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Martin luther concerning christian liberty
Martin luther concerning christian liberty
Religions effect on wars
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It is August 1940 and there is war everywhere. Hitler has been attacking neighboring countries like a maniac and I am afraid, soon I will have to enlist and fight for him. My best friend Johannes and I have been arguing for hours about the right decision. We either have to join the army and fight for everything we fin atrocious or join the resistance and potentially go against our own religion. It might be important to emphasize that I am a Lutheran and I will be basing my arguments off On Secular Authority by Martin Luther. As Calvinist, I assume he will base his arguments On Civil Government by John Calvin. Martin Luther and John Calvin were two reformers that overlapped in many of their beliefs. But they had as many differences as they had similarities, which explains why Johannes and I got to different conclusions and we decided to take different paths from each other. …show more content…
Despite this being the case Martin Luther author of On Secular Authority, complicates things as he also argues that whoever is in power, it was ordained by God. “For there is no power but from God and the power that exists everywhere is ordained by God. And whoever resists the power, resists God’s ordinance. But whosoever resists God’s ordinance shall receive condemnation on himself.” (Luther 6). As a Lutheran, I recognize that all power comes from God and if Hitler is in power right now, that is because god wants him to be. Furthermore, this suggests that I should enlist and go to war as of petition of Hitler. Given that disobeying him would be directly disobeying God and therefore I would have to be punished for
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
Martin Luther and King Henry VIII are similar in the sense that they both formed new churches, but their ways of going about it and goals were not even close. Luther’s ideas became the basis Protestant Church and Henry’s became the Church of England. Although, the end result of Luther and King Henry VIII’s actions was similar, their intents and actions differed from each other.
During the Reformation, both Martin Luther and King Henry VIII desired to reform the Church, but in substantially different ways, and for very different reasons. While Martin Luther wanted reform in order to achieve freedom from the Roman Catholic Church, Henry VIII solely wanted reform for personal reasons and to gain power. Luther acted towards the good of all and Henry VIII acted towards the good of himself.
Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
“Under the outward appearance of the gospel, they honor and serve the devil, thus deserving death in body and soul ten times over.” Luther’s brutal words against the rebelling peasants of Germany in 1525 reveal the complex reality of the Reformation. Suppression of the rebellion by the German aristocracy was swift and violent, leaving over 70,000 German peasants dead. The rebellion targeted the social and political oppression of the peasantry in the early 16th century. The peasants found new justification for revolt in the promising words of Martin Luther. Luther proclaimed a new kind of freedom for the Christian soul and the peasants applied his idea to their own circumstances. However a dichotomy emerged between spiritual freedom and worldly freedom. Luther argued that good Christians were spiritually free but still subject to temporal laws. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of man were separate spheres. Luther rejected attempts to integrate spiritual freedom into the temporal sphere [Luther turned against the peasants’ revolt of 1525 because the demands of the peasants went against his doctrine of Christian freedom, which stressed the spiritual freedom of Christians and concordant obedience to temporal authority. By using scripture as a justification for rebellion, the peasants not only blasphemed God’s name but also acted against the natural order mandated by God.
In the early 16th century, many authors began to reestablish fundamental ideas such as religion, law, and human nature. Books and articles were written in order to discuss these ideas and educate the public on the ideas that developed into The Reformation. The two authors mentioned above, Thomas More and Martin Luther, wrote several works in particular that focus on human nature. Determining the definition of human nature is important to discovering how ancient literature views it. More and Luther define two values and mindsets of human nature. The definitions compare and contrast in many ways. Each author, More and Luther, identifies concepts of law, freedom, and and the greater good within their own text.
November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany, which was part of the Holy Roman Empire, a role model for all Christians worldwide, was born. His name was Martin Luther, and this man changed the course of history forever. The Holy Roman Empire was an era where there was feudalism and a time of institutional growth and also a period of political importance. This empire encompassed the countries we know today as Czech and Slovak Republics, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, and also eastern parts of France, Slovenia, northern Italy, and western Poland. The Holy Roman Empire lasted from 962 CE all the way until 1806 CE. That in all, is 844 years of many Popes, wars between countries, and a large number of different rulers.
