Martin Luther was a professor of theology born in Germany. He was also a composer, monk, and priest. He was born on 10th November 1983 in a peasants’ family in Esleben. His father was a minor in a copper mine. In his early life, his father sent him to the Latin school by his father and took admission in the University of Erfurt in Law Department. He completed his bachelors and master’s degree in 1505 in a short time (Marius, 2009). One of major incidence happened in his life was facing the severe thunderstorm on a road of Erfurt on 2nd July 1505. It was a bolt of lightning that struck on the ground near Martin and he screamed please “help me, St. Anne! and I will become a monk”. After that, he became a successful monk. He was awarded the doctor of theology on 19 October 1512 and in 1517 he nailed 95 these which were widely distributed in all part of Germany done a lot of historical work later (Bainton, 2013). In this particular essay, the work done by Martin Luther in Political philosophy will be discussed.
Martin Luther was a famous monk, priest and gain may followers after organizing a new church in May 1522 in Eisenach. In 1533 he became the dean of theology at the University of Wittenberg. In 1525 he married to Katharina Von Bora and had six children. In 1517, The 95 theories published by Martin Luther were against indulgences. His ideas spread across Europe and France very quickly. On 18 February 1546 during his trip to Esleben, he died (Kolb, 2009).
In his 62 years life journey, he has done a lot of work in political philosophy. He was the initiator of the reformation and was the only reformer who has church name after him worldwide. He was also a good translator of the Bible into the German language. He was not considered as the political philosopher in the conventional sense. As he has completed his master’s degree in theology he was mainly a theologian and his approach to politics was secondary. He was not like another philosopher such as Hobbes and Rousseau but he was a political theologian. In October 1517 the revolution was commenced Against the Papalism when Luther published his 95 theses and pasted it on the door of a church at Wittenberg (WRJEDT, 2003). The churchmen believed that people can find salvation through the sacraments of them. The claim was made by the church and stated that only God is authorized to perform the miracles. It might present the body and blood of Christ as the sacrifice for the sins of people. This claim was challenged by Luther and rejected the claims (Luther, 2013).
Martin Luther proposed that individuals had the right to follow the scriptures and take their own decision which is based on the knowledge they have and adopt the faith. He made and a declaration that the priests should not be allowed to have the right and power to forgive the individuals for their sins. According to him forgiveness should not be dependent upon the priestly absolutions but on the repentance. The Roman emperor had pressurized the rulers of states in Germany to turn against Martin Luther, this was denied by a number of princes and they issued a protest against them and stated that their main duty is for gods more than the emperor. Because of this protest, the opponent labeled them from Protestants. Luther had clashes with the emperors but he was not against the government, he was well aware of that the Christian principles cannot be ruled by the society alone and the civil power had an important role to play (Kolb, 2009).
Given Luther’s philosophy and the famous phrase proposed by him that philosophy is the “devil’s whore,” it would be easier to assume that Martin Luther had only contempt for the philosophy and reason. He believed that philosophy and reason could play an important in people’s lives and in the life of the community groups. However, he also mentioned that these roles should not be confused or misunderstood with the correct use of the philosophy with the improper philosophy (Smith, 2012). According to him, the philosophy and reason that are properly used can help the society and the people greatly. In addition, if it were used improperly then it would be a great threat for both (Marshall, 2018).
Martin Luther asks for scripture and the right reason When Cardinal Cajetan demanded Martin Luther’s recantation of the theses proposed by Luther. Reason helps to organize, clarify, and aid to the faith. Philosophy helps people to realize that God is impassable and omnipotent; the revelation benefit individual to find out that Jesus Christ died for the sins of humankind. The reason is considered as the devil’s whore as it asks the unfavorable questions and searches for answers in the different and wrong direction. For theology to start, revelation is considered the only adequate place. Reason must always be secondary. Luther was against the thought that the rulers should only form a Christian community. He was self-consciously trying to cut out proper realms for the revelation and reason or philosophy. Each had an adequate and proper role that had the ability to enables humanity to thrive. The chaos only became an issue when these two got confused. It is not possible to understand Luther’s relationship to the philosophy and his thoughts of philosophy without properly understanding that key concept (McGrath, 2011).
Luther’s political side is tangled with the foundation of new democracy. The viewpoint that the people are accountable to God at the end, and answerable for their fate, formed a basis for ethical self-direction that fixed the tone for the total reformation. Social equality requires self-sufficient and self-directed people. Luther’s emphasis on understanding the Bible and other storybook works also directed to the growth of people capable of accepting political literature and debating the political issues. Families of Protestant and culture nourished community dispositions best for the development of new democracy (Naphy, 2011).
Luther’s part in the evolution of German patriotism and legislation is more challenging. Luther appealed to German domestic pride in conflicting Rome, as demonstrated in his first Appeal to the Christian Dignity of the German Realm. It also showed his high respect for German princes. The point to which Luther was reliant on upon their defense, and his disposition to side with the recognized order in the Peasant’s War, have resulted in the charges of Lutheran quietism in the aspect of political unfairness. This was constant with Luther’s conventional social and governmental views as to the God-ordained nature of established society. Numerous have demanded that the Lutheran inheritance of political quietism enabled the increase of Nazism in 20th century Germany (Mjaaland, 2015).
