Christianity: Protestant Reformer Martin Luther
Martin Luther, born into the Catholic Church in 1483, is considered to be the father of Protestantism. 1 Luther was a devout man who dedicated himself to the study of the bible; in addition to being a Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Wittenberg, he was also a priest and a monk. He spent a lot of his time focusing on what one could do to earn eternal salvation as it was written about in the Bible. This was especially troubling to him given the actions of his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg and his fellow priests and monks. He felt the actions of many of those in the Church that he loved were both immoral and corrupt, and especially in the midst of his own struggles with the idea of salvation, these actions troubled him deeply. 2
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He had issues with abuses of power amongst clergy, especially with regard to church finances. He disliked the idea of indulgences, which involved members of the congregations paying priests and other leaders for abolition of their sins, effectively bribing church leaders for their own salvation. More than this, spiritual merit was attached to donations made to the church, and masses were able to be purchased for the dead. The University of Whittenberg held many sacred relics, including hairs said to have been from the Virgin Mary and the “crown” of thorns placed on Jesus’ head during crucifixion. Rather than cherishing these items for their religious worth, they were sold. 3
Because of these things, Martin Luther was “raged with a fierce and agitated conscience”. 4 After intense study, Luther followed the traditional method of protesting within the Catholic church—he nailed his complaints to the Church door and invited them to meet with him. Because of his refusal to take back these complaints, and despite his intention to stay in the church, he was excommunicated in 1521.
Martin Luther was a large figure in the protestant reformation, a monk a priest, composer and also a German professor of theology that inspired Martin Sr. Martin Luther was a man of god who believed that the bible was the only source of religious authority and you can only gain salvation from believing in Jesus and God. As such he challenged the preaching and teachings of the Catholic church. Martin
Martin Luther was one of the more important people during the Reformation. Luther was born in November 10, 1483 in Germany and he died in February 18, 1546. During his time he was known as someone who started the change of Christianity. He didn’t agree with what was going on in the Church and wanted to change what was going on in the Church. Luther was someone who was in the right town, area, and age where he was able to get things done. The resources that he needed may have been hard to come by but he still made sure that he got his voice out.
Martin Luther was a Monk and later became a teacher/professor of religion. The Church more or less gave him the boot are you could say they condemned him. The Church taught that people could enter heaven through their good works. Martin Luther was seen as a heretic even though he himself didn’t. The Church even went as far as to excommunicate him. In a debate Martin Luther’s ideas were compared to another’s who was a condemned heretic. Martin Luther was even called a drunken German. Martin Luther didn’t go along with the beliefs and opinions of the Catholic religion. The Church wouldn’t listen to him and contradicted him. His writings they more or less threw up in the air because they were against what they believed in to be religiously correct.
Martin Luther was the unwitting founder of the Protestant Reformation. He wrote many books, "95 Theses", "On Christian Liberty", "Large Catechism", "Table Talk", "Small Catechism", "On the Jews and Their Lies", "Luther Bible", "On the Bondage of the Will", "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation", "On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church", "A Simple Way to Pray", and "Commentary on Galatians". His writings fractionalized the Catholic Church and sparked the Protestant Reformation. He was the catalyst of the Protestant Reforamtion, his writings and actions precipatated a movement that reformulated certain principles of Christianity. Which resulted in resulted in the division of Western Christendom between Roman Catholicism and the new
Martin Luther was a famous German theologian and religious reformer who was a major figure of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. With the help of his words and actions, Luther was able to start a huge movement that reformed certain tenets of Christian belief. This resulted in a split between Roman Catholicism and the newly formed Protestant group. Luther remains to this day as one of the most influential persons in the history of
an instigator of the Reformation, professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg. Martin Luther made a conclusion that “God’s justice consists not of rewarding people for good deeds or punishing them for sins, but in offering salvation through faith alone.” (pg. 215, Burkholder, J. Peter, et al. A History of Western Music. Vol. 9, W. W. Norton & Company, 2014). Posted on the church door a list of 95 reasons why he opposed indulgences (the church claimed to buy these indulgences would reduce their sins and credits for good deeds, this would raise money for the church) which challenged the pope. He receives no reply from the church, but he is charged with heresy and ejected.
