughts seemed to become tenser as he was a priest and had to listen to hundreds of confessions. These conditions influenced Luther’s perception of the religion very much. Being a monk under the ruling of the church which was not respected by him caused a great internal conflict.
War against the papacy was the main struggle of Luther’s life. Even though Luther is described neutrally, he can be considered as a very courageous man by the readers. Mainly this opinion comes from his persistence in fighting the papacy. His revolutionary ideas caused a lot of turmoil in the Roman Catholic Church, but he was strong enough to defend them. But he was not awarded for it properly during his lifetime: the rest of his life Luther was forced to spend running away from the Emperor and the papacy.
Unlike the catholic popes, Luther was married.
This was a very unusual behavior for a priest of that time; that is why it caused a lot of discussions. This way Luther introduced his vision of a clerical monk who becomes not less dedicated to God because of simply being married (with the God’s blessing).
The main concepts of Lutheran theology were introduced in his works and are followed even today.
Grace of God is the key principle of Luther’s theology.
Luther was convinced that The Bible is the only source of the holy knowledge, and therefore Christians should consult this only source. This statement did not correlate to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church which had put the priest forward all the other sources of Holy Spirit. The superiority and authority of popes was obvious, and their interpretation of God Laws had to be accepted by everyone. That is why, Luther’s idea was shocking.
God, according to Luther, should be the only authority for Christians. They should not only love Him, but also be afraid of Him. God’s Grace has to be a fibula of a person’s life.
Justification by faith is the main principle of Protestantism today.
Among the central truths of Christianity the most important for Luther was the doctrine of justification by faith alone through God’s grace. He insisted that redemption and suffering are a gift of God’s grace.
Luther was convinced that there was nothing humans could do to please God enough to warrant salvation. He said that the good behavior or even love is not enough to avoid the sward of justice. The only thing that matters, according to Luther, is a dedicated faith. Nothing else is needed for people to be awarded with heaven.
Law and gospel should not be confused according to Luther. This principle of his theology means that there should be a distinction between law and gospel. He believed that this aspect very important and that its missing can lead to the religious misinterpreting of the God Laws.
Saints and sinners are the definitions of one object. Luther’s perception of Christians was different from the traditional one, as it suggested that every Christian is both a sinner and a saint at the same time. The first quality comes from our consciousness and dones, and the second one is inherited by human from the Lord who created them.
Doctrine of two kingdoms is an original idea of Luther which he considered to be truthful. This doctrine states that the Lord is a master of this world and that there are two basic means of controlling it. The left-hand kingdom is ruled with law, and the righthand kingdom, to which Christians belonged – through the gospel or grace. This distribution reminds of the image of Christ with the sward and lily and points to the fact that the environment of Luther’s upbringing played an outstanding role in shaping his points of view.
Achievements of Luther are hard to underestimate.
Written works of Martin Luther are very famous.
Martin Luther wrote a multitude of works which have an exclusive importance for the development of religious study. His writings had been under the threat of being forbidden, as, for example, in year 1520 the Pope warned Luther with the papa edict that he risked excommunication unless he removed some statements from his writings, including the 95 Theses. In addition, his works supporting his ideas inspired a lot of his followers and are popular even nowadays. The most popular of them are:
- “95 Theses” were already mentioned above.
- The translation of The Bible to German made it more accessible for all the people, even for those, who did not know Greek.
- A lot of hymns are read in protestant churches up for today.
- The catechisms for priests educated the ordinary people in the field of religion.
- Letters to the Rome Catholic Church contained a strict rejection of their policies and insisted on following the new principles.
The reforms of Martin Luther were practically revolutionary.
Martin Luther introduced a new vision of religion and demonstrated breaking critics of the church system of his time.
His views were absolutely revolutionary, but he was brave and patient enough to act against the strongest part of the society, the papacy. Even though because of this he faced a lot of difficulties during his lifetime, Luther’s teachings remained immortal. His ideas were supported by millions of Christians, developed and embodied in their lives. Nowadays Martin Luther’s name can be seen practically on every protestant church.
Marrying a woman and having six children seemed to be impossible for a priest in the 16th century, but Martin managed to combine these things. This event was another step of him to the new way of freedom and independence. Luther proved that family is a holy institution which can prove no impediment to a believing person. He contrasted himself to the unmarried catholic popes, who led a sinful life.
