The Life of Martin Luther King - Essay Example

? Martin Luther was an amazingly forward thinking person who was brave enough to challenge some of the fundamental precepts of the Catholic Church. His 95 Theses were a document he nailed to his church’s door in order to spark public debate, mostly surrounding the sale of indulgences and the Church’s ability to free people from purgatory. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were an attempt to clearly define a direct connection between God and worshipers without the intermediary necessity of the church, to make it clear to Christians that a life of mercy is better than the purchasing of indulgences, and to illuminate corrupt practices from religious leaders of the time. The fundamental thing Luther addressed in his Theses was the sale of indulgences, something that posed a significant amount of theological problems. Indulgences were essentially a fundraising tool used by the Church in times of financial need, forgiving people for past (or in some cases future) minor sins in return for their coin. Religious leaders made it very clear that these only affected minor sins, and thus would shorten someone’s time in purgatory (a very painful realm between heaven and hell that people entered to purge them of their sins, according to Catholic thinking of the time) but not save them from serious sins that would put them in hell. Many people had a problem with the sale of indulgences, and they were widely unpopular in parts of Northern Europe among the laity. As Luther points out in his Theses, there are a wide array of theological problems with the sale of indulgences. One of the biggest problems that Luther had with indulgences is that they pervert the worshiper’s relationship with god and with the church. In Luther’s thinking, only god can truly offer repentance for a person’s sin, and worshipers need to understand that they have to live lives of repentance, not just towards the church through the sacrament of penance, but also to God by living a life of mercy towards your fellow man. Luther believed that the indulgences undermined people’s motivations of living lives of mercy, by thinking that they could get away with doing bad things and just pay for it through penances. Furthermore, Luther thought that giving to the needy was a much better use of money than giving money to the already overly rich Church, and that indulgences inhibited people from giving to those in need, which they saw as only possibly granting salvation, as opposed to giving money to the Church to buy indulgences, which would definitely grant them a reprieve from a particular sin. Essentially, Luther wants to address a wide array of problems caused by the sale of indulgences. The first thing he makes sure is that people know that they need to support those around them before spending money on indulgences, and that mercy towards those around them is more holy than helping the Church build a new basilica. This solves the problem of people neglecting charity in order to support the opulent church. Furthermore, Luther insists that people must financially care for themselves and their family before even thinking of buying indulgences. The fact that he includes this provision in his Theses seems to indicate that some people were neglecting their family and their wellbeing, possibly putting indulgences before essentials like food and housing in order to supposedly ensure a shorter time in purgatory. These two provisions are meant to address real-world, practical problems with the sale of indulgences that Luther seems to be facing on a day to day basis in his church. In addition to tackling these practical real world problems, Luther makes some significant challenges to classical Churchly authority in the field of theology. Probably his most inflammatory statement is that people are their own priests. In saying this, Luther, a priest himself, does not mean to underestimate the amazing benefit having a priest, with their specialized knowledge and training (and ability to perform sacraments), but rather to emphasize the personal relationship with God that an individual can have. In this he essentially means that a person can act as their own intermediary with God, and try to get forgiveness for their sins through good works in their community and make good with God without having to recourse to the Church. He is obviously not imagining removing clergy from service, but rather emphasizing that each believer needs to have a personal relationship with the divine. Probably the most scathing aspect Luther’s Theses come at the end when he implicitly criticizes church leaders. Luther never comes out and out and accuses church leaders of being inherently corrupt necessarily, but rather implies that the church hierarchy must want something to be done a certain way, because that is the good and holy thing to do, almost implying that their message must be getting distorted before reaching the laity, and putting church hierarchy in a false light if they stand opposed to his statement. Thesis 51 is an excellent example of this – Luther states that “Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to give his own money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.” Instead of criticizing the pope for sending the “hawkers” in the first place, Luther makes it seem as if the pope must be against what is happening, and simply not be able to control it, making it incredibly awkward for him to switch positions. The most scathing of these implicit critiques comes at the close of his Theses, where Luther puts together a series of logical fallacies about the sale of indulgences and then attributes to “shrewd questions of the laity.” One of these asks that if the pope can end purgatory for people by the sale of indulgences, “why does he not empty purgatory for the sake of holy love and the dire need of souls that are there if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money?” This question cleverly demonstrates that either the pope a) does not have the ability to actually save souls from purgatory, or b) would rather have money than save souls, both of which are obviously very, very bad for the pope. Yet by attributing these questions to the laity, Luther avoids direct confrontation with the pope, being merely the messenger and not the actually radical who would undermine church authority. Luther clearly thinks that church leaders are a combination of incompetent and corrupt, but avoids direct conflict by making their positions seem completely untenable. Luther’s Theses ended up being the foundation of a revolution that would change Christianity forever. But this was not at all his intention, he rather intended to challenge current practice and get the church to address the obvious problems and internal inconsistencies in its dogma and practice. Luther, in this text, outlines a personal and direct relationship between God and the believer, in which God alone can forgive the believers guilt, while addressing real world problems of indulgences and implicitly criticizing church hierarchy. Read More