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Table of Contents (Clicking on the links below will take you to that part of this article)
Martin Luther was born to peasant stock on November 10, 1483 in Eisleben in the Holy Roman Empire in what is today eastern Germany.Soon after Luthers birth,his family moved from Eisleben to Mansfeld.His father was a relatively successful miner and smelter and Mansfeld was a larger mining town. Martin was the second son born to Hans and Magarete (Lindemann) Luther.Two of his brothers died during outbreaks of the plague.One other brother, James, lived to adulthood.
Luthers father knew that mining was a cyclical occupation, and he wanted more security for his promising young son.Hans Luther decided that he would do whatever was necessary to see that Martin could become a lawyer.Hans saw to it that Martin started school in Mansfeld probably around seven. The school stressed Latin and a bit of logic and rhetoric.When Martin was 14 he was sent to Magdeburg to continue his studies.He stayed only one year in Magdeburg and then enrolled in Latin school in Eisenach until 1501.In 1501 he enrolled in the University of Erfurt where he studied the basic course for a Master of Arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, metaphysics, etc.).Significant to his spiritual and theological development was the principal role of William of Occams theology and metaphysics in Erfurts curriculum. In 1505, it seemed that Hans Luthers plans were about to finally be realized.His son was on the verge of becoming a lawyer.Hans Luthers plans were interrupted by a thunderstorm and vow.
In July of 1505,Martin was caught in a horrific thunderstorm.Afraid that he was going to die,he screamed out a vow,Save me, St. Anna, and I shall become a monk.St. Anna was the mother of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of miners. Most argue that this commitment to become a monk could not have come out of thin air and instead represents an intensification experience in which an already formulated thought is expanded and deepened.On July 17th Luther entered the Augustinian Monastery at Erfurt.
The decision to enter the monastery was a difficult one.Martin knew that he would greatly disappoint his parents (which he did),but he also knew that one must keep a promise made to God. Beyond that, however, he also hadstrong internal reasons to join the monastery.Luther was haunted by insecurity about his salvation (he describes these insecurities in striking tones and calls them Anfectungen or Afflictions.) A monastery was the perfect place to find assurance.
Assurance evaded him however.He threw himself into the life of a monk with verve.It did not seem to help.Finally, his mentor told him to focus on Christ and him alone in his quest for assurance.Though his anxieties would plague him for still years to come, the seeds for his later assurance were laid in that conversation.
In 1510, Luther traveled as part of delegation from his monastery to Rome (he was not very impressed with what he saw.)In 1511, he transferred from the monastery in Erfurt to one in Wittenberg where, after receiving his doctor of theology degree, he became a professor of biblical theology at the newly founded University of Wittenberg.
In 1513, he began his first lectures on the Psalms.In these lectures, Luthers critique of the theological world around him begins to take shape.Later, in lectures on Pauls Epistle to the Romans (in 1515/16) this critique becomes more noticeable. It was during these lectures that Luther finally found the assurance that had evaded him for years.The discovery that changed Luthers life ultimately changed the course of church history and the history of Europe.In Romans, Paul writes of the righteousness of God.Luther had always understood that term to mean that God was a righteous judge that demanded human righteousness. Now, Luther understood righteousness as a gift of Gods grace.He had discovered (or recovered) the doctrine of justification by grace alone.This discovery set him afire.
In 1517, he posted a sheet of theses for discussion on the Universitys chapel door.These Ninety-Five Theses set out a devastating critique of the churchs sale of indulgences and explained the fundamentals of justification by grace alone.Luther also sent a copy of the theses Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz calling on him to end the sale of indulgences.Albrecht was not amused.In Rome, cardinals saw Luthers theses as an attack on papal authority. In 1518 at a meeting of the Augustinian Order in Heidelberg, Luther set out his positions with even more precision.In the Heidelberg Disputation,we see the signs of a maturing in Luthers thought and new clarity surrounding his theological perspective the Theology of the Cross.
After the Heidelberg meeting in October 1518,Luther was told to recant his positions by the Papal Legate,Thomas Cardinal Cajetan.Luther stated that he could not recant unless his mistakes were pointed out to him by appeals to scripture and right reason he would not, in fact, could not recant. Luthers refusal to recant set in motion his ultimate excommunication.
Throughout 1519, Luther continued to lecture and write in Wittenberg. In June and July of that year, he participated in another debate on Indulgences and the papacy in Leipzig.Finally, in 1520, the pope had had enough. On June 15th the pope issued a bull (Exsurge Domini Arise OLord) threatening Luther with excommunication.Luther received the bull on October 10th.He publicly burned it on December 10th.
In January 1521, the pope excommunicated Luther.In March, he was summonsed by Emperor Charles V to Worms to defend himself.During the Diet of Worms,Luther refused to recant his position.Whether he actually said, Here I stand, I can do no other is uncertain. What is known is that he did refuse to recant and on May 8th was placed under Imperial Ban.