His political instructions were not as comprehensible as his work in theology. In his Demand to the German Graciousness of 1520 Luther charged the papacy, the bishops or leaders and the monastic instructions, and blasphemous or superstitious spiritual practices and advised rulers to restructure them. His truthful claims were frequently extravagant and his used language was particularly coarse, although amazingly vivid (Stanford, 2017). Although Martin Luther’s ideas were pastoral and spiritual, his education had strong suggestions for political philosophy and exercise. Salvation by belief alone, Christian freedom and the priesthood of entirely followers had – and were intended to have – huge practical effects for the life and church organization. The greatest clear agency to spread Luther’s reforms all over Christendom was the papacy. Nonetheless by 1520 Luther was now describing it as a fake and rapacious “tyranny” (his favorite name for it) that seized the leadership of Christ and the power of Scripture, and certainly as the Antichrist expected by Revelation for the past days (Wilson, 2014).
His Request to the Nobleness of the German Country of 1520 defined an intense restoration that needed unprecedented alterations in churches and thus also to polities, specified how diligently the political and the ecclesiastical order were tangled; in 1530 the Admonition to the Clergy Gathered at the Reichstag at Augsburg massively pushed the range of reforms and modifications. The ability for the civil disorder was huge, especially specified the interruption of church amenities, iconoclasm, and the physical offensives on the ministry, which in turn motivated resistance from unreformed “Romanists.”. He placed forward a quite dissimilar view in the year of 1523, in his best developed political writing, On Secular Power. He now debated (echoing Augustine) that humankind belongs to one of two realms (Reiche): the religious and the worldly (or secular, temporal: weltlich) (Schilling, 2017).
To evangelicals in common and to Lutherans in specific, Luther left an uncertain inheritance of political believed. He prided himself on having refurbished the power of secular supervision that papal tyranny had overthrown. But his determination on political compliance made the Restructuring susceptible to being condensed to political and philosophical subservience to leaders and reserved shared efforts at expansion and extending the Reformation. Therefore, he did his cumulative the ecclesiastical part of secular leaders at the cost of both churchgoers and priests (Mullett, 2003).
Luther was suffering from sicknesses a various time in his life, received excessive relief from his family, plain religious movements which he had published for kids. On the return journey to his hometown Eisleben, he fell sick and died on February 18, 1546.
Martin Luther was the theology professor and a monk, composer, and priest. He was born in Esleben on the tenth of November 1983. He was past graduated from the University of Erfurt. He faced an incidence on 2nd July 1505 in which got stuck and that incidence turned him in monk. On 19 October 1912, he was awarded doctorate degree in theology. In 1517 he published 95 theses and pasted on the door of the church. In 1525 he married to a nun named Katharina Von Bora and had six children. His work in political philosophy includes turning against the Papalism in 1517, prospering that the people had right to follow the scriptures and taking their own decision, he also turned against the emperors and stated that forgiveness should not dependent on the priests but on the repentance. He believed that philosophy and reason can play an important role in society and help the people greatly. He demanded scriptures and the reason when Cardinal Cajetan asked recantation of Martin Luther. He also appealed the German national pride in opposing Rome, as mentioned in his primary appeal to Christian Dignity of the realm of German. His teaching had a strong suggestion for the political philosophy and practices. On 18th February 1546, he got sick and died on his way to his hometown.
References
Bainton, R. H. (2013). Here I stand: A life of Martin Luther (1st ed.). Tennessee, United States: Abingdon Press.
Kolb, R. (2009). Martin Luther: Confessor of the faith (1st ed). New York: Oxford University Press.
Luther, M. (2013). On the Freedom of a Christian: With Related Texts (2nd ed.). USA: Hackett Publishing.
Marius, R. (2009). Martin Luther: the Christian between God and death (3rd ed). USA: Harvard University Press.
Marshall, P. (2018). A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation. German History, 36(2), 276-277.
McGrath, A. E. (2011). Luther’s theology of the cross: Martin Luther’s theological breakthrough (2nd ed.). New Jersey, US: John Wiley & Sons.
Mjaaland, M. T. (2015). The Hidden God: Luther, Philosophy, and Political Theology (1st ed.). Indiana, USA: Indiana University Press.
Mullett, M. (2003). Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses: Michael Mullett Defines the Role of the 95 Theses in the Lutheran Reformation. History Review, (46), 46.
Naphy, W. G. (2011). The Protestant Revolution: From Martin Luther to Martin Luther King Jr (3rd ed.). New York, US: Random House.
Roper, L. (2010). Martin Luther’s body: the “stout doctor” and his biographers. The American historical review, 115(2), 351-384.
Schilling, H. (2017). Martin Luther: Rebel in an Age of Upheaval (1st ed.). UK: Oxford University Press.
Smith, P. (2012). Life and Letters of Martin Lu Cb: Life & Martin Luther (1st ed.). USA: Routledge.
Stanford, P. (2017). Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident. (1st ed.). UK: Hachette UK.
Wilson, D. (2014). Out of the storm: The life and legacy of Martin Luther (2nd ed.). London: Random House.
WRJEDT, M. (2003). 6 Luther’s theology. Retrieved from: https://www.howheal.com/archives/2015/150703_bio3.pdf
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