What Was Luther's Descriptive Method

Luther wanted to separate from the church because the church leaders got to greedy for money. The priests and leaders of the catholic church started to make up things such as selling indulgences which was basically pay the church to be forgiven for your sins and your families sins. Document 4 says, “They[pastors] fatten on the sins of the people,” this shows that pastors only cared for the ‘fleece’ or money of the people rather than actually caring for them. Another example that shows that the catholic church cares for nothing but money is the fact that they got upset when people spent money on things that did not necessarily matter. Document 8 is proof that people were spending lots money on non holy things, the texts says, “So much money is going into the coffer of the vendor that new coins must be minted on the spot,”. Document 6 shows that priests were getting upset on how people were spending their money. The text says “Where is our gratefulness toward God...For so many enslave all their senses to delights…”. This made Luther want to create Lutheranism because he felt that religion should not be about how much money one has but rather their soul.

The main ideology of Lutheranism is that salvation can be gained by three fundamental precepts: by faith, by grace and by scripture alone. Luther felt that Salvation could not be achieved through good works such as prayer or holy living: "Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works." (Luther, On Christian Liberty, p.9). Faith in God is created through the belief and love for Him; salvation would rise from it nonetheless. Luther felt that it was up to every individual to interpret the Scriptures and decide for himself what was good. This was a revolutionary concept, as previously it had been only the Pope who could interpret the Scriptures. Another concept of Lutheranism was that every believer could achieve priesthood. All men who had true faith had the opportunity to serve God and were equal in His eyes. "Among Christians there shall and can be no authority; rather all are alike subject to one another." (Luther, Part Two. How Far Temporal Authority Extends, p.31). Bishops and priests in the Lutheran church were not authoritative figures but simply serving an office.

For the second question, do deceased saints intercede (talk to God) for Christians, Luther responded by bringing up the point where Papists taught that saints do intercede for Christians. Luther disagreed with this view because “Scripture does not [say] such.” Luther also recalls “that there is not a single passage from God demanding us to call upon either saints or angels to intercede for us.” To summarize, Luther answered the last question saying that God is not angry but believing and performing any actions towards saint intercession is wrong because nowhere is it stated that God commands it. Moreover, this document is a testament of the Reformation due to topic being about the new translation of the Bible. Originally the Bible was only in Latin and the general population of Germany didn’t understand Latin (Different Britannica). Martin Luther saw this as a problem and as a result translated the Bible into German. This transformed Christianity because the individual was now able to progress on their own accord, this being one of the key elements of the Reformation (Different Britannica). Therefore, it is clear that this document is a testament of the

Martin Luther grew up in a home with very strict parents. As a result, Luther’s childhood was plagued with anxiety at home and at school. Because his father planned for him to become a lawyer, shortly after receiving a Master of Arts degree from Erfurt University he returned to the university to study law. Consequently, after a life threatening experience in a storm, Luther left the university and joined a monastery. In 1505, Luther became an Augustinian monk and subsequently became a priest in 1507. According to John Dillenberger, “Luther was extremely sensitive to the problem of how to become worthy to receive the grace of God rather than the damning consequences of His righteousness”.

i.Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther.

Marin Luther, regardless of his intentions, is one of the most controversial men in all of Christian history. The growth of Martin Luther and essentially the whole Protestant Revolution begins by Luther walking in a storm and getting struck by lightning. At this time, he prays out to the saints in hopes that he will be saved; he promises them that if they save him, he will stop everything a become a monk. Luther is saved and does just that, he quit studying law and took his vows, and he began studying the bible as a monk. While studying the bible, Luther comes across a line in Romans 1:17 stating, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” Luther’s interpretation of this is that no amount of pilgrimages, relics, or good deeds will save someone, what will save that person is his or her faith. At the same time that Luther comes to this conclusion, indulgences are being sold. An indulgence is a ticket to heaven which cleanses a person of all sins. A person pays for this certificate, which typically cost half a year’s earnings, and this will shorten the time in purgatory before going to heaven. The idea of what happened after death terrified some people so this gave those people a false sense of comfort.

