tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/martin-luther-34831/articles
Martin Luther – The Conversation
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214849
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
2023-12-18T19:09:41Z
Who wrote the Bible?
<p>The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world: creation, fall, redemption and God’s Last Judgement of the living and the dead.</p>
<p>The Old Testament (which dates to 300 BCE) begins with the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, their disobedience to God and their expulsion from the garden of Eden. </p>
<p>The New Testament recounts the redemption of humanity brought about by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. It finishes in the book of Revelation, with the end of history and God’s Last Judgement. </p>
<p>During the first 400 years of Christianity, the church took its time deciding on the New Testament. Finally, in 367 CE, authorities confirmed the 27 books that make it up.</p>
<p>But who wrote the Bible? </p>
<p>Broadly, there are four different theories.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566007/original/file-20231215-17-wovd4x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bible tells an overall story about the history of the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. God wrote the Bible</h2>
<p>All Christians agree the Bible is authoritative. Many see it as the divinely revealed word of God. But there are significant disagreements about what this means. </p>
<p>At its most extreme, this is taken to mean the words themselves are divinely inspired – God dictated the Bible to its writers, who were merely God’s musicians playing a divine composition. </p>
<p>As early as the second century, the <a href="https://archive.org/details/fathersofchurch0000unse/page/382/mode/2up">Christian philosopher Justin Martyr saw it</a> as only necessary for holy men </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to submit their purified persons to the direction of the Holy Spirit, so that this divine plectrum from Heaven, as it were, by using them as a harp or lyre, might reveal to us divine and celestial truths. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, God dictated the words to the Biblical secretaries, who wrote everything down exactly. </p>
<p>This view continued with the medieval Catholic church. Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas put it simply in the 13th century: “the author of Holy Writ is God”. He <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FP_Q1_A10.html">qualified this</a> by saying each word in Holy Writ could have several senses – in other words, it could be variously interpreted. </p>
<p>The religious reform movement known as Protestantism swept through Europe in the 1500s. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">A new group of churches formed</a> alongside the existing Catholic and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy">Eastern Orthodox</a> traditions of Christianity. </p>
<p>Protestants emphasised the authority of “scripture alone” (“sola scriptura”), meaning the text of the Bible was the supreme authority over the church. This gave greater emphasis to the scriptures and the idea of “divine dictation” got more support. </p>
<p>So, for example, <a href="https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924029273996&seq=254">Protestant reformer John Calvin declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[we] are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=891&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566013/original/file-20231215-27-3bk1hz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1120&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protestant reformer John Calvin believed in ‘divine dictation’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“Divine dictation” was linked to the idea that the Bible was without error (inerrant) – because the words were dictated by God. </p>
<p>Generally, over the first 1,700 years of Christian history, this was assumed, if not argued for. But from the 18th century on, both history and science began to cast doubts on the truth of the Bible. And what had once been taken as fact came to be treated as myth and legend. </p>
<p>The impossibility of any sort of error in the scriptures became a doctrine at the forefront of the 20th-century movement known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-fundamentalism">fundamentalism</a>. The <a href="https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-chicago-statement-on-biblical-inerrancy/">Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy in 1978</a> declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bible-helped-shape-australian-culture-96265">How the Bible helped shape Australian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. God inspired the writers: conservative</h2>
<p>An alternative to the theory of divine dictation is the divine inspiration of the writers. Here, both God and humans collaborated in the writing of the Bible. So, not the words, but the authors were inspired by God. </p>
<p>There are two versions of this theory, dating from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Reformation">Reformation</a>. The conservative version, favoured by Protestantism, was: though the Bible was written by humans, God was a dominant force in the partnership. </p>
<p>Protestants believed the sovereignty of God overruled human freedom. But even the Reformers, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther">Martin Luther</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin">John Calvin</a>, recognised variation within the Biblical stories could be put down to human agency.</p>
<p>Catholics were more inclined to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty. Some flirted with the idea human authorship was at play, with God only intervening to prevent mistakes. </p>
<p>For example, in 1625, <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/46/mode/2up">Jacques Bonfrère said</a> the Holy Spirit acts: “not by dictating or inbreathing, but as one keeps an eye on another while he is writing, to keep him from slipping into errors”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566017/original/file-20231215-25-7tzwzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catholics were more inclined than Protestants to recognise human freedom above divine sovereignty.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pixabay/Pexels</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early 1620s, the Archbishop of Split, Marcantonio de Dominis, went a little further. He distinguished between those parts of the Bible revealed to the writers by God and those that weren’t. In the latter, he believed, errors could occur. </p>
<p>His view was supported some 200 years later by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-John-Henry-Newman">John Henry Newman</a>, who led the Oxford movement in the Church of England and later became a cardinal (and then a saint) in the Roman Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Newman argued the divinely inspired books of the Bible were interspersed with human additions. In other words, the Bible was inspired in matters of faith and morals – but not, say, in matters of science and history. It was hard, at times, to distinguish this conservative view from “divine dictation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-quran-the-bible-and-homosexuality-in-islam-61012">Friday essay: The Qur’an, the Bible and homosexuality in Islam</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. God inspired the writers: liberal</h2>
<p>During the 19th century, in both Protestant and Catholic circles, the conservative theory was being overtaken by a more liberal view. The writers of the Bible were inspired by God, but <a href="https://archive.org/details/catholictheories0000burt/page/186/mode/2up">they were “children of their time”</a>, their writings determined by the cultural contexts in which they wrote. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=691&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566015/original/file-20231215-31-6sqtab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=868&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 18th-century depiction from the gospels of Matthew and Mark.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This view, while recognising the special status of the Bible for Christians, allowed for errors. For example, in 1860 <a href="https://archive.org/details/a578549600unknuoft/page/n359/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater&q=inspir">the Anglican theologian Benjamin Jowett declared</a>: “any true doctrine of inspiration must conform to all well-ascertained facts of history or of science”.</p>
<p>For Jowett, to hold to the truth of the Bible against the discoveries of science or history was to do a disservice to religion. At times, though, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a liberal view of inspiration and there being no meaning to “inspiration” at all.</p>
<p>In 1868, a conservative Catholic church pushed back against the more liberal view, declaring God’s direct authorship of the Bible. The Council of the Church known as Vatican 1 <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/ecum20.htm.">declared</a> both the Old and New Testaments were: “written under the inspiration of the holy Spirit, they have God as their author.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-spite-of-their-differences-jews-christians-and-muslims-worship-the-same-god-83102">In spite of their differences, Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. People wrote it, with no divine help</h2>
<p>Within the most liberal Christian circles, by the end of the 19th century, the notion of the Bible as “divinely inspired” had lost any meaning. </p>
<p>Liberal Christians could join their secular colleagues in ignoring questions of the Bible’s historical or scientific accuracy or infallibility. The idea of the Bible as a human production was now accepted. And the question of who wrote it was now comparable to questions about the authorship of any other ancient text. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=258&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566001/original/file-20231215-17-ny9bcs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eve in the Garden of Eden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giuliano di Piero di Simone Bugiardini/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The simple answer to “who wrote the Bible?” became: the authors named in the Bible (for example, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the authors of the four Gospels). But the idea of the Bible’s authorship is complex and problematic. (So are historical studies of ancient texts more generally.)</p>
<p>This is partly because it’s hard to identify particular authors. </p>
<p>The content of the 39 books of the Old Testament is the same as the 24 books of the Jewish <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hebrew-Bible">Hebrew Bible</a>. Within modern Old Testament studies, it’s now generally accepted that the books were not the production of a single author, but the result of long and changing histories of the stories’ transmission. </p>
<p>The question of authorship, then, is not about an individual writer, but multiple authors, editors, scribes and redactors – along with multiple different versions of the texts. </p>
<p>It’s much the same with the New Testament. While 13 Letters are attributed to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Paul-the-Apostle">Saint Paul</a>, there are doubts about his authorship of seven of them (Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews). There are also disputes over the traditional authorship of a number of the remaining Letters. The book of Revelation was traditionally ascribed to Jesus’s disciple John. But it is now generally agreed he was not its author. </p>
<p>Traditionally, the authors of the four <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gospel-New-Testament">Gospels</a> were thought to be the apostles Matthew and John, Mark (the companion of Jesus’s disciple Peter), and Luke (the companion of Paul, who spread Christianity to the Greco-Roman world in the first century). But the anonymously written Gospels weren’t attributed to these figures until the second and third centuries. </p>
<p>The dates of the Gospels’ creation also suggests they were not written by eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life. The earliest Gospel, Mark (65-70 CE) was written some 30 years after the death of Jesus (from 29-34 CE). The last Gospel, John (90-100 CE) was written some 60-90 years after the death of Jesus. </p>
<p>It’s clear the author of the Gospel of Mark drew on traditions circulating in the early church about the life and teaching of Jesus and brought them together in the form of ancient biography. </p>
<p>In turn, the Gospel of Mark served as the principal source for the authors of Matthew and Luke. Each of these authors had access to a common source (known as “Q”) of the sayings of Jesus, along with material unique to each of them. </p>
<p>In short, there were many (unknown) authors of the Gospels.</p>
<p>Interestingly, another group of texts, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/apocrypha">Apocrypha</a>, were written during the time between the Old and New Testaments (400 BCE to the first century CE). The Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions consider them part of the Bible, but Protestant churches don’t consider them authoritative.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-traditional-christian-doctrine-of-hell-119380">5 things to know about the traditional Christian doctrine of hell</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Divine or human: why does it matter?</h2>
<p>The question of who wrote the Bible matters because the Christian quarter of the world’s population believe the Bible is a not merely a human production. </p>
<p>Divinely inspired, it has a transcendent significance. As such, it provides for Christians an ultimate understanding of how the world is, what history means and how human life should be lived. </p>
<p>It matters because the Biblical worldview is the hidden (and often not-so-hidden) cause of economic, social and personal practices. It remains, as it has always been, a major source of both peace and conflict. </p>
<p>It matters, too, because the Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has formed, informed and shaped all of us – whether consciously or unconsciously, for good or ill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip C. Almond does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Bible remains the most important collection of books in Western civilisation. Regardless of our religious beliefs, it has shaped all of us. But who wrote it? The answer is complicated.
Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193066
2022-12-14T13:12:10Z
2022-12-14T13:12:10Z
The Catholic view on indulgences and how they work today
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500735/original/file-20221213-16222-2k9x52.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C30%2C4031%2C2987&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago recently offered indulgences.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Myriam Renaud</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1517, the German theologian <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Martin_Luther.html?id=jEQ_X5CMh2MC">Martin Luther</a> nailed <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Ninety_Five_Theses_and_Other_Writing.html?id=bbP3DQAAQBAJ">95 theses</a> to Wittenberg’s Castle Church door, attacking <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Indulgences_Luther_Catholicism_and_the_I.html?id=0Pk2DwAAQBAJ">indulgences</a>, a Catholic practice that, according to church teachings, can reduce or eliminate punishment for sin. Starting in the 11th century, the church offered indulgences to those who joined the Crusades and later sold certificates of indulgences to raise funds, giving rise to the abusive marketing tactics criticized by Luther. </p>
<p>Many people assume that the Catholic Church stopped granting indulgences after Luther’s famous rejection of them. Indeed, nearly 50 years later, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Pius-V">Pope Pius V</a> put a stop to their sale. However, Pius V also affirmed the validity of indulgences themselves so long as no money was exchanged. By 1563, he had endorsed a comprehensive doctrine on indulgences that emerged from a series of meetings with high-ranking clergy, called the Council of Trent.</p>
<p>This comprehensive doctrine, revised in 1967 by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25022051">Pope Paul VI</a>, remains one of the church’s teachings to this day. For example, from November 2021 to November 2022, the <a href="https://www.cabrininationalshrine.org">National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini</a> in Chicago <a href="https://www.cabrininationalshrine.org/jubilee-announcement">offered indulgences</a>. It did so to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the canonization of Mother Cabrini, the first American citizen to be declared a saint, revered by Catholics for her work with fellow Italian immigrants to the United States. </p>
<p>While some Catholics welcome the granting of indulgences as an opportunity to reduce punishment for sin, others are unconvinced and dismissive; two other branches of Christianity, Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy, unequivocally reject this practice. </p>
<p>As a scholar of religious thought and author of a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Constructing_Moral_Concepts_of_God_in_a.html?id=TqPgzgEACAAJ">book of constructive theology focused on ideas of God</a>, I am aware that the practice of indulgences is ancient, evolving and controversial <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/opinion/l17church.html">within Catholic circles</a> and beyond.</p>
<h2>The doctrine of original sin</h2>
<p>A fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church is that all human beings are born with the stain of <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Transmission_of_Sin.html?id=wv7HNm6BPxcC">original sin</a> as a result of Adam and Eve’s defiance of God in the Garden of Eden. This view, advanced by <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Augustine_of_Hippo.html?id=7akwDwAAQBAJ">St. Augustine of Hippo</a> in the third century, is one of the oldest teachings of the church. Because of original sin, no one, Augustine argued, can avoid sin without the assistance of God. </p>
<p>The faithful must cooperate with God’s freely given help, or grace, to heal the stain of sin. Still, according to Augustine and the church, regardless of effort, they are likely to sin again. </p>
<p>To sin, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_01011967_indulgentiarum-doctrina.html">Pope Paul VI wrote</a>, is to transgress the moral law and show “contempt for or disregard … the friendship between God and man.” Since sin is understood as rejecting God’s love, it deserves infinite separation from God after death: in other words, banishment to hell. </p>
<h2>Forgiveness and reconciliation with God</h2>
<p>The church has evolved a process for the forgiveness of sins, enabling Catholics to return to a state of friendship with God and offering them a reprieve from eternal punishment. This requires several steps, which together are called the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sacrament_of_Reconciliation.html?id=KO9KLwj1StwC">sacrament of reconciliation</a>. </p>
<p>For the sacrament to be effective, Catholics must feel true sorrow for their sins (contrition), admit their sins to a priest (confession) and promise to perform works of charity and seek sincere inner change (penance). Works of charity, chosen by the confessor priest, may include saying the Lord’s Prayer, saying a prayer to the Virgin Mary, and reciting the <a href="https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe">Nicene Creed</a>, a fourth-century statement of Christian faith. These devotions are intended to turn the believer’s heart toward God. </p>
<p>After a person confesses their sins, the priest, through whom God is believed to speak, ritually grants forgiveness, saying “I absolve you.” The sacrament of reconciliation, according to the church, allows sinners to restore their friendship with God and releases them from the burden of guilt and the penalty of infinite punishment in hell. </p>
<p>The church teaches that even when a person has been ritually forgiven, God’s justice still requires some punishment to purge the sin – at the very least, suffering and miseries on Earth. Moreover, the church teaches, these hardships are to be welcomed because they purify the soul and heal the stain of original sin. </p>
<p>The doctrine of indulgences is rooted in the Catholic doctrine of punishment due after the forgiveness of sins and emerged as a means to ease the burden of this punishment. As early as the sixth century, Catholic priests in Ireland assigned difficult penitential works like pilgrimages to faraway Jerusalem, but some began to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00062278.1982.10554351">adjust these works</a> based on an individual’s ability to bear them. </p>
<h2>Reducing or eliminating punishment for sins</h2>
<p>The substitution of easier works, however, does not meet God’s just demand for punishment of sin, according to the church. When an indulgence is granted, the pope satisfies the unmet demand for punishment by drawing from the church’s so-called <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Promissory_Notes_on_the_Treasury_of_Meri/mKWODwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">treasury of merits</a>. The merits in this treasury are believed to be infinite because they include the merits offered by Christ through his redemptive work on the cross as well as merits earned by the Virgin Mary and the saints. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803110705892">doctrine was codified</a> in the late Middle Ages, in 1343, by Pope Clement VI. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black-and-white illustration shows people lining up to receive indulgences." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500746/original/file-20221213-12651-txu6il.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abuses in selling and granting indulgences were a major point of contention when Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/selling-indulgences-in-catholic-theology-an-indulgence-is-news-photo/1404445180?phrase=indulgences&adppopup=true">Ann Ronan Picture Library/Photo12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Western_Society_and_the_Church_in_the_Mi.html?id=VEl1Cy-SwBQC">By the time of Luther</a>, certificates of indulgences were being sold to raise money on behalf of important patrons like the pope, who needed funds to build St. Peter’s Basilica. The priests who peddled these certificates preyed on faithful believers who feared punishment not just for themselves but also for loved ones who had died. </p>
<p>Terror over the fate of the dead stemmed from the church’s long-standing belief that if punishment for sin is not completed in this life, it continues after death when the soul departs for a spiritual place called <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Heaven_Can_Wait/0fqKBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">purgatory</a>. The soul must fully satisfy the <a href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12575a.htm">punishment required by God’s justice</a> before it can leave purgatory, come before God and enter heaven. The church has never claimed it could exercise authority over purgatory, the realm of God, to reduce punishment, but unscrupulous priests claimed indulgences could help the dead. </p>
<h2>The current practice of seeking indulgences</h2>
<p>Today, Catholics may seek <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Praying_with_the_Saints_for_the_Holy_Sou/dmj8CwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">indulgences for dead relatives</a> in the same way they seek indulgences for themselves. But they are then limited to praying that Christ or the saints intervene on behalf of their loved ones so that these indulgences may count toward reduced punishment.</p>
<p>In his 1967 <a href="https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_01011967_indulgentiarum-doctrina.html">Indulgentiarum Doctrina</a>, Pope Paul VI summed up this teaching: “If the faithful offer indulgences in suffrage for the dead, they cultivate charity in an excellent way and while raising their minds to heaven, they bring a wiser order into the things of this world.”</p>
<p>The church offers indulgences under specific conditions. Besides visiting designated holy sites such as the National Shrine of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini during set periods of time and for special occasions, Catholics can receive indulgences by reciting a set of approved prayers or making charitable contributions. The 1999 “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Manual_of_Indulgences/IMEof2fFCHMC?hl=en&gbpv=0">Manual of Indulgences</a>” provides guidelines for church-sanctioned practices. </p>
<p>Protestant Christians view indulgences as neither biblical nor theologically defensible – in their view, only God can directly forgive sins. </p>
<p>Parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church sold their own version of <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Eastern_Christianity_in_Its_Texts/Gkp2EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">certificates of indulgences</a> well into the 20th century. Believed to be a Catholic corruption of its own theology, the Eastern Orthodox Church eradicated this practice throughout its ranks. </p>
<p>For some Catholics, to seek an indulgence is to participate in an ancient practice whose long history is rooted in the earliest centuries of the church. Other Catholics reject the doctrine of original sin or the doctrine of punishment for sins or both – for them, indulgences have little meaning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193066/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myriam Renaud does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Catholic Church practice of granting indulgences, criticized by Martin Luther in the 16th century, still exists, as part of the doctrine – but in a different form.
Myriam Renaud, Affiliated Faculty of Bioethics, Religion, and Society, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/194328
2022-11-21T19:42:57Z
2022-11-21T19:42:57Z
Thanksgiving hymns are a few centuries old, tops – but biblical psalms of gratitude and praise go back thousands of years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496538/original/file-20221121-12-ld2g15.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1022%2C668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King David playing the lyre in a scene from a 15th-century manuscript of the Book of Psalms.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-david-playing-the-lyre-scene-from-the-book-of-psalms-news-photo/804439580?phrase=psalter&adppopup=true">Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thanksgiving doesn’t ring in the ear for months on end, unlike another holiday that lies just ahead. Yet readers may remember a couple of hymns that roll around each November in church, around the dinner table, or even – for readers of a certain age – in school. One I remember well is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3n7IUCdqAM">Come, Ye Thankful People, Come</a>.” Then there’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmR1JszAM1E">We Gather Together</a>,” or “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha628Pj_Rns">We Plough the Fields and Scatter</a>.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, for songs associated with a distinctly American holiday, none have American origins. “Come, Ye Thankful People” was written by Henry Alford, a 19th-century English cleric who ascended to become dean of <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/496/">Canterbury Cathedral</a> and supposedly <a href="https://archive.org/details/101morehymnstori0000osbe/page/66/mode/2up">rose to his feet to give thanks after every meal and at the close of every day</a>. “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113234570513601660">We Gather Together</a>” is much older, written in 1597 to celebrate the Dutch victory over the Spanish in the Battle of Turnhout. “<a href="https://hymnary.org/text/we_plow_the_fields_and_scatter">We Plough the Fields</a>” was written by a German Lutheran in 1782.</p>
<p>As someone <a href="https://people.cal.msu.edu/stowed/">who studies</a> <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674012905">American culture and religious music</a>, I’m interested in the backstory of the songs that we have come to take for granted. Someone wandering into a church and picking up a hymnal will likely find a handful of hymns filed under “thanksgiving,” but many more express a general sense of gratitude, such as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99dNPKYtHk">Now Thank We All Our God</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asU005-nnDI">For the Beauty of the Earth</a>.” Even more hymns fall under the related category of praise – after all, a common response to feeling blessed or rescued is to offer praise to the higher being thought to bestow those gifts.</p>
<p>None of these impulses are uniquely Christian, or even religious. But hymns of praise and gratitude have been central to Jewish and Christian worship for millennia. In fact, they go back to one of the best-known scenes in the Hebrew Bible. </p>
<h2>Fleeing Pharaoh</h2>
<p>The earliest musical performance mentioned in the Hebrew Bible is “The Song of the Sea,” referring to two songs Moses and his sister Miriam sing to celebrate the Israelites’ escape from Egypt. As Pharaoh’s army pursues the fleeing slaves to the edge of the Red Sea, God opens a dry path for them before closing up the sea to swallow the soldiers, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus+15&version=NIV">according to the Book of Exodus</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing. Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jewish singer <a href="https://jweekly.com/2011/01/14/as-we-sing-miriams-song-we-remember-her-protege-debbie-friedman/">Debbie Friedman</a>, who died in 2011, wrote “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZdSEsZ8bMo">Miriam’s Song</a>,” adapting these lines from Exodus into a modern favorite.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A page from an old Book of Psalms shows a woman in a red dress dancing next to a group of people emerging from water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496046/original/file-20221118-19-3253yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1084&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Chludov Psalter,’ a book of psalms, shows ‘The Song Of Moses and Miriam,’ from around A.D. 850. Found in the Collection of State History Museum, Moscow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-chludov-psalter-the-song-of-moses-and-miriam-ca-850-news-photo/959928552?phrase=miriam%20exodus&adppopup=true">Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Temple worship</h2>
