The beginning of Protestant Reformation, one of the major revisions effected to Christianity, began on the eve of 31 October 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg Germany.

The sale of “indulgences” by the church in Rome was the tipping-point. Luther’s reaction was triggered by the visit of a Dominican who had tried to sell Indulgences (salvation) to some of his acquaintances. Officially, the Church had cautioned that an Indulgence, at whatever price, would not by itself avert damnation or guarantee salvation, but the sales representatives then, as now, were not always so scrupulous. This particular individual had made bizarre promises that neither he nor anybody else ~ so Luther thought ~ could ever deliver.

Advertisement

All Saints’ Church slowcased valuable relics, each of them involving Indulgences, which were revealed on All Saints’ Day on 1 November. Hence a large crowd was able see the “theses”, which were to implicit challenges to the papal authority. Moreover, Luther took advantage of the new printing technology and had the theses printed in advance for circulation.

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483. Despite his father’s wish that he become a lawyer, he joined the religious order and became an Augustinian monk. His erudition in theology was soon recognized, and he became professor of theology in 1510 at the University of Wittenberg. That same year he travelled to Rome on church duties and was a bit distressed when he saw Pope Julius II trying to decorate the church with the help of Michelangelo and Raphael. Luther felt he was expending his energy on plans to renew the ancient splendour of the Eternal City rather than deliberate on the texts.

This experience made Luther’s “inward callings” more compelling, as he now wrestled more and more with questions about what St. Paul had called the Righteousness of God. How could he love such a stern and merciless being, Luther asked himself. During the first six years of his Professorship he worked out the foundational idea of Reformation ~ the doctrine of Justification of Faith~ indeed, the belief that corrupted human nature is incapable of personally attaining salvation except through God’s grace which is freely given to those who believe in Christ. The substance of religion for Luther lay in the inner experience which was essentially mystical, while its external manifestations were merely intended to assist. In the present context, they were creating impediments, however. He believed the justice of God was a complete concept for man, specifically in the gift of faith. Man was, therefore, justified by faith, and faith alone. Thus, there was less need for the vast infrastructure of the Church, which seemed to him to be an obstacle, rather than an avenue, between man and God.

Luther’s philosophy retained certain important political elements. His writings of 1520 provide impressive evidence that he clearly recognized the issue to be one involving the power of an ecclesiastical polity. In the first place, the vocabulary was sprinkled with phrases and imagery rich in political connotations. The sacramental practices of priesthood were attacked as “oppressive” (tyrannicum), in that they denied the believer’s “right” (ius) to full participation. The papacy was denounced as the “tyranny of Rome” (Romanam tyrannidem), a “Roman dictatorship” (Romana tyrannis), to which Christians ought to “refuse consent” (nec consentiamus). The demand was then raised for the restoration of “our noble Christian liberty.” ~ “Each man should be allowed his free choice in seeking and using the sacrament. The tyrant exercises his despotism and compels us to accept one king only.”

In the immediate context, the atmosphere was charged by the Renaissance challenge to the Church in the form of Luther’s theological lectures. His theses raise several questions. How shall a man be save ? By the intervention of priests and bishops, as the Church had always suggested, or by his own, private, individual faith? If faith was private and individual, then it was hard not to agree with Luther’s position, and demand both national independence from Rome and individual independence from religious establishments.

Reform became both an end in itself and a rationale for others too. Henry VIII proclaimed that he wanted to reform the clergy, but he also sought a divorce and the riches stored in Catholic monasteries throughout England. The German princes who backed Luther desired reform, but they also wanted independence from Rome and a larger share of the taxes that church establishments collected within their dominions.

Martin Luther was not a systematic theologian; he never really produced a comprehensive exposition of ideas unlike Calvin’s writings in his work, Institutes. It comes as no surprise that Professor R.H Tawney in a rare instance of inspired frustration likened Luther’s utterances to occasional explosions with a rare flash of light and generating more heat and dust.

Luther insisted that he had never meant to go that far, and churches survived, even if they were not Roman Catholic shrines. Luther even went to his grave insisting on the efficacy of the Eucharist, saying that if the Lord asked him to eat crab apples and manure he would do so, and therefore why should he not believe in the sanctity of the body and blood of Christ, since the Lord told him to do so.

The Lutherian effort did lead to a new set-up ~ the Lutherian state church ~ with its focus on inner mysticism and communion spiritually, but leading to aggregation of political forces and their domination therein. The dissipation of the Universal church removed the strongest checks upon the secular power that existed in the medieval era. Religion perhaps gained spiritually but the State gained in power.

The submissiveness of Lutherian churches with gravitation towards mysticism stands sharply in contrast to the type of religion that developed in the Calvinist set-up where worldly activity and even perhaps worldly success figured as Christian duty.

The Protestant Reformation, with its emphasis on the individual need for grace, confirmed the answer. Everyone now had to read the Bible so that he could determine its meaning for himself. The invention of printing made that practical; the translations of the Bible into all the European languages made it easier. Everyone was now his own theologian, and God had entered the heart of every Christian. The new self-centeredness had other effects, as modern historians have shown. The connection between Protestantism and the rise of capitalism seemed to German sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920) and English historian RH Tawney (1880-1962) to be especially close. The discipline that a man must exert once he has cast himself adrift from the support of an international church may be akin to the selfreliance needed for success in a capitalist economy in the modern world.