Translation of the Bible was a very remarkable achievement of the theologist. Latin and Greek languages used to be a prerogative of educated people; that is why the Holy Word was inaccessible for the majority of Christians. What they knew about it was what a priest could tell them. Unfortunately, the contest of the Bible was often distorted in order to fit the demands of the catholic churches’ doctrine. What is more, only popes had a chance to carry the Bibles; these precious hand-made books were locked in special rooms. That is why it is impossible to overestimate the importance of introducing the Bible to the public in a language which would be understandable for it. Luther’s Bible in German was later published and the edition was about 1000 books, which was an unbelievably high volume for that time. Owing to Luther’s work and determination people got a chance to have a direct access to the Word of God, which is the most secure source of the religious knowledge.
The separation of Protestants was another great achievement of the famous theologist.
His most important reform lies not in one of his action, but in their consequences. His teachings were based on a very logical thinking and discreet perception of the reality. Luther was free with his criticism of the existing system and explained his dissatisfaction clearly, that is why his theses became very popular. But the main point about them is that they were not left in the century they introduced, but continued to develop throughout the centuries. While opposing to the Rome Catholic church Martin Luther could hardly predict that the Protestantism he supported would become the second popular religion in 5 centuries.
The controversy of the character is one of the Luther’s distinguishing features, as it can be observed almost in every of his ideas.
Despite all the positive features and achievements, Martin Luther can be described as a very arrogant ideologist. His devotion to God as a source of love is rather controversial with his actions, which sometimes had more to do with hatred. His faith sometimes seemed to be fanatic.
Luther considered his teachings to be never wrong, which can be treated as a limited perception of life.
Luther was deeply convinced that his teachings and approaches were infallible. Despite his critical thinking, he was unable to see positive sides of the system he denied. Similarly, he refused to perceive any criticism of his own theses and pronounced them to be totally right. Judging by this, we can say that his absolute faith limited him to some extend as it robed him of the ability to be objective.
His faith sometimes was agressive.
For anyone who did not fallow his principles Luther applied a term “tool of Satan”, which is not really politically correct. He had prejudices towards all the people who dared to have a slightly different opinion from his. This reveals the controversy of his ideas: trying to free Christians from the usurping ruling of the Catholic Church, he actually became a tyrant himself. It was not hard for him to refuse from anyone ho was against him or his ideas, even if it was a close friend.
Luther focused much on his ideas of antijudaism. Luther expressed his strong disagreement with the Jaws.
This prejudice was made by him on the basis of the history of theology. He states, that if the Jewish nation refused to accept Christ, they had no right to be treated with respect. What is more, Luther was sometimes aggressive about Jews, saying that this nation should be destroyed. He campaigned successfully against them in different towns. This led to a mass emigration of Jews who were trying to save themselves from such denigration. The anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish ideas were later used by many terrorists who motivated their actions with the religious beliefs.
Criticism of Islam was another controversy in Luther’s ideas. Luther disagreed with the principles of Islamic religion. He denied their approaches and values and proclaimed them to be illogical. But in comparison to his aggression towards Jews criticism of Islam was more balanced. Luther said that there can be no Holy War against them and that the only fight which can be held with Turks is a self-protecting one.
Faith in Eucharist is an idea, which was later followed by many scientists, but which is impossible to prove scientifically.
As it is known, on his last supper Jesus told that the wine would be his body and the bread would be his flesh. Luther was a representative of those theologists who believe in a real presence of the blood and body of Jesus in those dishes. This scholastic understanding of the Bible can be called rather limited nowadays, as we now have thousands of approaches of interpreting the Bible. But at his time Luther was the first to introduce such striking ideas.
Conclusion. As we can observe from this point paper, Martin Luther is an outstanding figure in the history of religious studies. His achievements are hard to overestimate; his ideas are being quoted by millions of Protestants all over the world today. To understand all of his theses and their nature it is worth studying his biography and defining the main events and conditions which formed the theological basis of Martin Luther. These points were analyzed briefly in this point paper with references to the book which was mentioned in the introduction.
Being a very controversial personality, Martin Luther managed to fix his name in the history forever.
Reference list
Kittelson, James “Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career”. Minneapolis: Augsburg. 1986. 334p.