Life and contributions of martin luther 1500ad

Document Type:Thesis

Subject Area:Philosophy

Document 1

The Catholic church at that time focused on ensuring that people could have their sins forgiven following their involvement in the church. He believed that the Bible played a central role in the church, and people need to be governed by faith (Dickens & Firth, 1974). His ideas on the way the church should be governed led to the breakaway of the Catholic Church into protestant churches that are currently run by the outline of Martin Luther. This paper outlines martin Luther’s early life, his education, his contribution to the protestant churches, his views on Christianity and marriage. Early Life Luther was born to peasant parents who worked hard to make ends meet. Hell may refer to a place whereby the surrounding conditions were no favorable (Mullett, 2014).

Sign up to view the full document!

Purgatory, on the other hand, refers to a place of purification whereby individuals are subjected to temporary punishments. He appeared not to be happy with the life that the University embraced and described it as a whorehouse and beerhouse. However, he managed to put significant efforts and managed to graduate with a master's degree in 1505 (Mullett, 2014).          Martin was obedient to his father's wishes and enrolled to law school before dropping out and going into philosophy following his interests Aristotle and other philosopher's point of view on several occurrences in various parts of the world. The theologians felt that it was necessary to translate the Bible to be able to read and understand it on their own. The translation majorly focused on the teachings of the philosophers of the early Church like Aristotle (Steinmetz, 2001).

Sign up to view the full document!

The readings focused on the primacy of the Bible rather than that of the religious leaders in making decisions that are essential in the activities of the church.  Augustine believed that Christians are not able to reach righteousness through their acts. He found that only God has the power to decide the fate of the individual. Martin's approach to the reformation was defined by the thesis that he had outlined at that time. The strategy received public opinions with some people agreeing to his thoughts while others objected it (Peterson 2018). He thought that the Pope was richer than the wealthiest person in that area at that time but still used the money from poor people to build the church. He felt that the Pope was misusing the poor believers.

Sign up to view the full document!

His father also contributed his thoughts on his writings. For two years, Luther only lectured the books of Romans, Galatians, Hebrews, and Psalms. His approach to teachings is widely accepted by the protestant churches today (Starcher et al 2017). The definition of righteousness appeared different from what most people in the Catholic Church believed. He acknowledged that he learned most of Christianity during that time through the catholic church, but the church was corrupt in some way. He was not for the interpretations of the Bible that tend to favor the activities of the church at the expense of God. A situation that made him write to Rome concerning the activities that were carried on in the catholic church. He was able to get the attention of the Pope on the matters that he thought were quite important to address and talk about in time.

Sign up to view the full document!

His position of the various activities that occurred in the church looked like an attack from his thesis, which made him be at logger's heads with the leadership in the Catholic Church. Luther appeared as if he was battling the Pope in his approach. The letter was sent to Rome at the time of administration of Pope Leo X (Starcher et al 2017).  Instead of the establishment of his wishes, the Pope instead sent a warning to Luther that he risked being excommunicated if he did not pull down his stand (Peterson 2018). In objection, Luther, on the other, felt that the Pope was breaching his rights as Christians. As a result, he retaliated by stating the freedom of Christians and that the Pope was not conferred the power to excommunicate any individual at any time.

Sign up to view the full document!

There was a move to ban the ninety-five theses that made him fall in the hands of the secular laws. Ninety-five theses The belief that salvation could only be reached through the grace of God and faith, Luther wrote his 95 theses to ascertain his stand towards the church was based on the central thought in the church, the Bible (Peterson 2018). He indicated that the writings were his and were not prepared to change his viewpoint unless he was convinced by the scriptures or by a convincing sense of reason (Grell, Cunningham & Arrizabalaga 2018). He outlined that he was not rigid with his stands but just needed compelling reasons why the church should support indulgences. He stipulated that he focused on conscience and the teachings of God.

Sign up to view the full document!

From his point of view, it he thought that it is not right to go against conscience and the teachings of God. He believed that no one in the church should have the pride of being in the church if their acts are not according to the outline of the scriptures (Grell, Cunningham & Arrizabalaga 2018). He thought that a private revelation would be closer to God than telling a fellow human the crimes that they have committed.  He noted that humans might have weaknesses that may make them stereotype the individuals who have thought of seeking repentance (Murdock, 2019). Therefore, the sins of humans may not be safe when they are in the hands of religious leaders. Furthermore, Luther believed that compulsory confession should not be advocated at any instance.

Sign up to view the full document!