<p><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/song-of-exile-9780190466831?cc=us&lang=en&">One research project</a> took me deep into the world of the Hebrew Psalms, which originally were sung mainly during rituals at the temple in Jerusalem. Scholars have speculated for centuries over the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-bible-commentary-9780199277186?cc=us&lang=en&">composition and sequencing of these Hebrew poems</a> that form one book of the Bible. The 150 psalms include a great many laments, expressions of praise and gratitude, and quite a few texts that combine both. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hermann-Gunkel">Hermann Gunkel</a>, a pioneering Bible scholar at the turn of the 20th century, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/39458847">developed a system</a> of classifying the texts in the Book of Psalms by genre, which experts still use today. What Gunkel called “Thanksgiving” psalms are texts that celebrate God’s actions to bestow blessings and alleviate affliction in particular times and places: <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+30&version=KJV">healing from a serious illness</a>, for example. Gunkel’s categories also include psalms that refer to gratitude for more general divine actions: creating the cosmos and the wonders of the natural world, or protecting the ancient Israelites from foreign enemies. </p>
<p>It’s hard to find a text more brimming with gratitude than <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+65&version=NIV">Psalm 65</a>, which includes verses very suitable for Thanksgiving Day:</p>
<pre class="highlight plaintext"><code> The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
</code></pre>
<h2>A new idea: Songs about Jesus</h2>
<p>Though the original tunes of the psalms have been long lost, their words are still a mainstay of religious singing for both Jews and Christians. </p>
<p>Their key role in Protestant churches today owes partly to <a href="https://wwnorton.com/college/music/concise-history-western-music4/ch/08/outline.aspx">the Reformation of the 16th century</a>. During the Renaissance, Catholics had developed more ornate musical forms for the Mass, including the use of <a href="https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/polyphonic-texture/">polyphony</a>: songs with two or more simultaneous interwoven melodies. Protestants, on the other hand, decided that unadorned psalms, put into standard musical meters that matched existing tunes, were optimal for church.</p>
<p>Reformation leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-impact-of-luthers-reformation-4-essential-reads-105953">Martin Luther</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/luthers-musical-legacy-is-the-reformations-unsung-achievement-85197">loved music</a> and wrote his own hymns with original words that are still popular today, such as “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6VN_g7RXQ">A Mighty Fortress is Our God</a>.” As far as the more austere reformer John Calvin was concerned, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/019827002X.001.0001">the plainer the better</a>. Unharmonized a cappella psalm singing was plenty good for the sabbath, he insisted.</p>
<p>Calvin’s judgment carried the day in New England, which was settled largely by Puritan Calvinists. In fact, the first book published in North America was “<a href="https://loc.gov/exhibits/bay-psalm-book-and-american-printing/online-exhibition.html">The Bay Psalm Book</a>,” in 1640. It took a century for hymns with new words to start finding acceptance in churches, and even longer for organs to make an appearance there.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A black and white illustration shows a woman helping four children sing from hymnals." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496047/original/file-20221118-15-cu6ivd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration from an 1866 edition of hymn writer Isaac Watts’ ‘Divine and Moral Songs for Children.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/isaac-watts-woodcut-from-watts-s-divine-and-moral-songs-for-news-photo/1430999703?phrase=%22isaac%20watts%22&adppopup=true">Bridgeman/Culture Club/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gradually these restrictions began to soften, even in New England. During the 1700s, hymns began to compete with psalms in popularity. The key innovator was <a href="https://hymnary.org/person/Watts_Isaac">Isaac Watts</a>, a talented poet who wondered why Christians couldn’t sing worship songs that referenced Jesus Christ – since the Book of Psalms, written before his birth, did not. John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism, were also inveterate <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/439039">hymn writers</a>.</p>
<h2>Praise yesterday and today</h2>
<p>To modern ears, the difference between psalms and hymns is barely perceptible. Hymns often draw heavily on the images and tropes of the psalms. Even a simple-sounding Thanksgiving hymn like “We Gather Together” contains no fewer than <a href="https://hymnary.org/text/we_gather_together_to_ask_the_lords">11 allusions to particular psalms</a>.</p>
<p>Watts, the Wesley brothers and several other hymn writers were part of movements that helped birth <a href="https://www.nae.org/what-is-an-evangelical/">modern evangelical Christianity</a>. Some of the most famous hymns of thanksgiving and praise have been popularized by evangelical revivals over the centuries: “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAPTcSUC7Cw">Amazing Grace</a>,” by an 18th-century English curate, and “<a href="https://billygraham.org/video/george-beverly-shea-sings-how-great-thou-art/">How Great Thou Art</a>,” the theme song of world-famous preacher Billy Graham’s revivals.</p>
<p>Over the past 30 years, the booming genre of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/singing-the-congregation-9780190499648?cc=us&lang=en&">contemporary worship music</a>, often referred to simply as praise music, has become the standard heard in megachurches and other evangelical congregations across the world. Not surprisingly, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUH_NzfRmbs&t=83s">praise and gratitude</a> are inescapable themes in this genre – whether or not they evoke a Thanksgiving feast.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David W. Stowe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Gratitude and praise are not only some of the most common themes in Christian music, but also some of the oldest.
David W. Stowe, Professor of Religious Studies, Michigan State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171499
2021-11-30T19:10:01Z
2021-11-30T19:10:01Z
The ostentatious story of the ‘young pope’ Leo X: his pet elephant, the cardinal he killed and his anal fistula
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433646/original/file-20211124-25-9afst9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C11%2C1904%2C2536&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Portrait of Pope Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de' Rossi, circa 1518</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Capodimonte Museum/Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, who died 500 years ago today, has a claim to be one of the most miscast popes of all time. </p>
<p>Perhaps <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/news/a52224/all-the-young-popes/">the youngest pontiff</a> of the last thousand years, he was the last non-priest to be elected as pope – and he remains the only pope to have kept a pet elephant. </p>
<p>Giovanni’s reign as Leo X (1513-21) marked the highest point of the Renaissance’s flowering in Rome. However, it also saw the birth of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation">Reformation</a>, the greatest rupture in Christianity since the East-West Schism of 1054.</p>
<p>History has not always been kind to Leo. Protestant divines <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=ttA4AAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">railed</a> against his decadence and corruption. Catholic scholars <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheHistoryOfThePopesV8/page/n21/mode/2up">drew attention</a> to his patronage of supreme artistic accomplishments yet still lamented his fecklessness in not anticipating the import of what was going on around him.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-promiscuous-she-pope-with-a-dilated-cervix-the-legend-of-pope-joan-who-gave-birth-on-a-horse-155378">'A promiscuous she-pope with a dilated cervix': the legend of Pope Joan, who gave birth on a horse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The young pope</h2>
<p>Born on December 11 1475, like many second sons of the elite, Giovanni was destined for a career in the Church. And they made clerics young in Renaissance Italy: he went to Rome to be a cardinal aged just 13. </p>
<p>Yet Giovanni’s first decades at the papal court were quiet ones. His family lost power in Florence at the start of <a href="http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_italian_wars.html">the Italian Wars</a> in 1494, which diminished his clout. Only in 1512, when the Medici regime was restored, did his star rise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433649/original/file-20211124-15-rf9est.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An engraved portrait of Pope Leo X, from between 1615–75.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A valued lieutenant to <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/raphael-pope-julius-ii">Julius II</a> – the Warrior Pope who drove French armies out of Italy – Giovanni was rewarded in the papal election that followed Julius’ death in 1513. </p>
<p>In agony with an <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/14466-anal-fistula">anal fistula</a>, he needed to be carried into the Vatican on a sedan chair and was operated on during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_conclave">conclave</a>. </p>
<p>Maybe out of sympathy for his discomfort, or perhaps because they thought his ailments precluded a long pontificate, the other cardinals surprised many by voting for him. </p>
<p>His unlikely candidacy carried the day.</p>
<h2>Vain, capricious and cruel</h2>
<p>As pope, Leo X was an enigmatic figure. Full of outward generosity and congenial friendliness, he loved music and is notable for his role in building up the papal choir. But Leo could also be vain, capricious and cruel. </p>
<p>In 1517, he sentenced a 26-year-old cardinal, <a href="https://cardinals.fiu.edu/bios1511.htm#Petrucci">Alfonso Petrucci</a>, to death on spurious charges. The case shocked because it had no real precedent and the Petrucci were Medici rivals in Tuscan politics, not Catholicism’s religious opponents.</p>
<p>Leo read voraciously and could take a joke about himself. When the satirist <a href="https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/parmigianino/aretino">Pietro Aretino</a> mocked him mercilessly, both for his excessive love of luxury and for his improper sexual tastes, Leo rewarded him. </p>
<p>Leo <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=giM73n_lca4C&q=Leo+X#v=snippet&q=Leo%20X&f=false">took a particular interest</a> in a 16-year-old boy, <a href="https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.70394.html">Marcantonio Flaminio</a>, whom he tried to shower with gifts (the boy’s father would have none of it). But Leo was not so diligent with his liturgical duties. Why should he have been, when he had not yet been consecrated as a priest, let alone bishop, when he became pope? </p>
<p>His rise through the Church’s ranks – rushed through in just a few days in the lead up to his coronation – remains one of the fastest in history and attests to the very different mores of the age. </p>
<h2>Giovanni’s elephant</h2>
<p>Besides being the first pope to kill a cardinal, Leo is also renowned for his pet elephant Hanno. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C786%2C777&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433645/original/file-20211124-27-iuf1ti.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hanno the elephant, drawn around 1516.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© bpk - Photo Agency / Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz / Dietmar Katz</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A gift from <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1878-0112-154">King Manuel I of Portugal</a>, Hanno lived in an enclosure in the Vatican’s Belvedere courtyard from 1514. Leo commissioned art and <a href="https://www.roma.com/quando-un-re-regalo-un-elefante-al-papa-la-storia-di-annone/">poems</a> to celebrate their friendship:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the Belvedere before the great Pastor<br>
Was conducted the trained elephant<br>
Dancing with such grace and such love<br>
That hardly better would a man have danced:<br>
And then with its trunk such a great noise<br>
It made, that the entire place was deafened:<br>
And stretching itself on the ground to kneel<br>
It then straightened up in reverence to the Pope,<br>
And to his entourage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hanno died aged seven, after being fed a laxative mixed with gold. Leo was distraught. He buried Hanno in the Vatican and personally composed an epitaph for his tomb.</p>
<p>Hanno did not live to see what historians now see as the most significant event of Leo’s papal reign: the day in October 1517 when an obscure German friar called Martin Luther appended his <a href="https://lutheranreformation.org/history/ninety-five-theses/">Ninety-Five Theses</a> to a church door in Wittenberg. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/433652/original/file-20211124-27-11xw1bb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This woodcut shows Luther writing his theses on the door of the church. His quill pierces the head of the lion, here representing Leo X.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Leo was an early target of Luther’s criticisms. He was the one who had given permission for the sale of so-called “indulgences” which Luther targeted. These financial instruments were claimed to give those who purchased them remission from doing time in Purgatory to atone for their sins.</p>
<p>Luther found that proposition theologically suspect and morally obscene.</p>
<p>Leo responded cautiously to Luther at first, encouraging debate. Yet he lost patience and <a href="https://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo10/l10decet.htm">excommunicated Luther</a> on January 3 1521. By then, Luther had branded Leo as <a href="https://universityofglasgowlibrary.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/the-antichrist-in-printed-art-1500-1600/">the Antichrist</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revisiting-the-reformation-how-passions-sparked-a-religious-revolution-500-years-ago-86048">Revisiting the Reformation: how passions sparked a religious revolution 500 years ago</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Leo’s legacy</h2>
<p>Luther never succeeded in persuading all Christian Europe to abandon its support for the papacy, but nor did Leo’s successors contain the movement he created. For many, Luther’s teachings became a spiritual equivalent to the laxative which Leo had so unwisely fed to Hanno. They purged the Church of adulterations which they came to feel Leo himself embodied. </p>
<p>For Catholics, Leo’s reign has come to be understood as a turning point when the papacy’s worldly predicaments reached their unfortunate crescendo.</p>
<p>Half a millennium on, Leo’s story, a giddy tale of ostentation, hubris, intrigue, and superfluous vice, still entertains – not least because it reminds us ecclesiastical oddities and papal scandals are nothing new. </p>
<p>We should remember Leo as a man who bore witness to, and helped shape, key developments in European History. He was also an unusually emblematic figure for a rich Renaissance culture whose legacies still resonate around us today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miles Pattenden has previously received research funding from the British Academy, the European Commission, and the Government of Spain.</span></em></p>
500 years after his death, we’re reflecting on the man who became a cardinal at just 13 – but he had made neither priest nor bishop before he was elected pope.
