by Lorette C. Luzajic
Part 8 of the Pillars of Faith series.
In the Beginning was the Word
Martin Luther is best known for getting the Bible out of the hands of the Catholic clergy. The Bible was kept from the general populace because of the very dangers that bloomed ever after — the scriptures were too volatile for the average man to interpret.
So it was for better or for worse that Luther helped spread the word that The Word was infallible, not the Roman Church. Luther believed every word of the Bible was true, spoken to the prophets directly by God. But when he removed the Bible from the Church’s power, it would still be common men interpreting the mind of God. Still, Luther’s translation of the Bible from Latin to German influenced what would become the first widespread Holy Bible — the King James Version.
This can of worms would cause major faith conflicts as science advanced, a turmoil that may have been avoided had a more spiritual/metaphorical approach been retained. The flaws in Luther’s inerrancy insistence glare neon in hindsight, for he said, “This fool Copernicus wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth!”
Born in 1483 in Eisleben, Germany, Luther miraculously avoided a lightning bolt, and he gave his life to the Lord as a priest. He was reportedly obsessed with self-punishment, freezing himself in the snow, beating himself to let the devils out. But he inadvertently became the father of the Reformation when he lambasted the thieves in the temple for selling indulgences for salvation. Luther taught that we could not buy salvation, but that we are saved by grace through faith. (Yes, I also thought this was the whole point from 33 A.D. on!)
A Fine Kettle o’ Fish
Pullquote: Luther smuggled the nun of his dreams out of a convent in a barrel of fish, and she became his bride.
Luther also married, insisting celibacy was unnatural, and to this day we accept marriage for Protestant ministers. Luther smuggled the nun of his dreams out of a convent in a barrel of fish, and she became his bride.
Much of Luther’s life reads like a medieval adventure story. His prolific writings got him in hot water. In court, he famously stated he did not trust in popes or councils alone: “my conscience is captive to the Word of God.” It was 1521, and the Emperor banned his work and called for his arrest and “punishment as a notorious heretic.” The decree allowed anyone to kill Luther without recourse.
Luther was saved by masked horsemen who whisked him away to a castle, where he hid disguised as a knight, writing. He did come out of hiding to give many more gifts to faith traditions, including the hymn A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
King of the Jews
Pullquote: [Jews] should be knocked to pieces, strangled and stabbed, secretly and openly, by everybody who can do it.
Unfortunately, Luther’s contributions weren’t all so noble. “I would have no compassion for a witch; I would burn them all,” he famously stated. “We may well lie with what seems to be a woman of flesh and blood … it is only a devil in the shape of a woman.” His support led directly to the death of at least four women, possibly hundreds. (More, at Luther’s bequest that they be stabbed and strangled, German peasants who revolted against living conditions were slaughtered, too — at least 100,000 of them.)
Luther hated Jews most. In fact, Hitler’s Final Solution was Luther’s genocidal dream four centuries earlier. Sure, Luther mumbled a few charitable phrases about the deluded Christ-dissers, but he wrote prolifically on the “Jews and Their Lies.” In fact, the Nazi Reich Church paid tribute to the “spirit of Dr. Martin Luther.” And the Protestant Bishop Martin Sasse praised him as the “greatest anti-semite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews.”
Consider a few choice Lutheran cherries:
“First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it.”
“Perhaps the Jews sent their servants with plates of silver and pots of gold to gather up Judas’ piss with the other treasures, and then they ate and drank his offal…”
“They should be knocked to pieces, strangled and stabbed, secretly and openly, by everybody who can do it.”
“Throw sow dung at him.”
“Jews are worse than the devils.”
You get the picture. This paltry selection of quotes, by the way, is but a sprinkling from his work. No thinking Christian can disagree that a person like this has no business as our teacher.
Of course, Luther warned against the thinking Christian. “Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has,” he famously stated. “There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason… Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed.”
Luther died in 1546. Today there are about 70 million Lutherans worldwide.
Lorette C. Luzajic writes about all kinds of interesting people at Fascinating People.
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25 Comments
We don’t have to agree with most–or any–of Luther’s beliefs, but as atheists we really should recognize that Luther helped make things a lot easier for us. He helped make it possible to question, and openly reject, the clergy–where doing so before would find you burning on a stake. He encouraged people to read an interpret things themselves rather than rely on a priesthood made up of corrupt, immoral control freaks. These are not bad things.