At first glance, the lives between Martin Luther and King Henry VIII may not seem interlocked. Bring in the Protestant Reformation, and you see how they shared many similarities, and alongside that, differences. To begin with, both shared a big role in the Protestant Reformation. The two desired to, in some way, change the Roman Catholic Church, albeit with different underlying motives. Luther, in 1517 wrote and nailed 95 theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany in opposition of the selling of indulgences. A Christian monk himself, he held no hostility in his actions, and only hoped to restore the church to what it once was. This wasn’t the case for the
with his 95 Theses. A strict father who most likely did not accept “no” as an
It is ingrained in the human’s mind that humans must have obedience towards authority which explains many German’s obedience towards the Nazi. The dictionary definition of authority is “A person or organization having power
Today in our days, there are events, meetings, disagreements, as we like to call between church and ordinary people, such as the issues of contraception, premarital sex life or other more current and controversial issues like abortion are exposed; where the drastic religious position strikes us and makes us think that their values have not evolved through the long time they have dominated the spiritual life of billions of people. Those inconsistencies, such as discrimination for example, are really important to counter today, but it was not really important five centuries ago, in fact was taught to judge, judge, blame and punish any act that person was out of fees imposed by the church, which we were also extremely strict, invasive, to obtain greater control to parishioners and also get through that fidelity of faith as much profit as possible.
During the Holocaust, around six million Jews were murdered due to Hitler’s plan to rid Germany of “heterogeneous people” in Germany, as stated in the novel, Life and Death in the Third Reich by Peter Fritzsche. Shortly following a period of suffering, Hitler began leading Germany in 1930 to start the period of his rule, the Third Reich. Over time, his power and support from the country increased until he had full control over his people. Starting from saying “Heil Hitler!” the people of the German empire were cleverly forced into following Hitler through terror and threat. He had a group of leaders, the SS, who were Nazis that willingly took any task given, including the mass murder of millions of Jews due to his belief that they were enemies to Germany. German citizens were talked into participating or believing in the most extreme of things, like violent pogroms, deportations, attacks, and executions. Through the novel’s perspicacity of the Third Reich, readers can see how Hitler’s reign was a controversial time period summed up by courage, extremity, and most important of all, loyalty.
During Luther’s early life he faced a severe inner crisis. When he sinned he looked for comfort in confession and followed the penance, the fasting, prayer and observances that the church directed him. But, he found no peace of mind and worried about his salvation. But reading St. Paul’s letters he came to believe that salvation came though faith in Christ. Faith is a free gift, he discovered, it cannot be earned. His studies led him to a conclusion that, “Christ was the only mediator between God and a man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are given by god’s grace alone” (Martin Luther, 01). Historians agree that, “this approach to theology led to a clash between Luther and the Church officials, precipitating the dramatic events of Reformation”.
John Calvin faced many obstacles as a second generation reformer such as the inability to obtain citizenship until 1559. He was the founder of the Reformed church which has now transcended into Christian Reformed and Presbyterian churches. While lacking the necessary power and support to emerge as quickly and strongly as past reformers. Calvin is discredited for bad scholarship, lack of originality and being viewed more so as a politician, rather than a reformer. What separated Calvin from other sixteenth-century writers was his aptitude as a thinker and wordsmith, and, above all, his absolute devotion to scripture and personal beliefs. In the public’s eye, Calvin walked and spoke with sheer reliance and conviction. Although he seemed confident to those around him, Calvin understood his weaknesses and strived for absolute perfection in his theology and devotion to not only the reformation, but ultimately God. One of the most evident fortitudes throughout his life was the acute awareness he had in his remarkable confidence in his calling and intelligence. Calvin often became menacingly prone to moments of shoddy acumen on account of his anger. Given his feats and pitfalls, Calvin was one of the most influential reformers of the sixteenth century and this can be accredited chiefly to his sense of self-realization and devotion to absolute perfection.
This is what had made Hitler one of the greatest public speakers that the world had ever seen from his time and in history. "The German people and it 's soldiers work and fight today not for themselves and their own age, but also for many generations to come. A historical task of unique dimensions has been entrusted to us by the Creator that we are now obliged to carry out." Hitler, the Fuhrer of Germany, was a very talented spokesman in ways that leaders today could not even begin to compare with. He was charismatic and bold, making it easier for him to win over the minds of many Germans with these two traits. He believed that during his rise to power, he and the people of Germany had been given a duty by God to purify the nation of its imperfect races and weaker people so as to make the mother country strong again for future generations. "Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live." In many ways, Hitler felt he was justified in what he was doing, and in some