In this course we will discuss the history of some ideas that have been hugely influential in the modern west and that were taken out to the rest of the world. The discussion centers on an extraordinary and historically important figure, a sixteenth century German man named Martin Luther. Luther is recognized today as the originator of many of the most significant ideas that continue to affect and shape who we as modern people are and how we see the world and ourselves for better and for worse. In the first section, we will explore why Luther thought the Bible was the most important volume for everyone to have and read. Included here will be a careful consideration of Luther's anti-Judaism, which contributed to western antisemitism and some of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century. In the second section, we will talk about the idea of freedom and how Luther's understanding of freedom in Christ affected the way modern thinkers understood what it means to be human in community. Important in this section is the consequential contradiction between freedom and slavery in western thought and their co-existence in western societies. The third section will be all about the many complicated relations between religion and politics. NOTE: Students wishing to sign up for free access to all instructional course content should click on the "Sign-In" button in the upper right hand corner. Those who wish to take the course and complete a certificate that requires payment, please click the Enroll button on the left side of this page.
Key Moments in Luther's Life
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From the course by Northwestern University
Luther and the West
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Meet the Instructors
Christine HelmerArthur E. Andersen Teaching and Research Professor, Professor of Religious Studies and German
Department of Religious Studies
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One of the most dramatic episodes in Luther's life was his conversion,
which marked a significant change in his ideas.
Yet Luther's whole life was also one of incremental personal and
scholarly development.
He spent years studying, translating and teaching the Bible and other texts in
the Christian tradition, and the drama of Luther's life is important and revealing.
On July 2, 1505, Luther
was returning from his parents' home in Mansfeld to his studies as a law student
at the University of Erfurt when a furious thunderstorm came crashing in on him.
Terrified Luther cried out to St. Anne the patroness of minors for help.
He vowed that if the thunderstorm subsided he would become a monk.
Two weeks later on July 17th Luther entered
the Monastery of the Observant Augustinian order in Erfurt.
Later in 1507 he was ordained a priest.
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Luther was preoccupied with one question,
how do I know that I have done enough to merit eternal salvation?
As a friar, Luther was overzealous in his practices of penance.
He deprived himself of sleep and
food in order to control what made him feel so guilty.
His spiritual mentor Johann von Staupitz told him hold on to Christ,
He is the one who forgives sins.
This council set Luther on the path to the reformation.
In 1512 Staupitz helped Luther become a Professor of Theology at the new
University of Wittenberg where Luther taught for the rest of his life.
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Politics and economics played crucial roles in Luther’s life.
Pope Leo X needed money to build a great new basilica in Rome.
The archbishop of Mainz needed money to pay the Pope for his church position.
In 1517, both the Pope and the archbishop of Mainz conspired to sell indulgences
in Germany through the enterprising Dominican friar Johann Tetzel.
The pope permitted the sale of indulgences,
which granted time off from a dead person's sentence in purgatory.
Although Luther did not directly contest the theology of indulgences,
he was frustrated that they were used for political and financial ends.
His battle with Rome had begun.
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In 1520 and 1521, Luther was excommunicated from Rome and
exiled from the Holy Roman Empire because of his new theological ideas
about Christ's free gift of forgiveness.
Luther was also critical of the Church as an organization,
believing that the legal system attached to it compromised Christian truth.
Luther's opponents quickly turned Luther's criticisms into a major political charge
against the Papal hierarchy of the Church.
Yet Luther's primary concern was to eliminate any obstacles that hid the truth
of Christianity, namely that God's righteousness was revealed in Christ.
Luther wrote three important texts in 1520,
one of which we will read in the next few lectures.
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In 1525 Luther married Katherina Van Bora, an escaped nun,
reconciled with his father, and
feuded with the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam on the question of free will.
The result of this feud is Luther's famous text
on the bondage of the will emphasising human passivity before God.
Tragically in 1525,
Luther also incited the German nobles to massacre over a 100,000 peasants who had
understood his teaching on freedom to have political as well as religious meanings.
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Luther's later years were troubled by physical ailments and
frustration at his failure to convert Jews to Christianity.
Reformers in Switzerland pressured him to join a Protestant political alliance
called the Smalcald League in response to the threat by the Holy Roman Emperor.
Luther chose instead to write, preach, and teach on Christ's real presence on
body and blood in the bread and wine of the Eucharist.
He was also occupied with questions of Christian doctrine,
namely the Trinity, and the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life.
Excommunicated from Rome Luther died in his birthplace of Eisleben on February
18th, 1546.
One year before Charles V declared war on the Protestant states.
Contrary to Luther's hopes the Catholic council of
Trent which took place after his death did not revoke his excommunication.
Instead the Council hardened the division between Catholicism and
the Protestant Churches.
Luther's voice, while important for Protestants,
would no longer be relevant to Roman Catholics.
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