Summary of Martin Luther's life
·
Iconic figure in the church’s history of Protestant
Reformation during the 1500s through the famous ‘Ninety-five Theses’ and his
breakthrough on justification by grace alone
·
Born into a peasant family 10 November 1483, Eisleben Germany
·
Unhappy childhood: parents Hans and Margarethe Luther religious
and extremely severe
·
Father ambitious: determined to see Martin become a lawyer:
enrolled in law school but dropped out almost immediately
·
During a thunderstorm on 2 July 1505, a bolt of lightning
knocked him to the ground. Struggling to rise, he cried in terror, “St. Anne
help me! I will become a monk.” Parents very disappointed.
·
Devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer,
pilgrimage, and frequent confession
·
Ordained to priesthood 1507. First mass: gripped by terror
where he felt unworthy of God’s love, God seemed to be a severe judge like his
father and teachers
·
Disillusioned: his superior took a bold step in ordering him
to teach Scripture at the new University of Wittenberg between 1513-18
·
Books of Psalms and Romans: reading in the tower and felt the
force of the Pauline text ‘the just shall live by faith’ such that he
proclaimed ‘I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered
paradise’
·
Composed ninety-seven theses in 1517 to attack several of the
main tenets of scholastic theology: no response
·
Same year: ‘Ninety-five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of
Indulgences’, translated into German and circulated in an inexpensive edition,
created massive stir
·
Expensive Renaissance age: Roman administration living beyond
its income, risk of bankruptcy
·
Pope Leo X, one of the most corrupt popes, had to raise money
for building St Peter’s church, through the sale of indulgences
·
Outrageous claims on efficacy of the indulgences: ‘cleaner
than when coming out of baptism,’ ‘cleaner than Adam before the Fall,’ ‘as soon
as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.’
·
Three main points: a denial of the powers of the pope over
purgatory, an objection to indulgences, and a consideration of the welfare of
the sinner.
·
Thesis 5: The pope’s power of forgiveness is restricted to
the canonical order.
·
Theses 27-40: whatever their value, they had no efficacy in
the life hereafter. every truly repentant Christian has the right to full
remission without indulgences
·
Devaluate indulgences by contrasting them with the works of
charity (theses 41-61), and with the teaching of the gospel (theses 62-68): he
who does works of mercy and gives to the poor is better than he who receives a
pardon
·
Thesis 62 “The true treasure of the Church is the most holy
gospel of the glory and grace of God.”
·
Blasphemy to suggest that indulgences have equal worth with
the Cross of Christ
·
Conclusion: sarcasm that to assert that the pope can deliver
souls from purgatory was absurd: if he could do so, then he was cruel not to
release them all, and why not build the church with his own money since he was
so rich
·
1520: Pope Leo X had enough of this “wild boar from the forest”,
issued a bull threatening Luther with excommunication. Luther publicly burned
it, and got excommunicated in Jan 1521.
·
March 1521: summoned by Emperor Charles V to Worms to defend
himself. During the Diet of Worms, Luther refused to recant and on May 8th was
placed under Imperial Ban.
·
Condemned and wanted man: hid out at the Wartburg Castle
until May of 1522 when he returned to Wittenberg. Continued teaching. Left the
monastery 1524.
·
Married Katharina von Bora 1525 (a nun convinced by Luther’s
arguments and sought his help in escaping from the convent).
·
From 1533 to his death 18 February 1546: Dean of the theology
faculty at Wittenberg
No comments:
Post a Comment