Comparing Martin Luther and John Calvin
Martin Luther King and John Calvin were both very important leaders of the Protestant
Reformation. Although they were both against the Roman Catholic Church, they brought about
very different ideas in religion.
Martin Luther founded the group that are today known as Lutherans. He was ordained
a priest in 1507. He dealt with questions dealing with the structure of the church and with its
moral values. These questions were important in Luther's eyes, but the most important was how
to find favor with God. Luther tried to pray, fast, and repent, but he never felt self-satisfaction.
He eventually concluded that God's love was not a prize or a reward to be earned or won, but a
gift to be accepted. Luther further concluded that until man stops trying to achieve God's favor
through his own achievements he cannot truly understand God's grace. Luther also had the idea
that one did not need a priest to talk to God, he believed that one could pray and repent without
the help of anyone else. This was the idea for which Luther became famous.
In 1517, Luther was involved in a controversy which involved indulgences. Indulgences
were the idea that a person could donate money to a worthy cause in exchange for forgiveness
of their sins. Luther opposed this idea and stated his beliefs in his Ninety-Five Thesis, which he
posted on the castle door in Wittenberg, Germany.
In 1519, Luther had a debate in Leipzig with Johann Eck, a Roman Catholic theologian.
During this debate, Luther denied the supremacy of the Pope and stated that church councils
could make mistakes.
In 1521, Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo X. Luther was then ordered to
appear before a council which demanded that he retract his teachings. Luther intern stated that
unless he was inspired to do so by scripture he would not "since it is neither safe nor right to go
against conscience."
Possible the most important contribution of Luther to society was his translation of the
Bible into German. This made it possible for those who were not fluent in Greek to study the
Word of God. Luther also wrote another influential work, Small Catechism of 1529, which
was also known as the layman's Bible. It summarized Christian beliefs into clear, simple
language and told how they should live.
During the Reformation, Luther discovered that he had founded a new church.
Martin Luther is known to be a key initiator to the Protestant Reformation, although he had no intention of doing so. He was going to become a monk, so he read deeply into scriptures, but this only led him to discover inconsistencies between traditions and the Bible. These inconsistencies lead him to demand changes in the Catholic Church; however that did not include
As a result, Luther burned the letter and other papal documents. Then in 1521, Luther was asked to attend the Diet of Worms, where he would recant what he had written. Once again, he refused. He was strong to his beliefs. Unlike Henry VIII, Luther was not selfish in reforming the Church. For instance, the peasants were one of Luther’s major supporters. They had a list of demands that Luther would try to resolve. He initially backed them up but in 1525 when they turned to violence in a revolt, he exhorted the nobles to slaughter them. Luther could have had all of those supporters who admired him, but instead, he had them slaughtered. Although he could have had the support, he believed violence was not the answer. No matter how many supporters he could have has, his beliefs were always put first. Overall, Martin Luther wanted to reform the Church to create a more simple Christian life as it was in the
In the letter to Leo X, Luther gave an account of his struggles with the Roman Catholic Church. He declared that he never personally attacked Leo. Luther addressed Leo as an equal and expressed his views in full. Luther pointed to Johannes Eck as the chief inciter of all the problems. Johannes Eck was a theologian and defender of Catholicism. Luther declared Eck as an enemy of the Catholic religion. Luther said he was forced to constantly defend himself against Eck's attacks on his beliefs. On the Freedom of a Christian is actually a summary of what Luther wished to study, but was not able to since he was always defending the Church. (Goebel, ed 156)
Martin Luther was a former Priest/Monk and that saw some corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. Luther tried to bring his concerns to the Church in his writing of the “Ninety-five Theses on the Power of Indulgences.” When these question that Luther proposed to the Archbishop of Mainz went unsatisfactorily unanswered in 1517, Luther started defaming the Roman Church and pushed for the utter destruction of the Roman Church. What started out as an internal reform of Church’s discipline, turned into a war against the Roman Church for their total destruction. This was the intent of Luther’s sermon of 1521.