This placed Luther and his duke in a difficult position.Luther was now a condemned and wanted man. Luther hid out at the Wartburg Castle until May of 1522 when he returned to Wittenberg.He continued teaching.In 1524, Luther left the monastery.In 1525, he married Katharina von Bora.
From 1533 to his death in 1546 he served as the Dean of the theology faculty at Wittenberg.He died in Eisleben on 18 February 1546.
Theology
Theological Background:William of Occam
The medieval worldview was
rational, ordered, and synthetic.Thomas
Aquinas embodied it.It survived until the
acids of war, plague, poverty, and social discord began to eat away its underlying
presupposition that the world rested on the being of God. All of life was grounded in the mind of God.In the hierarchy of Being that establishes
justice,the church was understood as the
connection between the secular and divine. However,as
the crises of the late middle ages increased,
this reassurance no longer assuaged. William of Occam recognized the shortcomings
of Thomass system and cut away most of the ontological grounding of existence.In its place,
Occam posited revelation and covenant.The
world does not need to be grounded in some artificial,
unknowable,ladder of Being.Instead,one
must rely on Gods faithfulness.We are
contingent upon God alone. This contingency would be terrible and
unbearable without the assurance of Gods covenant.
In terms of Gods absolute power (potentia
absoluta),God can do anything.He can make a lie the truth,he can make adultery a virtue and monogamy a vice.The only limit to this power is
consistencyGod cannot contradict his own essence.
To live in a world ordered by whim would be terrible; one would never know if one
was acting justly or unjustly. However,God has decided on a particular way of acting (potentia ordinata).
God has covenanted with creation,and
committed himself to a particular way of acting. While rejecting some of Thomas,Occam did not reject the entire scholastic
project.He, too,synthesized and depended heavily upon Aristotle.This dependence becomes significant in the
covenantal piety of justification. The
fundamental question of justification is where does one find fellowship with God,i.e., how does one know one is accepted by God?The logic of Aristotle taught Thomas and Occam
that like is known by like.Thus,union or fellowship with God must take place on
Gods level.How does this happen?Practice. All people are born,it was argued,
with potential. Even though all
creation suffers under the condemnation of the Fall of Adam and Eve,there remains a divine spark of potentiality,a syntersis. This potential must be actualized. It must be habituated.Habituation was important for both Thomas and
Occam;however,Occam slightly modifies Thomas and that
modification has important implications in Luthers search for a gracious God. From Thomass perspective the divine
spark is infused with Gods grace,giving
one the power to be contrite (contritio) and
co-operate with God.This co-operation with
Gods grace merits Gods reward (meritum
de condign).However,Occam asked an important question:if the process begins with Gods infusion of
grace,can it truly merit anything?He answered,
no!Therefore you should do the best you can.By doing your best,
even as minimal as it is,this will
merit (meritum de congruo) an infusion of
grace: facienti
quod in se est Deus non denegat gratiam (God will not deny his grace to anyone who
does what lies within him.)Doing ones
best meant rejecting evil and doing good. Within this context of covenant Luther
struggled to prove that he was good enough to merit Gods grace.However, he failed to convince himself.He might have been contrite,but was he contrite enough?This uncertainty afflicted (Anfectungen)
him for years.
Theology of the Cross
Luthers attempts to prove his
worthiness failed.He continued to be plagued
by uncertainty and doubt concerning his salvation.Finally,
during his Lectures on Pauls Epistle to the Romans he found solace.Instead of storehouses of merit,indulgences, habituation,
and doing what is within one,God
accepts the sinner in spite of the sin.Acceptance
is based on who one is rather than what one does.
Justification is bestowed rather than achieved.
Justification is not based on human righteousness,
but on Gods righteousnessrevealed and confirmed in Christ. In St. Paul,
Luther finally found a word of hope.He
finally found a word of assurance and discovered the graciousness of God. The discovery of
Gods graciousness pro me (for me)
revolutionizes all aspects of Luthers life and thought.From now on, Luthers response to the trials
of his life and the crises of the late medieval period was to be certain of God, but never
to be secure in human society. A tautology of Luthers theology
becomes:one must always Let God be
God.This frees human beings to be
human.We do not have to achieve salvation;rather,it
is a gift to be received.Salvation thus is
the presupposition of the life of the Christian and not its goal.This belief engendered his rejection of
indulgences and his movement to a theologia crucis (Theology of the Cross). Why were indulgences rejected?Simply put,they
epitomize everything that from Luthers perspective was wrong with the church.Instead of dependence upon God,they placed salvation in the hands of traveling
salesmen hocking indulgences. They embody his rejection of all types of theology that are
based in models of covenant. The import of the Theology of the Cross was
the discovery of Gods passive righteousness and theological models based in
Testament.From the author of Hebrews,Luther takes an understanding of Jesus Christ as
the last will and testament of God. God has written humanity in the will as heirs of God
and co-heirs with Christ (See Romans 8). The rejection of covenant model theologies
and the movement to testament is a fundamental aspect of Luthers theologia crucis.