In the 16th century, Martin Luther established Lutheranism in Europe when he diverged from the Catholic Church because he disagreed with some of their practices. Luther rejected traditions such as the role of priests and the fact that the Bible was only written in Latin. He ordered for the scriptures to be available in all languages that the so that his people could read the bible along with anyone else. One important practice in the Lutheran faith is infant baptism and the baptism of adults who believe in the Holy God. Some Lutheran groups rejected any Catholic traditions because they weren’t commanded

12. ’98 Compare and contrast the Lutheran Reformation and the Catholic Reformation of the sixteenth century regarding the reform of both religious doctrines and religious practices.

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.

Luther also believed that an individual conscience had the right to decide what was right instead of believing everything the church said (Luther at the Diet of Worms). Before whatever the church said was absolutely true, but Protestant beliefs state otherwise. Thus, Protestant beliefs changed Europe drastically in religious aspects compared to the catholic orthodox Europe before the Reformation. Similarly, Protestants opposed authority, because Luther encouraged the idea that all are equal in God's eyes and people are a priesthood of believers, as well as the concept of only the bible was the religious truth. Therefore, since all were equally close to god the Pope and clergy could not be especially close to God and since they were human to the Church could make mistakes. Furthermore, since the bible was the only religious truth what the Church announced was not what God said. Hence, Protestants did not agree with the clergy and papacy making them opposed to

Lutheranism is one of the largest protestant reformations denominations in the world. Martin Luther was the founder of Lutheranism how was a German Monk and teacher who protest the Roman Catholic Church. Per Religious facts .com: “The Lutheran denomination is the oldest Protestant denomination. It was founded (not deliberately at first) by Martin Luther, a German monk and professor who famously posted 95 Theses against the practice of indulgences in 1517. Luther saw contradictions between the Bible and current church practice as well as corruption and abuses within the (Catholic) church, and initially hoped for reform, not schism. When that proved impossible, he continued to spread

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.

Protestant doctrine varied greatly from the doctrines of Catholicism. The main deviance in Protestant doctrine in is the answer of how a person obtains salvation. In Catholic doctrine a person obtains salvation through good works and penance. Luther felt that there is no amount of good works a person could perform to be worth of everlasting salvation. In "Justification by Faith Alone" Luther says, "… I grasp that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith" (Luther 261). Luther's statement means that the way to obtain salvation is to believe and trust Jesus Christ and God (Kagen 357). Also Protestantism emphasized scripture over ritual. Luther attacked the catholic ritual in his “Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” He said that only two of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church were biblical. Those two sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist. The Catholic Church’s policy of selling indulgences was another important part of the Catholic Church Luther attacked. He thought the idea that a person could buy their way to salvation was utterly wrong. He went on to say that the pope was not infallible (Kagen 360). That idea went completely against what the Catholic Church believed. These were some of the ways that Protestant Doctrine differed from Catholic Doctrine.

The Lutheran Reformation is particularly associated with the German territories and the pervasive personal influence of one charismatic individual Martin Luther. Luther’s concern was the doctrine of justification, which formed his central point of his religious thoughts. The Lutheran Reformation was initially an academic movement, concerned primarily with reforming the teaching of theology at the University of Wittenberg (McGrath 2007). The Lutheran began in 1822 this happen after Luther’s return to Wittenberg from his enforced isolation in Wartburg. Luther was condemned for “false doctrine” by the Diet of Worms in 1512 (Noll 2000).

First, it is important to understand Martin Luther’s main issues with the Catholic Church and their practices. The majority of his grievances were summed up in his Ninety-five Theses. One of his main points was to question the authority of the Church. He writes “The pope has neither the will nor the power to remit any penalties except those which he has imposed on his own authority…The pope has no power to remit any guilt” (194). Luther stated the pope shouldn’t have the ability to remove any shame or infraction a Christian has committed unless it is through God’s will. Luther instead emphasized that justification by faith alone allowed for sin or guilt to be removed by God by acknowledging the sacrifice of Christ. The pope instead did not do the work of God but just worked for God which changed how the pope should be viewed in the public eye. Luther went after many different aspects of the papacy if the pope to express how he saw how the Church failed to express his ideal Christian message, especially regarding indulgences. He argued that any Christian leader saying that Indulgences given by the pope saved you from sin was were completely wrong and all Christians deserved to be removed from sin without Indulgences written by the pope.1He disregarded indulgences since he thought were better ways to remove sin instead of paying money to get out of purgatory. Luther believed that money should not play a part in the path of Christian salvation since vile people could buy