Miles Pattenden, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry/Gender and Women's History Research Centre, Australian Catholic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146094
2020-10-01T20:05:57Z
2020-10-01T20:05:57Z
God, plagues and pestilence – what history can teach us about living through a pandemic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361010/original/file-20201001-14-1229cks.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=508%2C0%2C3293%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthony Van Dyck's Saint Rosalie Interceding for the Plague-stricken of Palermo/The Conversation (with apologies)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us are living through a year that is unprecedented in our lifetimes. Too young to remember the Spanish flu, we’ve grown up in a world where we take Western wonder drugs and life-saving vaccines for granted. We have no memory of a time when disease brought the world to a standstill or shut down entire economies. We could not have predicted life in Melbourne in 2020 would include a 5-kilometre travel limit or a curfew.</p>
<p>A longer view of history reminds us we are not the first community to experience and reflect on life during a time of plague or pandemic. So what might we learn from history as we continue to navigate life during a pandemic?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pray-but-stay-away-holding-on-to-faith-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-133692">Pray, but stay away: holding on to faith in the time of coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We want to blame someone</h2>
<p>Given the ubiquity of religion in most human communities throughout history, it is not surprising reflections on pandemics often begin with God. Plagues and diseases on such a scale feel “biblical” in the sense they are beyond the norm and therefore supernatural in some way. While modern science gives us insight into COVID-19, we still look for someone, anyone, to blame for its presence.</p>
<p>In antiquity, that someone was often God. </p>
<p>One of the earliest records of plagues comes from the Hebrew Bible. Anyone who has celebrated Passover, read the biblical book of Exodus, or seen the animated Dreamworks movie Prince of Egypt will be familiar with the plagues that Moses (or God) unleashed on Egypt when Pharaoh would not free the enslaved Hebrews.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GJleW4TCQM0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Not all of the plagues were disease, but they all brought destruction and potential death. In that ancient narrative, a plague served two functions: it is divine punishment for injustice, and an assertion of religious power in the battle between Egypt’s gods and the god of the Hebrews. In the Hebrew Bible texts, Pharaoh’s refusal to release the slaves is to blame. It is his fault. </p>
<p>Throughout history, humans have sought explanations for things that are beyond our normal control or understanding. While God is often credited as the sender of plagues or pestilence – usually to teach some moral lesson – we tend to focus our wrath on human scapegoats. In the 1980s, the HIV-AIDS viral pandemic was blamed on the gay community or <a href="https://www.amazon.com/AIDS-Accusation-Haiti-Geography-Blame/dp/0520248392">Haitians</a>, revealing the racism and homophobia behind such views.</p>
<p>US President Donald Trump’s constant reference to COVID-19 as the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zatCqqRY_I">China virus</a>” reflects a similar desire for a scapegoat. In its worst form, the blame game leads to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-05/coronavirus-racist-attacks-asian-australians-missing-data/12211630?nw=0">widespread retribution</a> against anyone identified with that group. </p>
<h2>Role of government is key to protecting the community</h2>
<p>Another link with the past is the role of government in containing disease. Governments have for centuries used quarantine as a way to preserve public health, often with great success. </p>
<p>Yet resistance to forced quarantine has an equally long history, with reports of those in isolation <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/august/easier-prevented-in-the-beginnings">being “unruly” </a> and needing to be contained during the <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/The-Great-Plague/">Great Plague</a> in 17th-century England. During this period, quarantine procedures <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/august/easier-prevented-in-the-beginnings">made a marked difference</a> to the mortality rate when comparing cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360731/original/file-20200930-24-1kcuqgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Black Plague in England of the 1660s was widely believed to be an act of God.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">historic-uk.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Balancing individual freedom with the health of whole communities is a tricky business. <a href="https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=667830">Karen Jillings’s</a> work on the social history of the plague in 17th-century Scotland shows that, while physicians, magistrates and preachers all regarded the plague as supernatural (either directly from God or by God working through nature), the responses of those of faith differed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=750&v=BPqDxH7mxZ8&feature=emb_logo">Jillings describes</a> the arrest of a Scottish preacher in 1603 for refusing to comply with the government’s health measures because he thought they were of no use as it was all up to God. The preacher was imprisoned because he was viewed as dangerous: his individual freedoms and beliefs were deemed less important than the safety of the community as a whole. </p>
<h2>Being religious does not mean being anti-science</h2>
<p>Being a person of faith, however, does not necessarily make one anti-science.</p>
<p>COVID sceptics take a wide variety of forms in contemporary culture, including anti-religious conspiracy theorists. Yet anti-science views are often associated with people of faith thanks, in part, to some now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/us/bishop-gerald-glenn-coronavirus.html">tragic</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52157824">examples</a> from North America. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360734/original/file-20200930-16-1slyaz3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther cared for the dying during the plague.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikicommons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One example of a cleric who did not pit faith against reason was Martin Luther, the 16th-century theologian and reformer. Luther wrote about living through the plague in a pamphlet titled <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/may-web-only/martin-luther-plague-pandemic-coronavirus-covid-flee-letter.html">Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague</a>. </p>
<p>Oxford University professor <a href="https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-lyndal-roper">Lyndal Roper</a> writes that while many fled Wittenberg in 1527 when the plague struck, Luther stayed out of a sense of duty to help nurse and care for the dying. This is what he thought all leaders should do. </p>
<p>His staying was not the decision of a martyr, nor was it born of a naïve idea that God would necessarily save or protect him. Luther, <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2020/july/when-plague-came-to-wittenberg">writes Roper</a>, “advocates social distancing”, the use of hospitals, and necessary precautions according to the science of his time. While he believed that God was ultimately in control, he also affirmed human responsibility. Luther harshly condemned those who went about knowing they were sick and spreading the disease. </p>
<p>A historical perspective does not make living through a pandemic easy. But perhaps there is a small comfort in realising we are not the first community to live through such times, and neither will we be the last.</p>
<p>The things we find hard to balance – individual freedoms versus the group, accountability versus blame, science versus personal beliefs – are centuries old and deeply human.</p>
<p>And, like others in centuries past, we too are capable of incredible acts of care and sacrifice for the sake of the sick and vulnerable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bible-helped-shape-australian-culture-96265">How the Bible helped shape Australian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146094/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn J. Whitaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The things we find hard to balance during COVID-19 – individual freedoms versus the group, accountability versus blame, science versus personal beliefs – are centuries old and deeply human.
Robyn J. Whitaker, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/136063
2020-04-09T14:46:41Z
2020-04-09T14:46:41Z
How to celebrate Easter under lockdown
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326840/original/file-20200409-112635-qar213.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1022%2C530&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Before social distancing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leonardo da Vinci, Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With churches closed and annual pilgrimages cancelled, Christians across the world are wondering how to give thanks to God this Easter. And not just Christians – think also of “<a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2017/22-december/features/features/happy-christmas-folks">Chreasters”</a>. Do you attend church only at Christmas and Easter? If so, you’re a Chreaster, and you’re not alone – <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/18/when-easter-and-christmas-near-more-americans-search-online-for-church/">research shows</a> that Church of England attendance can increase by <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/29-november/news/uk/cathedrals-report-rise-in-attendance-during-holy-week-and-easter">50</a> to <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/news/christmas-attendance-highest-level-more-decade">100 per cent</a> at those times.</p>
<p>Even if we assume that most Chreasters attend church for cultural rather than strictly religious reasons, there will still be something missing for them and regular churchgoers this year. The lost opportunity to gather with one another in a community, to experience thanks and praise – and to do so within buildings often hundreds of years old, with songs and spoken words often thousands of years old. It is a lost opportunity felt most grievously when now is a time of loss – loss of normality, of society and, desperately, of individual life.</p>
<p>Christians – perhaps more than Chreasters – face another dilemma: should they support the decision to close churches or oppose it as others from <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/03/keep-the-churches-open">various</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/coronavirus-churches-florida-social-distancing">denominations</a> <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/22/orthodox-priest-arrested-in-greece-for-holding-mass-during-coronavirus-lockdown">have done</a>. Christians have risked suffering and death to worship before, so why not now, runs the argument.</p>
<p>There is no easy answer to that question. However, one response is to reimagine the notion of pilgrimage. As we follow government advice to “stay at home” it is possible to be stay-at-home pilgrims. Stay-at-home or (to borrow from <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ez7CAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Max Weber</a>) “everyday pilgrimage” is particularly associated with the Protestant Reformation.</p>
<h2>Martin Luther and faith</h2>
<p>Some of the most dramatic passages in Martin Luther reinterpret the relationship between work and worship. He describes <a href="https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/Reformations441/LutherMarriage.htm">changing nappies</a>, <a href="https://rockrohr.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Luther-WHETHER-SOLDIERS-TOO-CAN-BE-SAVED.pdf">being a soldier, and even executing criminals</a> as Christian works of love, if they are performed as expressions of faith.</p>
<p>In Luther’s theology, it is impossible for anyone to earn righteousness by works: going on a pilgrimage, becoming a monk, and changing nappies are just as ineffectual when it comes to salvation. Righteousness is <em>sola fide</em>, faith alone: the belief in Christ’s death as an atoning sacrifice for humanity’s sin – the sacrifice that Christians celebrate at Easter. But it is better to change nappies than to be a monk or nun, according to Luther (himself a former monk), who disliked the way they isolated themselves from not just everyday life, but ordinary human biology. </p>
<p>Monks and nuns <a href="https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/Reformations441/LutherMarriage.htm">exhibit</a> the “sin” of “pride” – they think they can <em>make themselves</em> holy by contradicting a direct edict from God to “<a href="https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-28.htm">Be fruitful and multiply</a>”. Rather than undertake monastic vows, Luther insisted that men and women glorify in family life – specifically recommending that fathers view changing nappies as something that can be done in “<a href="https://pages.uoregon.edu/dluebke/Reformations441/LutherMarriage.htm">Christian faith</a>”.</p>
<p>Just like monks and nuns, the belief that <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/luther-nobility.asp">pilgrimage must be a literal journey</a> encourages people to think there are special places and activities that can make them holy – places and activities not muddied by ordinary life. But it is ordinary life that God created and into which he became flesh and blood. And it is ordinary sinners that he saves. For Luther, a Christian who changes nappies to care for family is not trying to <em>earn</em> something, but to <em>be</em> something: a faithful Christian who imitates <a href="https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/luther-freedomchristian.asp">Christ by loving and serving others</a>.</p>
<h2>Plough as pilgrimage</h2>
<p>Although stay-at-home pilgrimage is more obviously Lutheran, it is a theme in works on pilgrimage prior to the Protestant Reformation. William Langland’s 14th-century Piers Plowman criticises those who go on pilgrimage in search of holy shrines but not “truth”. Eventually, some genuine truth-seeking pilgrims appear and travel with Piers – but then they have to stop to help plough his “half-acre” field – it seems that this is the pilgrimage, rather than a distraction from it. </p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/two-wycliffite-texts-9780197223031?lang=en&cc=in">The Testimony of William Thorpe</a> distinguishes between “true” and “false” pilgrimage. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2281.00151">Thorpe was on trial</a> for being a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HQPcCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">Lollard</a>, a religious group that started in England in the 14th century. The Lollards anticipated many of the beliefs associated with the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LuAzDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=companion+to+lollardy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTtZmLrNvoAhXHfMAKHQLJAtIQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=companion%20to%20lollardy&f=false">later Reformation</a>, including the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UGi6WWtzkJYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">first efforts</a> to translate the Bible into English so that ordinary people could read it.</p>
<p>For Thorpe, true pilgrims are “discreet” where as false pilgrims make showy trips to Canterbury – which are just self-indulgent holidays. So indulgent, Thorpe laments, they even include playing bagpipes.</p>
<p>Bagpipes aside, the category of “everyday pilgrimage” is not itself without problems. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ez7CAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=max+weber+spirit+of+capitalism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiW0LWShtroAhXQTxUIHQC9CU4Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=max%20weber%20spirit%20of%20capitalism&f=false">Weber</a> associated it with the rise of capitalism – and, by extension, the contemporary philosopher <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OYN88ArbxUAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=charles+taylor+sources+of+self&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZk82mgtroAhWsUBUIHThBAP4Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=charles%20taylor%20sources%20of%20self&f=false">Charles Taylor</a> and Cambridge University theologian <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xGq6BAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=banner+everay+ethics&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjc6ru9gtroAhVASxUIHYyvDZYQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=banner%20everay%20ethics&f=false">Michael Banner</a> have seen it as underpinning the rise of a secular, consumerist society. If true pilgrimage is work and family life, it is not long before making money and having children are our religion.</p>
<p>But this is just to say “everyday pilgrimage”, like actual pilgrimage, is not an answer on its own. It would need, for example, to be part of a wider denominational reimagining of the digital church services that are happening this Easter.</p>
<p>In the present crisis, we can think of “everyday pilgrimage” together with John Bunyan’s more famous The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). Here, the character “Faithful” (one of the theological virtues: faith) learns from “Christian” (a Christian on his spiritual journey) that “a work of grace” is discoverable by “heart-holiness, family-holiness … conversation-holiness”. This is because, Bunyan writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The soul of religion is the practic[al] part … to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sadly, in the time of coronavirus, it is sometimes by not visiting others that we are loving them. But if our action (or inaction) each day is the best we can do in our current situation – and we are motivated by an “unspotted” or humble affection for the most vulnerable in society (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/major-new-measures-to-protect-people-at-highest-risk-from-coronavirus">our own</a> “fatherless and widows”) – we can, like Bunyan’s Christian, count ourselves pilgrims, progressing together, faithfully through, and hopefully beyond, this present valley.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dafydd Mills Daniel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Churches will remain closed over Easter, but theologians have argued over the centuries that faith itself, not ritual, is the heart and soul of Christianity.
