I-YOUniverse

Resources

• Bio at wikipedia
• Bio by Martin Marty, 2004
• Film starring Joseph Fiennes 2003
• Martin Luther: Reluctant Revolutionary PBS

Born in 1483. Educated by his ambitious father for the law. In 1505 Luther was caught in a lightning storm, and terrified promised to become a monk if he survived. Two weeks later he joined a severe order and embarked on a quest for personal salvation. But he continued to be haunted by fits of despair Anfechtungen.

In 1511 he traveled to Rome for his order; though initially awed, he came away shocked by the worldliness and cynicism he saw there. In 1512 he received his doctorate in theology and began teaching at the new University of Wittenberg. His continuing study of scripture, especially psalms, Romans and Galatians, led him  to believe that salvation is a gift received by faith. He opposed the sale of indulgencies (Get Out of Hell tickets sold by papal representatives), nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church 31 October 1517.

Guttenberg’s newly invented printing press disseminated Luther’s writings throughout Europe within a few months.  In 1520 Luther wrote

• To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, attacking the system of sending massive amounts of German money to the Italian pope;
• On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church; and,
• On the Freedom of a Christian.

The pope responded with increasing severity, excommunicating Luther in 1520. In 1521, guaranteed safe conduct, Luther appeared before secular and church authorities at the Diet of Worms. He refused to recant unless his error was proved by scripture and plain reason. Kidnapped on the return journey by his German patron, Luther was secluded at the Wartburg Castle, where he translated the New Testament into lively everyday German, a work which, along with the Old Testament translated later, became one of the foundations of the modern German language.

When he became aware that German peasants arose in violence to demand freedom, Luther violently opposed them. His rhetoric is vicious. 100,000 were slain in putting down the rebellion. Sadly, Luther’s over-the-top personality and ill health in later years contributed to violent verbal attacks on the pope and Catholics, the Jews, and Islam as well. This history, part of Europe’s anti-Semitism, would bear tragic fruit in the 20th century Holocaust.

In 1525 Luther married an ex-nun and the couple had six children, four surviving to adulthood

Luther continued writing, organizing the new Lutheran churches, penning the Smaller and Larger Catechisms, among numerous other works. He died in 1546, leaving the world profoundly changed.

Why care?

I suppose Luther’s is in some ways a cautionary tale. Martin Marty labels the fourth movement of Luther’s life “The Heart Grown Cold, the Faith More Certain 1530-1546.” Luther stood for his intellectual freedom, though like other reformers he was less willing to grant it to others.

Tens of thousands of Anabaptists were slain, who insisted on freedom from state control of baptism, on believer’s baptism rather than infant baptism. 100,000 German peasants were killed by the German nobility who protected Luther, one suspects as much because he was their way of getting the pope out of their purses as for religious reasons.

Yet, it’s unfair to try Luther by modern standards. He was a man of his time.

Today in the West we are certain that Islamic extremists are the enemy. Perhaps we should learn from Luther to take our marching orders from Christ, who taught us to love our enemies.

Today we are certain about salvation: we have an inerrant Bible (some say) and an infallible Pope. Perhaps we should learn from Luther that certainty isn’t all we need. Intellectual certainty cannot comfort you very well in ICU and cemetery. There you need a loving Father who holds you in everlasting arms.

But mostly, I think, Luther teaches us that faulty humans can make an enormous difference in the world. Therefore, when we give the task 110%, when we bring all our mind, heart and muscle to the work God sets before us, when we put our lives into God’s not people’s hands—then God blesses, not always in the same way, not always visibly, but surely.

As for those Anfechtungen, the fits of despair that plagued Luther, these words of Paul suffice:

We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 2 Corinthians 1.8-9 TNIV