Yes, we have trouble seeing the bible as the infallible and sole authority in life. And his opinions on the Jews were pretty screwed up. Nevertheless I’ll argue that our freedom of (and from) religion, and our freedom of speech, owe something to Luther’s willingness to openly defy the religious authority of the day.
Thanks, Jeremy, I absolutely agree- and am thankful to be reading my bible and my books freely today as a female not tied to a burning stake. Still, much has been written about the contributions of my ‘pillars’ and little about their unsavory stories. Amazing how many bios I had to wade through that barely mentioned the atrocities or glossed over it, or as always, blamed it on the catholics- that was our church’s favourite way to pass the buck- church greed, sexism, conquest of America, witch burning, etc was always a catholic sin…
In fact, this pillar was four times as long so I had to cut most of it out and it still went over my length allotment. Not only were there many more sick stories to share, but the bio and contribution part got shafted a bit. Still, I think this is the part that no one but my dad in my very German family or childhood church knows, for example, despite their harrowing experiences in WW2. The dusty biographies on my dad’s theology shelf don’t even allude to these writings of Luther.
But yes, Luther certainly contributed to our evolution of thought. Thanks for your thoughtful commentary.
I think it’s fairly normal to “gloss over” the parts of an historical figure’s life that haven’t had the same effect on the course of history as his/her more well-known attributes. Can we honestly say that Luther’s opinions of the Jews influenced history as much as his divergence from Catholic doctrine? Of course not, he was basically just reciting the common opinion of the day.
We’re not trying to excuse him, but just recognize that humans aren’t perfect and it’s unreasonable to expect a 16th century religious figure to perfectly express 21st century sensibilities. Social advances come in baby steps, and while Luther didn’t make any improvements in religious tolerance or combating racism and anti-Semitism, the one area in which he did make a splash helped us move forward in a significant way. He made it acceptable to recognize that a religious authority can be very very wrong.
You could make a very strong case that Abraham Lincoln was racist, sexist, ‘class’-ist, violent and war-like. By today’s standards he absolutely was. Yet we rightly celebrate his successes in dramatically advancing the cause of human rights by addressing a single form of widespread human rights abuse. We remember him for the one significant way in which he changed the world, not the hundreds of ways in which he played along to the status quo. We should try to regard Luther the same way, as well as any other historical figure that helped to advance human thought.
Unfortunately I can’t edit, so I’ll reply to myself.
Obviously, recognizing the faults of historical figures is important, but mainly so that we don’t start worshiping them or consider ourselves above reproach. I don’t think that’s the case with Luther. In fact his biggest contribution was the idea that human teachers are not infallible, and that would include himself, so I don’t think he’d even want us to consider him flawless.
Luther also married, insisting celibacy was unnatural, and to this day we accept marriage for Protestant ministers. Luther smuggled the nun of his dreams out of a convent in a barrel of fish, and she became his bride.
Very cleverly said. I got a good chuckle out of it.
Scott Hendrix of the ELCA has written some good stuff about Luther and the Jews, beyond what’s posted here if people are interested.
It’s hard for me to think Luther’s antisemitism didn’t contribute much when Hitler personally lauds him as a source for his philosophy in Mein Kampf. Not to mention the slaughter of women and peasants. Is it okay to gloss over these things? No, it’s hypocrisy. History needs to be rewritten with a bigger picture so we can ‘avoid repeating it’ and all that. The ‘everyone’s doing it’ excuse doesn’t fly- getting wrapped in hysterical hatred of women wasn’t much of a departure from the Roman church, and Protestants need to know who their thoughtful leaders really are. It may well be that today everyone’s taking crack, blaming the recession on women and Jews, and cutting the eyes out of their babies. But we can’t excuse these things as ‘the times’ just because we may also be contributing in some way. Certainly churches who adulate these pillars of faith as ‘men of God’ had clear commandments from the beginning- love thy neighbour, thou shalt not kill- that would take Luther out of the running for leadership. Certainly the model of Christianity- Christ- had zero influence on the behaviour of Luther or the Popes of the day.