Dafydd Mills Daniel, McDonald Lecturer in Theology and Ethics, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/124861
2019-10-29T12:58:32Z
2019-10-29T12:58:32Z
Before Martin Luther, there was Erasmus – a Dutch theologian who paved the way for the Protestant Reformation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298761/original/file-20191025-173558-1tmxpep.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch humanist and theologian.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quentin_Massys-_Erasmus_of_Rotterdam.JPG">Quentin Matsys </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Martin Luther, a German theologian, is often credited with starting the Protestant Reformation. When he nailed his 95 Theses onto the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517, dramatically demanding an end to church corruption, he <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/protestantism-after-500-years-9780190264796?q=%22remembering%20the%20reformation%22&lang=en&cc=us#">split Christianity</a> into Catholicism and Protestantism. </p>
<p>Luther’s disruptive act did not, however, emerge out of nowhere. The Reformation <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/erasmus-the-reformer/oclc/247822964&referer=brief_results">could not have happened</a> without Desiderius Erasmus, a Dutch humanist and theologian. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://undpress.nd.edu/9780268033873/transforming-work/">scholar of medieval Christianity</a>, I have noticed that Erasmus does not get much attention in conversations on the Reformation. And yet, in his own time, when Christianity was facing many controversies, he was accused of paving the way for Martin Luther and even of being a heretic. His contemporaries charged him with “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9780802059765">laying the egg that Luther hatched</a>.” </p>
<h2>Who was Erasmus?</h2>
<p>Born in A.D. 1467, about 20 years before Luther, Erasmus grew up in the Netherlands. The world of his youth, like that of Martin Luther’s, was almost entirely defined by medieval Christianity. Educated by monks, Erasmus joined the religious life. He studied Christian theology at the University of Paris and followed this interest even after he left the university.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/literary-and-educational-writings-1-and-2-2">Erasmus was greatly inspired by the classics</a>. For Erasmus, ancient Greek and Roman authors – while technically pagan – were “the very fountain-head” of “almost all knowledge.” </p>
<p>Because of his love of the ancients, he is <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/From_humanism_to_the_humanities.html?id=VGPuAAAAMAAJ">often called a Renaissance humanist</a>, or, more appropriately, a Christian humanist. At a time when training in Greek and Latin was highly valued, Erasmus’ remarkable abilities made him much sought after. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=776&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298998/original/file-20191028-113991-utgh2d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=976&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Holbein’s portrait of Erasmus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/rl/original/DP164857.jpg">Robert Lehman Collection, 1975</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the support of wealthy patrons, he traveled around Europe, teaching at universities, writing books and meeting many prominent people. In England, he formed a close, intellectual friendship with the English author and fellow humanist <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/286334/utopia-by-thomas-more/">Thomas More</a>, whose book “Utopia” was about an imaginary society.</p>
<p>Together with More, Erasmus helped launch the career of one of the greatest artists of the 16th century, Hans Holbein, who <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459080">painted</a> both of their portraits. Erasmus’ portrait, along with many other masterpieces by Holbein, is now held at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. </p>
<h2>Erasmus paves way for Luther</h2>
<p>Luther famously used the printing press to publish polemical tracts that attacked the church and called for changes. The rapid and broad distribution of his ideas accelerated the Reformation. </p>
<p>It was Erasmus, however, who provided a model for Luther in how to take advantage of this new technology, how to use print as “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/printing-press-as-an-agent-of-change/7DC19878AB937940DE13075FE839BDBA">an agent of change</a>.” </p>
<p>Erasmus began publishing his books widely beginning in 1500, about 50 years after the first printed books appeared in Germany. He helped create an audience for Luther’s writings by popularizing Christian topics, such as how to be a good Christian and how to interpret the Bible. <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691165691/erasmus-man-of-letters">Many of his books were best-sellers</a> during his lifetime. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/298762/original/file-20191025-173548-1caw34k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther nails his 95 Theses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Pauwels</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Erasmus also prepared the way for one of Luther’s most radical ideas: that the Bible belongs to everyone, including common people. Luther translated the Bible into German in 1534 so that everyone could read it for themselves.</p>
<p>This idea can be found in Erasmus’ guide to reading the Latin Bible, “Paraclesis,” which he published in 1516 in Latin. Here he <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/the-new-testament-scholarship-of-erasmus-2">vividly describes</a> his own dream of the future, that common people would use the Bible in their everyday lives. </p>
<p>“I would to God the plowman would sing a text of scripture at his plow and that the weaver at his loom would drive away the tediousness of time with it,” he wrote.</p>
<h2>Not a supporter of radical change</h2>
<p>Although Erasmus was sympathetic to Luther’s critique of church corruption, he wasn’t ready for the kind of radical changes that Luther demanded.</p>
<p>Erasmus wanted a broad audience for his books, but he wrote in Latin, the official language of the church. Latin was a language that only a small number of educated people, typically priests and the nobility, could read. </p>
<p>Erasmus had criticized the church for many of the same problems that Luther later attacked. In one of his most famous books, The “Praise of Folly,” he <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/library/prose/1914.html">mocked priests</a> who didn’t read the Bible. He also attacked the church’s use of indulgences – when the church took money from people, granting them relief from punishment for their sins in purgatory – as a sign of the church’s greed. </p>
<p>When Luther started getting into trouble with church authorities, Erasmus defended him and wrote him letters of support. <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Erasmus_Reader.html?id=kBaNBgAAQBAJ">He thought</a> Luther’s voice should be heard. </p>
<p>But he did not defend all of Luther’s teachings. Some, he felt, were too divisive. For example, Luther preached that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/iustitia-dei/B793BE71FC1887876C09E73769B3AF98">people are saved</a> only by faith in God and not by good deeds. Erasmus did not agree, and he did not want the church to split over these debates. </p>
<p>Throughout his life, Erasmus forged his own approach to Christianity: knowing Christ by reading the Bible. He called his approach the “<a href="https://www-worldcat-org.colorado.idm.oclc.org/title/erasmus/oclc/614381485&referer=brief_results">Philosophia Christi</a>,” or the philosophy of Christ. He thought that learning about Jesus’ life and teachings would <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/literary-and-educational-writings-5-and-6-2">strengthen people’s Christian faith</a> and teach them how to be good.</p>
<p>Erasmus’ ability to defend different points of view, the church’s and Luther’s, seems to have been particular to him. He wanted concord and peace within the church. Scholar Christine Christ von-Wedel <a href="https://utorontopress.com/ca/erasmus-of-rotterdam-3">describes him</a>, therefore, as a “representative and messenger of a free and open-minded Christianity founded on scripture.”</p>
<p>After his death in 1536, his reconciliation of different views became impossible. The Reformation <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674088054">began a splintering</a> that persists today. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklysmart">You can get our highlights each weekend.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124861/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine Little does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Martin Luther is credited with initiating the split in Christianity that came to be called the Protestant Reformation. But don’t count out Erasmus, an early proponent of similarly radical ideas.