It is a rejection of any type of a theology of glory (theologia gloriae).
The rejection of the theology of glory has a profound impact on Luthers
anthropology of a Christian. This rejection is illustrated by
Luthers small but significant alteration of Augustinian anthropology.In that system,
human beings are partim bonnum, partim
malum or partim iustus, partim peccare
(partly good/just,partly bad/sinner).The goal of a Christians life is to grow in
righteousness. In other words,one must work to decrease the side of the equation
that is bad and sinful. As one decreases the sin in oneself,the good and just aspects of ones being
increase. Luthers anthropology,however,is
an outright and total rejection of progress; because no matter how one understands it, it is a work and thus must be rejected. Luthers alternative characterization of
Christian anthropology was simul iustus et peccator
(at once righteous and sinful.) Now, he begins to speak of righteousness in two ways: coram deo (righteousness before God) and coram hominibus (before man). Instead of a
development in righteousness based in the person,or
an infusion of merit from the saints,a
person is judged righteous before God because of the works of Christ.But,absent
the perspective of God and the righteousness of Christ,
based on ones own merita Christian still looks like a sinner.
The Law and the Gospel
The distinction between the Law and the
Gospel is a fundamental dialectic in Luthers thought.
He argues that God interacts with humanity in two fundamental ways the law
and the gospel.The law comes to humanity as
the commands of God such as the Ten Commandments.
The law allows the human community to exist and survive because it limits chaos and
evil and convicts us of our sinfulness.All
humanity has some grasp of the law through the conscience.
The law convicts us our sin and drives us to the gospel, but it is not Gods
avenue for salvation. Salvation comes to humanity through the Good
News (Gospel) of Jesus Christ.The Good News
is that righteousness is not a demand upon the sinner but a gift to the sinner. The sinner simply accepts the gift through faith.For Luther the folly of indulgences was that they
confused the law with the gospel.By stating
that humanity must do something to merit forgiveness they promulgated the notion that
salvation is achieved rather than received.Much
of Luthers career focused on deconstructing the idea of the law as an avenue for
salvation.
Deus Absconditus The Hidden God
Another fundamental aspect of Luthers
theology is his understanding of God.In
rejecting much of scholastic thought Luther rejected the scholastic belief in continuity
between revelation and perception. Luther notes that revelation must be indirect and
concealed.Luthers theology is based in
the Word of God (thus his phrase sola scriptura scripture alone) it is based
not in speculation or philosophical principles,but
in revelation. Because of humanitys fallen condition,one can neither understand the redemptive word nor
can one see God face to face.Here
Luthers exposition on number twenty of his Heidelberg
Disputation is important.It is an
allusion to Exodus 33, where Moses seeks to see the Glory of the Lord but insteadsees only the backside.No one can see God face to face and live, so God
reveals himself on the backside, that is to say, where it seems he should not be. For
Luther this meant in the human nature of Christ, in his weakness, his suffering, and his
foolishness. Thus revelation is seen in the suffering of
Christ rather than in moral activity or created order and is addressed to faith. The Deus
Absconditus is actually quite simple. It
is a rejection of philosophy as the starting point for theology.Why? Because
if one begins with philosophical categories for God one begins with the attributes of God:i.e., omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent,
impassible, etc. For Luther, it was
impossible to begin there and by using syllogisms or other logical means to end up with a
God who suffers on the cross on behalf of humanity. It
simply does not work. The God revealed in and
through the cross is not the God of philosophy but the God of revelation. Only faith can understand and appreciate this,
logic and reason to quote St. Paul become a stumbling block to belief instead of a
helpmate.
