Who was Martin Luther, and where do we stand 500 years after Protestant Reformation?
Christians the world over are celebrating the 500th anniversary on Tuesday of the Protestant Reformation. On Oct. 31, 1517, popular historical thought says German priest and professor Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany, calling for reform, and a turning back to the Bible, from the Catholic Church.
The actual nailing of the document to the door of Castle Church is now coming under some scrutiny, according to The Federalist, which quotes two historians who say he simply mailed the document to two bishops.
Luther was an Augustinian monk when he composed the “95 Theses,” which protested, in large part, the buying of “indulgences,” which were basically get-out-of-jail-free cards for sins. Those who could afford it could literally buy absolution from the pope.
Indulgences were just one of the aspects of the Catholic church that exploited its poorest parishioners, Luther publicly argued. He was excommunicated from the church for his protests in 1521. By the end of the Reformation, though, Lutheranism had become state religion throughout much of Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic states, according to History.com.
Luther’s 43rd thesis says, “Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the need does a better deed that he who buys indulgences.” Basically, to quote the Paul’s letter to James in the Bible, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
He advocated for “a priesthood of all believers” in his call to purify the church of dogmatic tradition that placed the clergy in positions of great wealth and insulation from their subjects.
The Rev. Michael King, Sr., as he was known at the time he traveled to Germany for the Fifth Baptist World Alliance Congress in 1934, changed his own and his son’s names to Martin Luther King after learning about Luther’s protest of the medieval justice system.
Today, Catholics and Protestants get along more collegially than in those days, though theological differences certainly still exist. Michael Root, a systemic theology professor at the Catholic University of America, told USA Today that the modern churches enjoy a relationship comparable to that of “friendly cousins.”
“They’re not quite brother and sister. There are still some significant differences,” Root told USA Today. “There is a strong recognition that we are all children of Christ, but also the recognition that there’s a real separation.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2017 at 7:41 AM with the headline "Who was Martin Luther, and where do we stand 500 years after Protestant Reformation?."