If Luther’s anti-Semitism helped shape Hitler’s–and indeed most of Europe’s–mindset toward the Jews, then that’s clearly a valid criticism. I think that connection would be more difficult to make since Luther was hardly the only, or even the most vocal, anti-Semite in Europe. I’m no expert on the subject but I think it would be difficult to argue that Hitler rose to power on a wave of anti-Semitism because of Luther’s teachings.
It’s not about making excuses, it’s about recognizing that everyone–you, me, Luther–are products of their times. We are shaped by the environment in which we are raised, and those people who significantly rebel against that environment and change the world for the better are few and far between.
Holding up Luther as a flawless man of God with special divine insight is silly. But so is expecting a 16th century figure to perfectly display 21st century ideals. He was a product of his time, not significantly worse than any other 16th century clergyman, but significantly better in at least one aspect: he rejected the absolute authority of the Church. That’s a good thing.
It’s hard to pick only one source of European anti-Semitism; there’s just so much to choose from. I’d say the Spanish Inquisition, though, since AFAIK that’s the first time Jews were thought of as a race to be feared rather than a religion to be converted.
Still, Luther was one of the more important bricks in the wall. He started of by reaching out to the Jews, but when they refused to convert in mass, he turned on them.
The unveiling of Light, revelation is a progressive march throughout history and no one man has all the truth save Christ alone. It stumbles roughly and ackwardly through our darkened understandings until at last that darting, shining ray mercifully bursts through and dispells the night. He uses imperfect ones, even the outcasts. It took 1500+ yrs for the salvation by grace through faith message to “enlighten” us, to penetrate our consciousness. What’s the next bright, merciful ray? The kingdom here and now? Hmm…maybe Christ IN you? (Col 1:27).
Better get your sunglasses on, the brightness of the Son is about to burst through your inner man with bright rays of mercy, truth and grace!
Is that like the anti-Cyclops’ death rays?
Yeah, and don’t forget your God Block(tm) with GPF 50+, my heathen fellas ;D
Ahhhahahahahahahaha!
Don’t forget 26 dB differential-amp sound-muffling earphones and a “New Sounds” tape with original sayings to drown out John C’s loop.
Interestingly enough, I believe in human soul/spirit, and think christianity and John C’s message foul-fook it up.
I even have my own loop for blocking out fundamentalism…
“42″
“42″
“42″
Better get your sunglasses on– you might just stumble out of Plato’s allegory of the cave and into the sunlight!!!
@ John C: methinks you are delusional =P
Regarding Martin Luther: Yeah this man was a real peach, mentally stable and filled with love, wisdom, kindness and well-thought-out logic…
*roll eyes*
…just like the rest of the great pillars of faith.
Teh godz is so bright …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvIAyxpjEuc
I’d add that Luther was bowel challenged as well. He relates that his 98 theses were inspired — by a particularly good bowel movement.
No shit?!!!
Makes… a lot of sense, really.
Ahhhhahahahahahahahaha!
Gives a whole new meaning to the term “writer’s block”.
Supplementary reading:-
http://nobeliefs.com/luther.htm
Along with the Catholic Church and the Jews, Luther had a pretty big hate on for Islam.
Didn’t you see the legal copy attached to the love thy neighbor* line.
* the term neighbor does not include: Jews, Muslims, Christians attending a different church then you, White people/ Black people/ Asians/ Latinos [ cross if don't apply], That old lady with the annoying dog, Anyone else you don’t like.
Thank you for this informative article.
I didn’t know much about him: that he tended toward masochism, but reading further dashed my hopes that that diverted him from sadism, as I learned about his hatred of women – not “witches” – and Jews.
I also didn’t know he looked so much like a fat frat boy.
“Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has” — one thing he said is actually true. But he thought that was a bad thing!
yeah, I was “fortunate” enough to go to a lutheran middle and high school. Funny how none of this stuff got brought up. We we’re basically just told that Luther saw things he didnt agree to in the more practiced religions, so he set out to fix what didnt make sense. (like the whole “blood and body of christ” at communion thing. Lutherans believe its a symbol of the body and blood, and that it doesnt actually change when it hits your tongue)
Lutherans are just lazy catholics, and most never take it upon themselves to learn anything else about Luther himself.
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