People live differently and may have different approaches to life. He thought that it was important that people have direct contact with him (Leppin 2016). From his view, he believed that Satan had taken over his people, and it was almost impossible to make them think with his writings. As a result, speaking with word of mouth through summons was very important. He managed to give more than seven summons and managed to ensure that his audience had a proper understanding of his stand on the various matters of importance. Luther never came back for war. The peasants and more impoverished individuals thought that Luther was attacking the nobles and engaged in violent acts in support of Luther (Mattes 2017). The individuals focused on ensuring that they burnt down the premises of the preachers and Bishops at that time with a view that the individuals had significantly misused them in the past and that it was time to have a vengeful stand against them.

Sign up to view the full document!

The peasants thought that the authorities were taking a lot of their belongings against their will, and they should also be stopped. On the other hand, Luther did not buy into their idea of going against the law as they were going against the teachings of God in the Bible. He encouraged them to consider giving to Caesar what belongs to him and also ensure that they give God the due respect that He deserves. He believed that the vows were present, but they could be easily being broken since humans do not have the power to take integrity at all times. He thought that religious leaders should be allowed to marry, as it may make them avoid the temptations of life.

Sign up to view the full document!

Luther married Katharina, who was one of the ladies he helped escape from the convent. Although he had a different perspective on Celibacy, he thought that marriage was a good thing and wedded his wife, who was fifteen years younger than him (Parish 2016). Their wedding was quite fulfilling from their looks despite having various financial constraints. He managed to establish his catechism and ensured that he was able to establish a system that could be replicated across various groups of people and ensure that all his teachings were understood by multiple members across the churches (Andrews, 2017). He believes that uniformity could be easily understood and that it was important in ensuring that the various members of the church could easily follow his teachings according to the standards he thought were reasonable.

Sign up to view the full document!

He understood his audience, especially after being at logger's heads with the peasants and ensured that he did not make extreme changes from the original church. The systematic alteration of how subtle procedures are carried out in the well-established churches before the establishment of new churches have been a strategy used by protestant churches to date (Andrews, 2017). The various churches use the same Bible but have small differences in the ways through which they conduct their routines. He ensured that the public was engaged in prayers, preaching's, and singing. His mass could be summarized as a common catholic mass with the various sacrifices of the catholic church scrapped off. He thought that the catholic church sidelined the individuals who were eligible for receiving the Holy communion.

Sign up to view the full document!

Luther's new church ensured that everyone git access to the holy communion and the wine. He made alterations to the creed and also ensured that the various religious leaders had access to baptism and marriage services. Luther had a better understanding of the hymns and was able to write hymns that could be effectively used by the congregation without a hitch. His interest in hymns made him write various hymn books that were not only important to his congregation but also be understood by the various individuals in the society without a hitch. Luther never believed that the soul goes to heaven as it was stipulated in the catholic church. He believed that the soul rests after it has been separated from the body (Ozment & Witte Jr,2017).

Sign up to view the full document!

He believed that interpretations of the Bible that define the relationships between people in the world and earth were relatively misleading. Luther and the Jews Luther never bought the ideas of the Jews and believed that they were no longer chosen people but devils people. Religious under his reformation cited that Luther rarely interacted with the Jews but still did not like them by any chance (Thayer, 2017). He believed that the Jews were not good people for rejecting and crucifying Jesus Christ. He thought that people who had shrines as places of worship were not worth being called people of God. He was in Germany after the massive killing of the Jewish people and never felt sorry for them as they were against the coming of Christ.

Sign up to view the full document!

At some point, his wife was noted telling him that he was too rude, but he thought that the audience could only appropriately understand God's teachings if the rudeness is applied to the writings (Karant-Nunn, 2017). Although he died, his legacy for starting the protestant churches still reign to date. His writings were able to radically change the perspectives of Christians concerning various actions in society. He died of a stroke at 62 years (Thayer, 2017). Conclusion Martin Luther was the pioneer of the protestant churches and begun his mission after becoming a catholic monk. Luther's reformation and sixteenth-century Catholic reform: Broadening a traditional narrative.  Australasian Catholic Record, The, 94(4), 427. Becker, S. O. , & Woessmann, L. , Cunningham, A. , & Arrizabalaga, J. Martin Luther on the poison of sexual abstinence and the poison of the pox: From Galen to Paracelsus OL E PET ER GR ELL.

Sign up to view the full document!

From $10 to earn access

Only on Studyloop

Original template

Downloadable