Ken Wolf's Personalities and Problems Essay

World History in Context, written by David Christian (2003), questions the context of world history as well as the complexity of human history and the societies with which they live. In Christian’s article he argues that looking at world history in its global context, rather than one specific moment in history, is the way it is intended to be interpreted and allows historians to recognize reoccurring patterns and themes. World history is meant to be an unbiased account of only one specific species, humans (Christian 2003, 437-438). Historians often struggle with this challenging topic and tend to produce works extremely biased, usually towards stable ‘western civilizations’ and

Luther’s work started with him posting 95 theses about the use of indulgences. He argued that Indulgences removed the penance necessary to atone for one’s sins, and argued that “True contrition seeks and loves penalties”. Luther recognized that Indulgences were taking God completely out of the equation during reconciliation, and that man had God through the issue of forgiveness, which was not man’s ability to grant. His theses were considered heretical by Pope Leo X, as in his warning to Luther if he did not recant his statements he would be excommunicated, stated “No one of sound mind is ignorant how destructive, pernicious, scandalous, and seductive to pious and simple minds these various errors are, how opposed they are to all charity and reverence for the holy Roman Church who is the mother of all the faithful and teacher of the faith; how destructive they are of the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline, namely obedience”. Essentially, the Church refuted Luther’s arguments as heretical since Indulgences were considered charity, and that charity is a penance for sins. Overall, Luther’s conflict with the Church on Indulgences was monumental moment within the Church as it would bring about the fall of corruption within her offices, and loss of millions of

A person who views history as the actions of individuals is what brought about history believes in personality views, whereas a person how believes the culture and intellectual environment of a particular history era believes in the naturalistic history (Goodwin p. 10)

C. Wright Mills concerns himself with biographical dimensions and the issues which accompany this multi-layered dimension. Biography is associated primarily with the individual on an intellectual level. This is otherwise known as micro-sociology which “concentrates more on the conscious and self-determining individual” (Punch et al,21) than macro-sociology does. Mills believes that you cannot have society and history without the impact of the individual. Despite biography outlining the individual, we see a domino effect as the individual is key when it comes to world history. Society, as one complex spatial unit, is composed of billions of individuals who create and change history effortlessly. Thus, C.Wright Mills believes that these three concepts are intermittingly interlinked and are pivotal in defining both today’s society and history.

November 9th 1518, Pope Leo X announced that Luther's writings conflicted with the church and then in July 1520, issued a papal bull saying Luther's Propositions were heretical and gave him 120 days to recant in Rome. Luther refused. Later in January 3rd, 1521 Pope excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church. This was also the year he returned to Wittenberg, here the reform movement had grown and it was no longer a theological cause, it was now political. With other leaders stepping up to lead the rebellion known as Peasants' War, which moved across Germany. His writing caused the church to fractionalize, hence sparking the Protestant Reformation. Central teachings on the bible being the central source of religious authority shaped the core of Protestantism, as well as how salvation can be reached not through deeds but through faith. As you can see Luther is a controversial figure as he has taken on radical positions such as the pronouncement against dews and his writings led to religious reform and

Identify one important historical personality studied in this class through Week 6 and describe three ways this person shaped the age in which he/she lived in.

Martin Luther was a very important Christian figure of the Reformation. He began questioning the Roman Catholic Church and soon, he gained followers that split from Catholicism and began the Protestant tradition. Luther didn’t want to form a new church or go against the religious order of medieval Europe. He wanted to end the wrongs that were occurring in the churches and reform morals. (Historical Context)

Tom Wolf was born on November 17, 1948 in York, PA, on Mount Wolf, in south central Pennsylvania. He was born into a wealthy family whom Mount Wolf is named after. George Wolf founded the post office, and Adam Wolf founded the supply store. Tom Wolf later inherited the supply store business, and he still lives in the house on Mount Wolf that he grew up in. His great-grandfather and grandfather planted some of the trees in the backyard. Tom rode his bike a lot when he was a child, and he built forts. But he also loved baseball, and he read a lot. Once his parents told him he was going to baseball camp, but instead they sent him to a strict Quaker camp. At this camp he learned to swim, and he learned to think a lot with famous visitors to the camp, like the civil rights pioneer Ralph Bunche.

Luther’s fundamental religious problem was the assurance of salvation. Traditional beliefs of the church did not help him overcome this struggle and he

One of the most prominent of these reformists was Martin Luther a former catholic came to reject the teachings of the Catholic Church instead stating that salvation through faith instead of salvation through deeds. As Luther began to spread his radicalized ideas opposition grew within the Catholic Church. The 95 Theses authored by Luther himself were not written in Latin so those only of the church could read it but in the vernacular tongue of German so the common people could read and understand as well. Which at the time was uncommon for anything much less religious documents to not be written in Latin. Eventually Luther was called to defend his 95 Theses in front of the 1518 Diet of Augsburg where he debated for three days with Cardinal Thomas Cajetan without reaching agreement. Martin Luther was eventually excommunicated on January 3rd 1521 after refusing to recant after being given 120 days to

Wolf uses personal experiences, encounters with others, and quotes from notable people such as our Founding

Martin Luther was arguably one of the most important figures in the entire history of Christianity. If the creation of the Lutheran Church was not enough of an accomplishment, he can also be credited with orchestrating the division of the Catholic and Protestant churches. Even as a young Augustinian Monk Martin Luther was convinced the Catholic Church had lost its way. He obsessed over his purity and relationship with God, and strongly believed the Catholic Church had lost its way over the selling of “Indulgences”. Essentially, how the Church misinterpreted and taught the concepts of sin relative to temporal and eternal punishment. He was destined to confront the Catholic Church which he did and ultimately led to the separation events that are still highly relevant to this day. This was the primary driver for the first phase of his rebellion. The second was his German translation of the New Testament, which he used to both teach anyone to read and learn the holy book.

Charles V, who at that time was the Holy Roman Emperor, had decided to name Luther as an outlaw. Charles V thought that Luther’s ideas were threatening and dangerous to the religion that the Pope had set up. Charles V had asked Luther if he would step back and ‘lay low’, or stop causing ruckus, but Luther refused. The Emperor had thought about execution, but that would only stir up more problems, because by that time, Luther had a large mass of followers that were ready to back Luther up at any moment. So by not executing Luther, it keeps many people at

Martin Luther rejected several teachings and practices of the church. He believed that freedom from sin didn’t have to be bought. Luther proposed his discussion of the usefulness of the indulgences in his 95 theses in 1517. In 1520, he refused to retract his writings by the commands of Pope Leo X and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, at the Diet of Worms in 1521. He was excommunicated by the pope and condemned as an outlaw by the emperor.

Martin Luther was eager to change the Roman Catholic Church since his beliefs clashed with the church’s practices. He proclaimed that salvation of the soul will come about because of the genuine confidence in God, not simply great deeds. Martin Luther also firmly hated the demonstration of conceding and offering indulgences since he felt that forgiveness came from that person and God.