Martin Luther was the son of a coal miner and left his studies to become an Augustinian monk. He spoke out against the church in Wittenberg. Luther was convinced that salvation was earned by the performance of good deeds and grace through the church. He disagreed and argued that salvation could only be obtained by faith in knowing Christ’s sacrifice. If one were to purchase indulgences, Luther thought that they were useless because one can only be saved by the grace of God. He also believed that Christian’s should assume full responsibility for their actions on earth. In 1517, Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. This post was ninety-five issues he sought to bring up and dispute with the leaders of the Church
In 1508 Luther was ordained into the priesthood and began teaching the same year. He was awarded a doctorate in 1512, and was appointed into the theological faculty at the University of Wittenberg. It was there that he spent his career and began to explore the many problems he saw infesting the Catholic Church. In Wittenberg Luther began to question several of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. His convictions of penance and righteousness, as well as salvation started to change from what his instruction had led him to believe. This became the foundation of his “new conversion”. At this point, Luther began to propagate and formulate his own ideas and formulate them into a doctrine of justification. It is this doctrine of justification that opened the divide between the Roman Catholic Church and Martin Luther. The Roman Catholic Church in 16th century had established and linked “membership” in the Church with salvation. The threat of “excommunication” was used as a weapon to keep members in line and to punish those that had move outside the boundaries of conduct and actions set by the Church hierarchical authority. The Roman Catholic Church believed that “it alone” was God’s instrument and representative on Earth and salvation could only be found through the means church
Martin Luther, born in 1483, grew up in a devout Roman Catholic household, where the church stood at the center of his world. However, he suffered at the hand of his parents’ harsh criticism. His father had emerged from the feudal system into the new middle class as a successful Coppersmith. His desire was for his son to also climb the social ladder. To assist with his son’s success, Luther’s father was a fierce judge of the character of his son, and often punished him severely for his failures. From these experiences, Luther developed a low self-esteem and fear of failure, which encroached on every aspect of his life, including his theology.
By the beginning of the early 1500s, the Catholic Church had become a significant power in Western Europe. It was not restrained to the mere confines of religious authority, for it was also a key political player through the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire. There was however, a certain sense of arrogance to the Catholic Church at the time, and it was definitely felt in countries oppressed by foreign Italian papal power. This was the case with Martin Luther, whose religious mission to reform the Church from within turned political. Luther was able to “reject and overthrow the papal domination as an unwarranted, corrupt, and oppressive usurpation,” all whilst firmly maintaining his religious integrity. Luther maintained outrageous statements
Martin Luther was one of the most influential and controversial men in the history of Christianity. The purpose of this research paper is to educate the reader on the life, theology, and influence of Martin Luther, Father of The Protestant Reformation.
Martin Luther was a German monk who started the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, this created him into a influential and controversial leader in Christian history. Luther decided to question Catholicism, while in the process on his movement on confrontation, his followers also began to separate from the Catholic Church to start the Protestant tradition. Luther’s followers were known as “Protestants” because his movement was so mainly focused on protest. Luther had felt a need for people to feel closer to God, he believed he had a duty to translate the Bible into language of the people, causing a major impact on the people whose was relationship between church leaders and their followers. Luther’s 43rd thesis states, “Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.”
After Martin Luther decided to stand up to the Catholic Church in the 1500's, Protestant religions began to multiply extremely quickly. This explosion of new faiths began all because of one man, who believed that what the Catholic Church was doing was wrong. Martin Luther defied the church, wrote of ninety-five theses, got excommunicated, and triggered a Protestant Revolution. Even though this man stood up for his beliefs, not everything he did was right, and it's important to point this out, to show that everything, no matter how good, has its flaws.
Martin Luther, a German monk, known to many as the “Father of Reformation” did not initially or intentionally, start the Lutheran religion. However, his teachings became the cornerstone of what is known today as the Lutheran Religion. Marting Luther was born in Germany in 1483, became a monk, got ordained in 1507 then began to teach at the University of Wittenberg. Even though Martin Luther was ordained in the Catholic Church he became torn as some
In January 1521, the pope excommunicated Luther. In March, he was summoned by Emperor Charles V to Worms to defend himself. During the Diet of Worms, Luther refused to recant