17,394
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 1:
Line 1: − [[Image:Luther-Cranach.jpg|thumb|225px]] + + − + + − === Pre-Monk Years === + − In 1505, Martin Luther was a law student caught outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. A bolt of [[lightning]] struck the ground near him. Terrified, he cried out to St. Anne for protection and promised to become a [[monk]] if he survived the storm. He did survive, and then left law school to join an Augustinian monastery.<ref name=Jones>''Encyclopedia of Religion:Volume 8 Ka'Bah-Marx, Karl, 2nd Ed., Lindsay Jones (editor), Macmillan Reference USA, 2005 Thomson Gale</ref>
no edit summary
{{Christianity}}
{{Christianity}}
'''Martin Luther''' (November 10, 1483 - February 18, 1546) German religious reformer and theologian began the [[Protestantism|Protestant Reformation]] and founded the Lutheran Church as a branch of [[Christianity]] dominant in Germany<ref> There were many different independent German-speaking countries with different rulers; collectively they were called "Germany."</ref> and Scandinavia.
'''Martin Luther''' (November 10, 1483 - February 18, 1546) German religious reformer and theologian began the [[Protestantism|Protestant Reformation]] and founded the Lutheran Church as a branch of [[Christianity]] dominant in Germany<ref> There were many different independent German-speaking countries with different rulers; collectively they were called "Germany."</ref> and Scandinavia.
Previous reform movements in the [[Roman Catholic Church]] were small-scale and did not disrupt the medieval Church. Luther was the first to definitively break the unity of Roman Catholic Christendom. His Lutheran Church broke with the pope, but became subservient to the state. He reshaped German religious culture through rejection of Catholic liturgy and celibacy; he created a new Lutheran liturgy using his very popular hymns and his translation of the Bible into German helped to shape the German language.
From the perspective of [[Roman Catholic]] scholars, Luther remains a monk who overeacted and caused a great deal of needless trouble. To [[Mainline]] Protestants, Luther was a great reformer --a witness to and agent of Jesus Christ who God mysteriously chose to bestow a gift of deep insight into scripture and the true nature of the Catholic church, not unlike the kind of conversion experience given to [[St. Paul]]<ref>[[James Atkinson]], ''Martin Luther: Prophet to the Church Catholic'', (1983) , ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, pp.43-58</ref>. "Luther, and with him all the Reformers of the sixteenth century, German, Swiss, and British alike, believed that God spoke to them in the Scriptures in exactly the same way He had spoken to his prophets and apostles.<ref>''Martin Luther:Prohpet to the Church Catholic'', [[James Atkinson]], Eerdmans, 1983, ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, p.143</ref>"
From the perspective of [[Roman Catholic]] scholars, Luther remains a monk who overeacted and caused a great deal of needless trouble. To [[Mainline]] Protestants, Luther was a great reformer --a witness to and agent of Jesus Christ who God mysteriously chose to bestow a gift of deep insight into scripture and the true nature of the Catholic church, not unlike the kind of conversion experience given to [[St. Paul]]<ref>[[James Atkinson]], ''Martin Luther: Prophet to the Church Catholic'', (1983) , ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, pp.43-58</ref>. "Luther, and with him all the Reformers of the sixteenth century, German, Swiss, and British alike, believed that God spoke to them in the Scriptures in exactly the same way He had spoken to his prophets and apostles.<ref>''Martin Luther:Prohpet to the Church Catholic'', [[James Atkinson]], Eerdmans, 1983, ISBN 0-8028-1260-0, p.143</ref>"
[[Image:Luther-Cranach.jpg|thumb|225px]]
== History ==
==Life==
Luther was born on Nov. 10, 1483, in the central German town of Eisleben in Thuringia. His father, Hans Luther, originally a peasant, learned mining skills, and became a businessman who owned several small foundries; his mother, Margaretta, came from an educated urban professional family. Martin was strictly brought up in a traditional family. He entered the University of Erfurt in 1501, took a master of arts degree in 1505 and studied law in preparation for the legal career his father planned for him. Erfurt was the center of [[humanism]], and Luther was well educated in [[Aristotle]] and the Latin classics by leading scholars.
Young Luther was tormented by the current picture of man's destiny. His Germany was obsessed by a cult of death, which had arisen after the [[Black Death]] more than a century before; however, not even death was as appalling as the [[Dies Irae|God's judgment]] thereafter and the prospect of everlasting damnation. In July 1505, a thunderstorm overtook him. Struck to the ground by a bolt of lightning, he cried in terror to his father's patron saint, "St. Anne, help me! I will become a monk." Two weeks later he entered the strict [[Augustinian order]].<ref> Albrecht Beutel, "Luther's Life," in McKim, ed. ''The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther'' (2003) p. 3-19; Mullett, ''Martin Luther'' (2004), ch. 1, quote p. 27 </ref>
=== Years in the Catholic Monastery ===
=== Years in the Catholic Monastery ===