In this essay Martin Luther comments upon the role of good works in a Christian's life and the overall goal of a Christian in his or her walk. He writes seventeen different sections answering the critics of his teachings. I will summarize and address each one of these sections in the following essay.
The selling of indulgence troubled Luther, he thought people were ignorant to believe that they didn’t have to repent after they bought an
Martin Luther is the creator of the 95 Theses which was a major document in the Reformation. The 95 Theses “protest against the sale of indulgences and clerical abuses.” Indulgences state that one can pay for the sins they committed, and also for the sins that will be committed in the future. Even though the 95 Theses rejects indulgence it states that you may be renewed through Christ and you can be baptized to do so. Luther argued that the Christians were being wronged and being tricked into thes...
In these Thesis’ Luther basically criticized the church’s wrongful practices and exposed the church’s corruption in order to bring about change in the church. Luther is quoted in Document 3 from his 95 thesis’ “Christian’s should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better if he bought pardons.” Luther believed that actions, such as helping others did way more toward saving a person’s soul than buying a pardon did. He saw through the idea that one could by their way into heaven. He brought about new ideas such as God’s grace is the only way into heaven, not buying indulgences, or simply participating in church activities. His ideas eventually spread out all over Europe and his followers formed a group calling themselves Lutherans. This eventually became a protestant denomination, where Luther preached ideas, and his version of christianity. Also other reformist such as John Calvin had their own ideas, like predestination, and that everyone was full of sin until they were saved by christ. “We must resist the lust of the flesh, which, unless kept in order, overflows without measure.” (Document 6) Calvin believed that everyone was filled with this sinful “lust” that could not be kept in order without the power of christ. Calvin also started a sect of christianity nicknamed Calvinist after their leader. Both Luther and Calvin inspired others such as George Fox, who created quakerism, and Ulrich Zwingli who started anabaptism. Overall a huge force that drove the Protestant Reformation was reformers such as Martin Luther and John
Brecht, Martin, and Wolfgang Katenz. "Luther, Martin." The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Oxford University Press, 1996. Web. 3 Dec. 2011. .
through Him was sought, also in faith alone rather than doing good deeds in life.
Luther preaches grace and in so free choice is abolished, suggesting that divine grace and human freedom are contradictory concepts. Because reconciliation between God and humans is made possible through the death of Jesus, God’s gift, it is foolish to assume that the exercise of freedom could have any relevance to salvation. Human freedom in Luther’s eyes is derived from the notion that individual’s are already saved through God’s righteousness and confirmed with the works of Christ, you are saved because of your possession of faith. "We reach the conclusion that faith alone justifies us and fulfils the laws; and this because faith brings us the spirit gained by the merits of Christ. The spirit, in turn, gives us the happiness and freedom at which the law aims.
On July 2, 1505, as Luther was traveling back to the university from a visit home, he claimed to have been shaken by lightening. During the event, he prayed out of fear and at that moment he vowed to become a monk. That same July he left the university and entered the local Black Cloister. He admitted that life in the monastery wasn’t easy and he was constantly being confronted with temptation. Marty writes, “He said he prayed, fasted, kept vigils, and almost froze to death in the unheated ch...
Luther had been hunted by fears that God's wrath was being stored up against him. Luther didn't look to the Bible for an answer to his burning question.
... without the need for good works and definitely not by paying money to the Catholic Church. In Luther’s view one only needs to believe in Christ and his works to be justified. Christ is just and his works are perfect and Christ is the object of our faith. As long as Christ is present in our lives and we put our faith in him and simple believe the promises that come with the gospel, God imputes righteousness to sinners, righteousness that we sinners do not deserve (Peters 2005).
Martin Luther was well depicted in Luther, in the movie Luther’s character cared about what God wanted him to do. He wanted to follow the plan God had for him, and spent all of his time in confession. In the movie, they show Luther confessing in a cellar more than once a day as he was asking for forgiveness from God. After a while at the monastery, Martin was sent to teach theology at the University of Wittenberg. During Luther’s