Katherine Little, Professor of English Literature, University of Colorado Boulder
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/104385
2018-10-26T10:41:33Z
2018-10-26T10:41:33Z
Why believing in ghosts can make you a better person
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242303/original/file-20181025-71042-1y7aoaq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Halloween ghost.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/102002427@N06/9798286186/in/photolist-fVQM7J-aAnnud-h9pXaJ-gZLHDg-7c2pRU-dQpZDX-pTdtLZ-8KjnF3-78GuJh-pwrGua-7QmgpT-7aNobh-dxzRn2-dPAmhV-dndc9Q-av929j-CQUbnm-YW1yQS-8Q9TxM-oSzcHR-iiPg8-aAT3vE-8DV9dn-5y3Qjr-pH9A2d-p6H5Ap-dMVXGk-49f7MP-gpqqEi-9yrn4A-64JyA-ZWbKjX-5yaTtb-3LcPH9-auJyLc-zyMcyi-5yq6jk-hdDSDL-pGfno1-5wSV8E-8Q9TD2-DjeHAy-8Pq3Wo-NhfHfJ-5ooHXe-8NZCd5-2bexLBf-4hEvTA-21rXTLx-8YBiXk">Werner Reischel/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Halloween is a time when ghosts and spooky decorations are on public display, reminding us of the realm of the dead. But could they also be instructing us in important lessons on how to lead moral lives?</p>
<h2>Roots of Halloween</h2>
<p>The origins of <a href="https://theconversation.com/tricking-and-treating-has-a-history-85720">modern-day Halloween</a> go back to “samhain,” a Celtic celebration for the beginning of the dark half of the year when, it was widely believed, the realm between the living and the dead overlapped and ghosts could be commonly encountered. </p>
<p>In 601 A.D., to help his drive to Christianize northern Europe, Pope Gregory I directed missionaries <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499461">not to stop pagan celebrations</a>, but rather to Christianize them. </p>
<p>Accordingly, over time, the celebrations of samhain became All Souls’ Day and All Saint’s Day, when speaking with the dead was considered religiously appropriate. All Saint’s Day was also known as All Hallows’ Day and the night before became All Hallows’ Evening, or <a href="https://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween-santino.html">“Hallowe’en.”</a> </p>
<h2>Christian ghosts</h2>
<p>Not only did the pagan beliefs around spirits of the dead continue, but they also became part of many of early church practices.</p>
<p>Pope Gregory I himself <a href="http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/gregory_04_dialogues_book4.htm#C7">suggested that people seeing ghosts should say masses</a> for them. The dead, in this view, might require help from the living to make their journey towards Heaven.</p>
<p>During the Middle Ages, beliefs around souls trapped in purgatory led to the church’s increasing practice of selling indulgences – payments to the church to reduce penalties for sins. The <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo3619514.html">widespread belief in ghosts</a> turned the sale of indulgences into a lucrative practice for the church.</p>
<p>It was such beliefs that contributed to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-reformations-500th-anniversary-remembering-martin-luthers-contribution-to-literacy-77540">Reformation</a>, the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism led by German theologian Martin Luther. Indeed, Luther’s “95 Theses,” that he nailed to the All Saints Church in Wittenburg on Oct. 31, 1517, was largely a protest against the selling of indulgences.</p>
<p>Subsequently, ghosts became identified with “Catholic superstitions” in Protestant countries. </p>
<p>Debates, however, continued about the existence of ghosts and people increasingly <a href="http://literarylondon.org/london-journal/springautumn2015/gaston.pdf">turned to science</a> to deal with the issue. By the 19th century, Spiritualism, a new movement which claimed that the dead could converse with the living, was fast becoming mainstream, and featured popular techniques such as seances, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-ouija-board-got-its-sinister-reputation-66971">ouija board</a>, spirit photography and the like. </p>
<p>Although Spiritualism faded in cultural importance after World War I, many of its approaches <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article/76/4/389/2461450">can be seen in the “ghost hunters” of today,</a> who often seek to prove the existence of ghosts using scientific techniques.</p>
<h2>A wide, wide world of ghosts</h2>
<p>These beliefs are not just part of the Christian world. Most, <a href="http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/picks-from-the-past/12476/shakespeare-in-the-bush">although not all</a>, societies have a concept of “ghosts.” In Taiwan, for example, about <a href="https://ir.nctu.edu.tw/bitstream/11536/56767/2/180402.pdf">90 percent people report seeing ghosts</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242305/original/file-20181025-71038-1314qdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elaborate model house is being guided into the ocean as an offering to wandering ghosts during the beginning of the Ghost Month Festival in Taiwan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Taiwan-Ghost-Month/8553fc9a5228468db5ffc4efa5e438a9/6/0">AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Along with many Asian countries such as Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam, Taiwan celebrates a <a href="https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/45141/thesisTracyLeeb5DEZEGEBRUIKEN.pdf?sequence=1">“Ghost Month,” which includes a central “Ghost Day,”</a> when ghosts are believed to freely roam the world of the living. These festivals and beliefs are often tied to the Buddhist story of the <a href="http://www.buddhasutra.com/files/avalambana_sutra.htm">Urabon Sutra</a>, where Buddha instructs a young priest on how to help his mother whom he sees suffering as a “hungry ghost.” </p>
<p>As in many traditions, Taiwanese ghosts are seen either as “friendly” or “unfriendly.” The “friendly” ghosts are commonly ancestral or familial and welcomed into the home during the ghost festival. The “unfriendly” ghosts are those angry or “hungry” ghosts that haunt the living.</p>
<h2>Role of ghosts in our lives</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=prZyKrMAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar who has studied</a> and taught ghost stories for many years, I have found that ghosts generally haunt for good reasons. These could range from unsolved murders, lack of proper funerals, forced suicides, preventable tragedies and other ethical failures. </p>
<p>Ghosts, in this light, are often found seeking justice from beyond the grave. They could make such demands from individuals, or from societies as a whole. For example, in the U.S., sightings have been reported of African-American slaves and murdered Native Americans. Scholar <a href="https://cdp.binghamton.edu/english/faculty/profile.html?id=ltucker">Elizabeth Tucker</a> details many of these <a href="http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1083">reported sightings on university campuses</a>, often tied in with sordid aspects of the campus’s past.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242301/original/file-20181025-71020-23fv1g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A ghost dance on Halloween.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/traderchris/5134719031/in/photolist-8PJM5t-oLfYWR-an84p5-3L8u74-2bHTfSe-h834iW-dNMiKR-fETUh7-doGftq-zbfBpi-aAAJL9-fVQM7J-aAnnud-h9pXaJ-gZLHDg-7c2pRU-dQpZDX-pTdtLZ-8KjnF3-78GuJh-pwrGua-7QmgpT-7aNobh-dxzRn2-dPAmhV-dndc9Q-av929j-CQUbnm-YW1yQS-8Q9TxM-oSzcHR-iiPg8-aAT3vE-8DV9dn-5y3Qjr-pH9A2d-p6H5Ap-dMVXGk-49f7MP-gpqqEi-9yrn4A-64JyA-ZWbKjX-5yaTtb-3LcPH9-auJyLc-zyMcyi-5yq6jk-hdDSDL-pGfno1">Chris Jepsen/Flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this way, ghosts reveal the shadow side of ethics. Their sightings are often a reminder that ethics and morality transcend our lives and that ethical lapses can carry a heavy spiritual burden.</p>
<p>Yet ghost stories are also hopeful. In suggesting a life after death, they offer a chance to be in contact with those that have passed and therefore a chance for redemption – a way to atone for past wrongs. </p>
<p>This Halloween, along with the shrieks and shtick, you may want to take a few minutes to appreciate the role of ghosts in our haunted pasts and how they guide us to lead moral and ethical lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104385/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tok Thompson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ghost stories are often about the departed seeking justice for an earthly wrong. Their sightings are a reminder that ethics and morality transcend our lives.
Tok Thompson, Associate Professor of Teaching, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/102158
2018-09-05T10:36:21Z
2018-09-05T10:36:21Z
How views on priestly celibacy changed in Christian history
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234497/original/file-20180831-195328-13gyruq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New priests being ordained during a ceremony led by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, when they take vows, including to remain celibate.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Andrew Medichini</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent report of widespread sexual abuse by priests in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/us/catholic-church-sex-abuse-pennsylvania.html">Pennsylvania</a> has fueled increasing turmoil within the leadership of the Catholic Church. In July this year, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/28/world/europe/cardinal-theodore-mccarrick-resigns.html">Cardinal Theodore McCarrick</a>, the former archbishop of Washington, resigned following allegations against him. </p>
<p>Opponents of Pope Francis are urging him to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/with-call-for-pope-to-resign-divisions-within-the-catholic-church-explode-into-view/2018/08/27/5f6b2476-a9f7-11e8-9a7d-cd30504ff902_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.78478b22c243">resign</a> in light of allegations that he knew about McCarrick’s behavior. </p>
<p>At a moment when a culture of secrecy, and what appear to be systematic cover-ups are leading to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2018/08/19/wasted-our-lives-catholic-sex-abuse-scandals-again-prompt-a-crisis-of-faith/?utm_term=.0310bfe8581f">crisis</a> of faith, some people are asking <a href="https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/item/29956-is-priestly-celibacy-at-the-root-of-catholic-church-scandals">whether priestly celibacy</a> is at the root of these scandals. </p>
<p>The fact is for a long time the Catholic Church <a href="https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/elizabeth-abbott/a-history-of-celibacy/9780306810411/">struggled</a> with its interpretation of Scriptures on priestly celibacy. It wasn’t until the 12th century that <a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_PY.HTM">priestly celibacy</a> became mandatory. </p>
<h2>Scriptural basis for celibacy</h2>
<p>In the middle of the first century, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300225884/paul">Paul</a>, the most influential apostle of the early Christian movement, wrote a letter to a congregation of Jesus followers in Corinth, Greece. It contains the earliest record of a discussion about celibacy and marriage among <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300098617/first-urban-christians">“believers,”</a> as Christians were called at the time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234498/original/file-20180831-195325-e1n00o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Saint Paul Writing His Epistles.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Probably_Valentin_de_Boulogne_-_Saint_Paul_Writing_His_Epistles_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Valentin de Boulogne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Apparently, the members of the church had written to Paul what appears to be a simple and specific argument in favor of celibacy: “It is well for a man not to touch a woman,” <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-new-oxford-annotated-bible-with-apocrypha-9780190276072?q=the%20new%20oxford%20annotated%20bible&lang=en&cc=us">they write</a>. We do not know who wrote these words to Paul or why they made this claim.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/3989/paul-on-marriage-and-celibacy.aspx">Paul’s response</a> to their claims provides a basis for later <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-body-and-society/9780231144063">Christian views</a> on marriage and celibacy, sex and self-control, and ethics and immorality.</p>
<p>He writes, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. … Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a set of time, to devote yourselves to prayer, and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. This I say by way of concession, not of command.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Paul, marriage was a concession: He appears to view it reluctantly as merely an acceptable choice for those who cannot control themselves.</p>
<p>He goes on to say, “I wish that all were as I myself am,” implying at the very least that he is not married. And he confirms this in the passage that follows, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain unmarried as I am. But if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Marriage, in Paul’s view, is the lesser choice. It is for those who cannot control themselves. Although difficult, remaining unmarried and choosing celibacy, seems to be the higher ideal. </p>
<h2>Interpretations of Paul</h2>
<p>As a a scholar of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-gendered-palimpsest-9780195171297?cc=us&lang=en&">early Christianity</a>, I know that <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/6726.html">Scriptural interpretations</a> are always dynamic; Scripture is read and understood by different Christians in different time periods and places. So, it is not surprising that a short time later, Paul’s writings found new meaning as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/asceticism-9780195151381?cc=us&lang=en&">asceticism</a> – the practices of self-control that included fasting, celibacy, and solitude –began to spread within Christianity. </p>
<p>A second-century expansion on the story of Paul, The <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-apocryphal-new-testament-9780198261810?q=apocryphal%20new%20testamant&lang=en&cc=us">Acts</a> of Paul and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-modest-apostle-9780190243821?q=acts%20of%20paul%20and%20thecla&lang=en&cc=us">Thecla</a>, a largely fictional story about Paul’s missionary efforts in what is now modern Turkey, casts Paul primarily as a preacher of self-control and celibacy. In this story, Paul blesses “those who have wives as if they have them not.”</p>
<p>Such a phrase may sound strange to modern readers. But as <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/desert-christians-9780195162233?cc=us&lang=en&">monasticism</a> grew within Christianity, some married Christian couples were faced with a problem: They did not want to divorce their spouses, because Scripture spoke against divorce. And yet they wanted to choose the life of celibacy. So these Christians chose to “live as brother and sister,” or “to have wives as if they had them not.” </p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/411.html">stories</a> of failures to keep vows of celibacy abounded: stories of monks and nuns who lived together and bore children, stories of monks who took mistresses, and stories about behaviors that today would be considered sexual abuse. </p>
<p>These stories emphasized that <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674018754">temptation</a> was always a problem for those who chose celibacy. </p>
<h2>Celibacy and crisis</h2>
<p>In the Middle Ages, the celibacy of the priesthood became a source of conflict between Christians. By the 11th century, it contributed to the formal <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Orthodox+Church:+An+Introduction+to+its+History,+Doctrine,+and+Spiritual+Culture-p-9781444337310">schism</a> between Roman Catholicism and <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318924/the-orthodox-church-by-timothy-ware/9780141980638/">Eastern Orthodoxy</a>. </p>
<p>But the issues were far from resolved. Divergent views on mandatory celibacy for priests contributed to the reform movements in the 16th century. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236142/martin-luther-by-lyndal-roper/9780812986051/">Martin Luther</a>, a leader of the <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780061148477/the-protestant-reformation/">Protestant Reformation</a>, argued that allowing priests to marry would prevent cases of sexual immorality. He drew upon Paul’s letters for support of his views.</p>
<p>On the other hand, leaders of the Catholic Church’s <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/The+Counter+Reformation%3A+The+Essential+Readings-p-9780631211037">“Counter-Reformation,”</a> a reform and renewal movement that had begun before Martin Luther, did not advocate marriage, but sought to address corrupt practices among the clergy. </p>
<p><a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10485.html">Desiderius Erasmus</a>, for example, a 16th century Catholic scholar, wrote a powerful <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/260980/praise-of-folly-by-desiderius-erasmus/9780140446081/">critique</a> of corruption in the Catholic Church. His views may well have been shaped by the fact that he himself was the <a href="http://www.hendrickson.com/html/product/707269.trade.html">illegitimate son</a> of a Catholic priest.<br>
One of the most important developments in this period was the creation of the Society of Jesus, also known as the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-jesuits/9A941C15F936F6CDC7F251BA584B93DC">Jesuits</a>, which sought to reform the priesthood in the face of accusations of sexual relations and corruption by, in part, improving the education of priests. In the founding rules of the Jesuit order, emphasis was placed on the importance of celibacy, training and preparation for missionary work, and serving the directives of the pope. </p>
<p>Pope Francis too is a Jesuit and has a long church history and tradition that he could draw from. The question is, at a time when the church is facing a crisis, will he show the way towards renewal and reform?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Haines-Eitzen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Early Christians were open to marriage for priests. It wasn’t until the 12th century that celibacy became mandatory in the Catholic Church.