Relationship to Philosophy
Given Luthers critique of philosophy
and his famous phrase that philosophy is the devils whore. It would be
easy to assume that Luther had only contempt for philosophy and reason.Nothing could be further from the truth.Luther believed, rather, that philosophy and
reason had important roles to play in our lives and in the life of the community.However, he also felt that it was important to
remember what those roles were and not to confuse the proper use of philosophy with an
improper one. Properly understood and used, philosophy and
reason are a great aid to individuals and society.Improperly
used, they become a great threat to both.Likewise,
revelation and the gospel when used properly are an aid to society, but when misused also
have sad and profound implications. The proper role of philosophy is
organizational and as an aid in governance.When
Cardinal Cajetan first demanded Luthers recantation of the Ninety-Five Theses,
Luther appealed to scripture and right reason.Reason
can be an aid to faith in that it helps to clarify and organize,but it is always second-order discourse.It is, following St. Anselm,fides quarenes intellectum (faith seeking
understanding) and never the reverse. Philosophy
tells us that God is omnipotent and impassible; revelation tells us that Jesus Christ died
for humanitys sin.The two cannot be
reconciled.Reason is the devils whore
precisely because asks the wrong questions and looks in the wrong direction for answers.Revelation is the only proper place for theology
to begin.Reason must always take a
back-seat. Reason does play a primary role in governance
and in most human interaction.Reason, Luther
argued, is necessary for a good and just society.In
fact, unlike most of his contemporaries, Luther did not believe that a ruler had to be
Christian,only reasonable.Here, opposite to his discussion of theology, it
is revelation that is improper.Trying to
govern using the gospel as ones model would either corrupt the government or corrupt
the gospel. The gospels fundamental message is forgiveness,government must maintain justice.To confuse the two here is just as troubling as
confusing them when discussing theology.If
forgiveness becomes the dominant model in government, people being sinful, chaos will
increase. If however, the government
claims the gospel but acts on the basis of justice, then people will be misled as to the
proper nature of the gospel. Luther was self-consciously trying to carve
out proper realms for revelation and philosophy or reason.
Each had a proper role that enables humanity to thrive.Chaos only became a problem when the two got
confused.One cannot understand Luthers
relationship to philosophy and his discussions of philosophy without understanding that
key concept.
Links
Project
Wittenberg -- A Metasite with links to key Luther works and other Luther interest
sites. Christian Classics
Ethereal Library -- Includes works by Luther and other major theologians. Martinus Luther (Martinus Luther: A Reformation Reference) Luther
Digest -- An online version of the journal that provides synopses of Luther
scholarship. Luther in
Sachsen-Anhalt -- A tour through Saxony with updates on current events and lectures. Electronic Sixteenth
Century Journal -- The journal for Sixteenth Century Studies. Herzog Augustus Bibliotek --
A library in Wolfenbüttel Germany that is full of Reformation materials, online
-catalogue.
Biographical Information
Primary Sources
Key Primary Sources in English: Luther's
Works (LW),
ed. J. Pelikan and H.T. Lehmann. St. Louis, MO: Concordia, and
Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1955 -1986. 55 vols.
(All of the major works of Luther,this
is the best edition in English.It will soon
be out on CD-Rom.) 1513-1515,Lectures
on the Psalms
(LW:
10 -11). (Luthers earliest lectures.These are important because we begin to see themes
that will eventually become the Theology of the Cross.) 1515-1516,Lectures
on Romans (LW: 25).
(The patterns of the Theology of the Cross become a bit more evident.Many scholars believe that Luther made his final
discovery of the doctrine of Justification by Faith while giving these lectures.) 1517,
Ninety
Five Theses
(LW:
31).(The seminal document of the Reformation in
Germany.These theses led to the eventual
break with Rome over indulgences and grace.) 1518,
Heidelberg
Disputation
(LW:
31)
(The best example of Luthers emerging Theology of the Cross.He contrasts human works to Gods works in
and through the Cross and shows the emptiness of human achievement and the importance of
grace.) 1519,
Two
Kinds of Righteousness
(LW:31).(Summary of his position that righteousness is
received rather than achieved.) 1520,
Freedom
of a Christian
(LW:
31).(Luthers ethics,in which he explains that A
Christian is a perfectly free lord of all,subject
to none.A Christian is perfectly dutiful
servant of all, subject to all..) 1520,
To
the German Nobility
(LW:
44).(A call for reform in Germany,it highlights some of the complexity of Luthers
thought on church and state relations.) 1521,
Concerning
the Letter and the Spirit
(LW:39).(A summary of the Law and Gospel.) 1522, Preface
to Romans
(LW:
35). (A summary of Luthers understanding of
Justification by Faith.) 1523,
On
TemporalAuthority
(LW
45)
(Sets out Luthers doctrine of the Two Kingdoms most clearly.) 1525,
The
Bondage of the Will
(LW:
33).(In a debate with Erasmus about human freedom and
bondage to sin. Luther argues that humanity
is bound to sin completely and only freed from that bondage by Gods Grace.) 1525,Against
the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants (LW:45).(Written before the Peasants War,it was published afterward.) 1530, Larger
Catechism (LW:34).(A summary of Christian doctrine, to be used in
instruction.) 1531,
Dr.
Martin Luther's Warning to His Dear German People (LW:45).Luthers first expression of a right to
resist tyranny. 1536,
Disputation
Concerning Justification (LW:
34).(A mature presentation of Luthers doctrine
on Justification.) 1536,
Disputation
Concerning Man
(LW:
34).(His anthropology,
but also gives a glimpse of his understanding of the proper role of
philosophy and reason.)