Kim Haines-Eitzen, Professor of Early Christianity, Cornell University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/93016
2018-03-29T19:01:42Z
2018-03-29T19:01:42Z
Debate: What is missing in the ‘33 Theses for an Economics Reformation’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212411/original/file-20180328-109182-179osyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1497%2C853&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Andrew Simms (New Weather Institute), Sally Svenlen (RE student), Larry Elliott (_Guardian_), Steve Keen (Debunking Economics) and Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics) symbolically nail the "33 Theses" to the door of the London School of Economics in December 2017</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.rethinkeconomics.org/projects/reformation/">rethinkeconomics.org</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation, <a href="http://www.newweather.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/33-Theses-for-an-Economics-Reformation.pdf">33 Theses for an Economics Reformation</a> were formulated by Rethinking Economics and the New Weather Institute. The document was symbolically nailed to the door of the London School of Economics In December 2017 and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/dec/17/heretics-welcome-economics-needs-a-new-reformation">endorsed in <em>The Guardian</em></a>, and was supported by an impressive list of over 60 leading academics and policy experts. The initiative offers a rare and most welcome refreshing message from the House of Economics.</p>
<p>Several elements in the theses are long overdue – for example, the existence of planetary limits, the superiority of political deliberation over economic logic, the appreciation of the role of uncertainty in economic predictions, the non-independence of facts and values when economic thoughts are formulated, the warning against over-reliance on modelling, econometrics and formal methods. Also important is the indication that both growth and innovation need to be conceived with a desirable end in sight, one which can be associated with material and spiritual progress – rather than with misery, inequity and inequality. It is finally all important that in the teaching of economics itself the history and philosophy of economics should be taught, together with all economic theories: not just the family tree of mainstream economics.</p>
<h2>Three omissions</h2>
<p>While the “33 Theses” are a much needed initiative, three absences are nevertheless noticeable:</p>
<p>While the problems of financialisation are discussed, by going back to Martin Luther himself, in his 1524 book <a href="http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Martin%20Luther%20-%20On%20trading%20and%20usury%201524/ON%20TRADING%20AND%20USURY%20-%20backup%20020306.htm"><em>On Trade and Usury</em></a>, we find an older tradition that more clearly separates <em>unproductive hoarding</em> from <em>productive finance</em>. In his 1355 <a href="https://www.institutcoppet.org/2011/05/29/oresme-traite-de-la-premiere-invention-des-monnaies-ca-1355"><em>De Moneta</em></a>, Nicolas Oresme contrasts the negative effects of hoarding with the positive effect of investments in the real economy:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It was this consideration that led Theodoric, King of Italy (493-526), to order the gold and silver deposited according to pagan custom in the tombs to be removed and used for coining for the public profit, saying: ‘It was a crime to leave hidden among the dead, and useless, what would keep the living alive’.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The religious term for unproductive money is <em>mammon</em>. If we combine Oresme’s insight with <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Schumpeter.html">Schumpeter’s understanding of financial crises</a> as an occasion to clean out failed investments from the global portfolio, we find that in the name of “saving” investments we have made the mistake of saving bad projects and poor nations that should have been allowed to go bankrupt. We have helped accumulating <em>mammon</em> at the expense of real investments and consumption that would have “served the purpose of life” as Luther would have put it. Seeing the present world through the eyes of King Theodoric, we have printed mammon – unproductive capital – which is useless to keep the living alive, but which promotes speculative bubbles. By doing this we have made the perfect conditions for vulture funds, but failed the poor.</p>
<p>The second is the absence from the list of theories to be taught of <em>Erfahrungswissenschaft</em>, economics as a science of experience. This is in essence what most economics has been about until fairly recently. How influential this experience-based historical school was can be seen in a working paper, <a href="https://developingeconomics.org/2017/06/01/80-economic-bestsellers-before-1850-a-fresh-look-at-the-history-of-economic-thought/">“80 Economic Bestsellers before 1850: A Fresh Look at the History of Economic Thought”</a>. On the list is Adam Smith’s <em>Wealth of Nations</em>, chronologically No. 53 of 80 bestsellers before 1850, reflecting the fact that capitalism and industrialization were already long in existence when Smith wrote what today’s students are misled to think was the beginning of economics.</p>
<p>The third missing element is the word <em>trade</em>. Neoclassical trade theory – based on the theories of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo">David Ricardo</a> (1817) – presents trade as a harmony-producing mechanism. Ricardo achieved this by basing his model of international trade on the barter of qualitatively identical labour hours.</p>
<h2>How Ricardo saw it</h2>
<p>Ricardo’s trick of making every labour hour qualitatively identical is at the core of the problems of globalisation. At the intuitive level, economists understand this: no economist would ever advise his or her children to specialize in an apparent comparative advantage in washing dishes in restaurants. Intuitively, we all understand that there is a hierarchy of skills out there, and from that follows that it is entirely possible for a nation to specialise in a comparative advantage in being poor. </p>
<p>During the decades after Ricardo published his theory, US economists specifically referred to skill differences using a quote from the Bible that describes the cursed tribe that cuts wood and carries water for other tribes (Joshua 9:23). The United States did not want to specialize at the bottom of the skills ladder, and only wanted free trade when it had become an industrial power. Now, when the United States is no longer the world leader, US politicians from Trump to Sanders intuitively wish to go back to their own country’s long-forgotten theories.</p>
<p>Ricardo’s illusion is a main mechanism of today’s centripetal economic forces. This illusion has collapsed several times before, <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/desa/papers/2009/wp88_2009.pdf">most notably in 1848</a>, when the Ricardian economic paradigm was brought down through attacks from Marx and Engels on the left and the “great liberalist” <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill">John Stuart Mill</a> on the right. Mill recognized that poor countries needed “infant industry protection” before they could graduate into free trade.</p>
<p>Historically, every rich country – starting with England from 1485 to the US and South Korea – for a time has <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1340067.How_Rich_Countries_Got_Rich_And_Why_Poor_Countries_Stay_Poor">protected manufacturing industries</a>. At present, manufacturing, due both to its high productivity increases and to demand factors, tends to shrink as a percentage of GDP. However, the poor countries in the world periphery still have a huge potential national market for wealth-creating manufacturing.</p>
<p>We still see the destructive forces of the prevailing paradigm keeping poor countries poor, while leading to poverty and mass emigration from many former Soviet Republics. Cascading migration moves Polish construction workers to the UK and Scandinavia, Eastern Ukrainians to Poland to replace construction workers there, and Moldovans to the Ukraine to replace those who left for Poland, in the end creating lower wages in the West and a periphery without jobs and manpower. The backlash against the <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/21/karl-polanyi-man-from-red-vienna/">market utopia foreseen by Karl Polanyi</a> is happening.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sUEWLqY9DEQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Back to the future</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan">1947 Marshall Plan</a> and the <a href="http://opil.ouplaw.com/view/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e1529">1948 Havana Charter</a> represent the last time Ricardo’s illusion collapsed. The Havana Charter wisely describes under what conditions a country could protect its industries, as well as suggesting an international tax on trade surpluses. While it was blocked by the United States at the time, were such a rule in force today it would have been possible for the US to protect itself against deficits with China, and the Southern European countries of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (often referred to by the acronym PIGS) against similar deficits with Germany, while allowing the poor unindustrialised periphery of the world to use the same mechanisms that produced the 30 glorious years of development of the West after World War II.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erik S Reinert has received funding from national research councils, from the European Union, and from the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Saltelli ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
Nailed to the door of the London School of Economics, the ‘33 Theses’ offer a long overdue challenge to economics dogma. But there are omissions as well.
Erik S Reinert, Professor of Technology Governance and Development Strategies, Tallinn University of Technology
Andrea Saltelli, Open Evidence Research, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91676
2018-02-21T07:23:34Z
2018-02-21T07:23:34Z
Lessons from the Reformation could help spur Africa’s linguistic revolution
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205924/original/file-20180212-58352-1jb8jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's no reason Africa shouldn't be at the centre of global knowledge production.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa is at a tipping point. Countries across the continent are on the brink of shifting from postcolonial to <a href="https://en.unesco.org/themes/building-knowledge-societies">global knowledge societies</a>. A global knowledge society empowers people by increasing access to and preserving and sharing information and knowledge in all domains. Its features include freedom of expression and respect for cultural and linguistic diversity.</p>
<p>This change, driven by digitalisation and globalisation, will nudge African countries from being consumers of knowledge to its producers. It will bring full mental decolonisation to the continent. But none of this will happen without a shift in how Africa thinks about and champions its own languages.</p>
<p>Knowledge comes to Africa in the languages of the former colonial masters – French, English, Portuguese. Education is based almost exclusively on these languages. This would pose no problem if learners acquired nearly perfect command of the foreign language in question. But they don’t. The continent’s learners struggle with English and French. So do many of their teachers. </p>
<p>Across the continent, European languages are seen as “superior”. Africa’s own languages are “inferior”. This language attitude is fatal to optimal education in Africa, which must rely on both indigenous and foreign languages. Repeated over generations, it is deeply entrenched in people’s minds. And it is unsustainable.</p>
<p>Europe cannot serve as a model for Africa. European statehood is largely based on the ideology of a largely homogeneous nation state. These nation states rest on a one state, one nation, one language philosophy. They can be run through a single national language, which happens to be the vast majority’s mother tongue. This concept makes no sense for Africa, with its <a href="https://www.ethnologue.com/region/Africa">great linguistic plurality</a>.</p>
<p>Africa’s current situation has a parallel in European history. Exactly 500 years ago, Martin Luther brought about <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/reformation">Reformation</a>, which historians consider the breakthrough to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/modernity">Modernity</a>. This led to the <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/enlightenment">Age of Enlightenment</a> and laid the foundations of European exceptionalism. What started as a theological issue launched three “revolutions” which all hold lessons for Africa today: an ideological and political revolution, a technological revolution, and a linguistic revolution.</p>
<h2>A three-fold revolution</h2>
<p><strong>1. Ideological and political change</strong></p>
<p>Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk who doubted the Roman-Catholic teaching at his time. In his view, it contradicted the spirit of the Holy Bible. In the year 1517, took issue with Roman-Catholic dogma. He questioned how the Pope, operating from Rome, dominated Europe so completely – not only spiritually, but also when it came to politics. Luther’s followers were called “Protestants”.</p>
<p>Luther shattered the unity of Occidental Christianity and induced independence of regional polities from the central authority of the Pope. This eventually fostered separation of the State from the Church, which in turn bolstered individual freedom and democracy. And, crucially, it created mass education by abolishing the dominance of Latin as the sole language of (higher) education, replacing it by regional vernaculars.</p>
<p>The parallels to Africa are obvious. The Pope and Latin in Europe in the Middle Ages correspond to the former colonial masters and their languages in Africa.</p>
<p>African “vernaculars” must challenge the hegemonic dominance of English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. There is nothing that European languages can do that African languages cannot do. The desired outcome would be to liberate Africans from their copycat existence in trying to imitate the model of the former colonial master.</p>
<p><strong>2. Technological shifts</strong></p>
<p>Luther’s propaganda took advantage of the <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory/chapter/the-printing-revolution/">printing revolution</a> using movable letters. This was the beginning of mass media. Fast and cheap printing allowed ubiquitous distribution of pamphlets to be read to the illiterate masses in market places and churches.</p>
<p>Today’s equivalents are digitalisation and desktop publishing. Any language, African or other, can be printed at very low cost. So cost is no barrier to the re-empowerment of African languages. In fact, Africa is already embracing digitalisation and global communication even in her many “home languages” – orally, through SMSes and tweets.</p>
<p><strong>3. A linguistic revolution</strong></p>
<p>One of Luther’s biggest achievements was to push literacy in the vernacular. His translation of the New Testament (1522) into largely unwritten German made him the first “<a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.116.1124&rep=rep1&type=pdf">intellectualiser</a>” of standard German. It would go on to become a global language of philosophy and science a few centuries later. </p>
<p>This allowed mass education to take root. It stimulated Germany’s ascent to a leading economy and home to philosophy, literature, science and first-class technology. Mass education based on learning through the vernacular languages eventually overcame oligarchic regimes. It fostered democracy and civil society. Latin, once so powerful, was relegated to a teaching subject in secondary schools.</p>
<p>There’s no reason the same could not happen in postcolonial Africa. A linguistic revolution would make African languages the default media of instruction, and give global languages like English their place as well-taught language subjects. Those global tongues could be used for <a href="http://education.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264093-e-181">translanguaging</a> purposes when accessing imported knowledge. </p>
<h2>Beyond the tipping point</h2>
<p>The time is ripe for change. Africa is advancing in terms of digitalisation; already the <a href="http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/04/15/cell-phones-in-africa-communication-lifeline/">density of cell phones</a> is amazing. Mental decolonisation is on the intellectual agenda. Experts push it by suggesting multilingual education from kindergarten to university. </p>
<p>Standardisation and intellectualisation of African languages are under way, but need much more support from all quarters. Perhaps those long-ago lessons of the Reformation and the decades that followed it hold some of the answers the continent needs to jump from “tipping point” to full-blooded linguistic revolution.</p>
<p><em>An <a href="https://historyofknowledge.net/2018/02/21/developing-knowledge-societies-africa-needs-a-linguistic-revolution/">expanded version</a> of this article can be found on the German Historical Institute’s History of Knowledge blog.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Ekkehard Wolff is currently benefiting from a "Hugh le May Fellowship" for senior scholars in Rhodes University's Faculty of the Humanities.</span></em></p>
Africa’s current situation has a parallel in European history - the Reformation and the changes it wrought in terms of language exceptionalism.
H. Ekkehard Wolff, Emeritus Professor of African Linguistics, University of Leipzig
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/89666
2018-02-20T11:20:01Z
2018-02-20T11:20:01Z
Joining the dots: why education is key to preserving the planet
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205912/original/file-20180212-58335-1nlhnl0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Education empowers young people like Sarah Nasira, a Kenyan pupil leading a class.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Thomas Mukoya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The evidence is clear: education changes lives, in ways that are often not fully understood.</p>
<p>For instance, quality education can help you live a longer, healthier life. This is because education equips you to approach health on a rational, informed basis stripped of superstition. Your own education can benefit others’ health, too: research from Malawi has showed that having educated people as close neighbours enhances your health. </p>
<p>Evidence from Indonesia, meanwhile, points to education being <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4144011/">a particularly strong predictor</a> of who survived the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. Cuba copes with hurricanes far better than Haiti in part because <a href="https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss3/art31/">its citizens are more educated</a>. </p>
<p>Wolfgang Lutz and Reiner Klingholz recently completed a book, in German, on education’s role in resolving pressing current problems of inequality and sustainability, drawing extensively from history and recent scientific research. In 2017 it was translated into English with the title <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=IC0zDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false"><em>Education First! From Martin Luther to Sustainable Development</em></a>. </p>
<p>Lutz is a <a href="http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/research/researchPrograms/WorldPopulation/Staff/Wolfgang-Lutz.en.html">world authority</a> on population trends and climate change. Klingholz is a biologist and demographer. The pair worked on the book in South Africa, while based at the <a href="http://stias.ac.za/">Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study</a> in 2015.</p>
<h2>Education as a driver of history</h2>
<p>Lutz and Klingholz explore how mass literacy became a revolution that changed the course of Europe’s and, via colonialism, the world’s history.</p>
<p>Up to around 500 years ago, a defining feature of world inequality was that in those parts of the world where writing existed only around 1% had access to the schooling and texts that made literacy possible. Virtually all of this tiny minority were men. In Europe, the Muslim world and China, 99% of people were illiterate. </p>
<p>Martin Luther, in rebelling against Europe’s Catholic order, insisted that literacy should be universal. It was a view which would have appeared fanatical at a time when no one – probably including Luther – imagined just how much economic benefit would flow from literacy and education more broadly.</p>
<p>The impact of the Reformation on literacy was not immediate, but the genie had been let out of the bottle. By 1800 around half of Protestant Europe was literate. By 1900 literacy was near universal. Japan, eager to modernise, replicated many aspects of the German education system, starting in the 1870s. </p>
<p>Britain’s and, much later, Japan’s empires proved efficient in their brutality largely thanks to an exceptionally educated population at home. The rise of the United States can be attributed to the fact that this champion of private enterprise also pioneered the mass public funding of secondary schooling. </p>
<p>It is argued that Germany became susceptible to the lies of the tiny Nazi party because its secondary schooling had fallen behind its counterparts across the world. </p>
<h2>Enablers and disenablers</h2>
<p>Modern technologies are undoubtedly education enablers. Their absence has also played a big role in how education has – or hasn’t – evolved. One sobering case of technology suppression happened in 1485 when the Ottoman sultan <a href="http://opencommons.uconn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1256&context=econ_wpapers">imposed a ban on printing</a>. It lasted for two centuries, throttling the technology that Luther’s revolution relied on. This partly explains why the Islamic Golden Age, with its scientists and thinkers, was unable to evolve into a mass education movement.</p>
<p>Communism, for all its failings on the economic policy front, was generally an excellent promoter of education. Inspired by Marx, himself originally a first-generation Lutheran, Mao laid the foundations for mass quality schooling in China, which made an astounding economic takeoff possible several decades later. </p>
<p>Julius Nyerere and Robert Mugabe were in some respects similar education pioneers in Africa.</p>
<p>Education already serves as a bulwark against existential threats. It helps communities to understand each other, weakens rampant nationalism, assists in population control and widens the talent pool from which innovation must come. But parts of the world need much more of it. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=839&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205665/original/file-20180209-51703-1in2425.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1055&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.africansunmedia.co.za/Sun-e-Shop/Product-Details/tabid/78/ProductID/485/Default.aspx">African Sun Media</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Africa’s story</h2>
<p>Africa has made important strides: today around 80% of African children attend primary school and around 50% secondary schooling. But some countries are doing much better than others. Take Nigeria, for example. The oil-rich country should be an education leader in Africa, but is in fact a laggard. African countries with far worse resource endowments have performed much better educationally. </p>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum is Mauritius, which took a decision to massify quality education in the 1960s. The impact is still being felt today. It stands out as the only African country (other than tiny Seychelles) to have <a href="http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/parallel-session-16-anil-gayan-eng.pdf">virtually eradicated poverty</a>. </p>
<p>The island’s post-independence leadership in the 1960s was neither communist nor Lutheran. It simply understood the value of education.</p>
<p>Ethiopia, the only non-Muslim sub-Saharan African country with a long history of literacy – albeit limited to a tiny minority – benefited from good leaders in the 1980s. They refused to follow instructions from the International Monetary Fund to cut education funding. This stubbornness, also seen in Ghana and Mozambique, bore fruits in the form of Ethiopia’s recent economic growth, and reduced fertility rates. In Addis Ababa they are as low as in Switzerland. Nigeria, which essentially gave in to the IMF, has paid a high price for this.</p>
<p>Elite capture in places such as Malawi have held education back. 68% of public spending on education goes to the richest 10% of the population, partially because spending is heavily skewed towards one university.</p>
<h2>The role of foreign donors</h2>
<p>International development funding debates display a short-sighted lack of appreciation for education’s long-term benefits. The evidence suggests that a significant portion of the funding being made available for climate change adaptation is best spent on education. </p>
<p>UNESCO’s estimate of the annual cost of plugging the financing gap to bring schooling, up to the lower secondary level, to all the world’s children equals less than 1% of what the United States spent on its war in Iraq, or a tenth of what Qatar has committed to the 2022 World Cup.</p>
<p>The world moves fast. In the three years since the book was first published in German, much has changed. Then, US participation in global climate agreements still seemed assured. Now its English title can clearly be read as a sideswipe at the Trump administration and its insistence on “America First”. One wonders how the authors would have dealt with a newly emerging risk: a tragic mix of a high level of education, as in the US, with an <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/populism-and-polarisation-threaten-science-nobel-laureates-say">anti-science populism</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89666/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Gustafsson works for Stellenbosch University. He receives funding from the South African government (Department of Basic Education), Stellenbosch University, and UNICEF, amongst others, in the course of his work. He is affiliated with Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP), based at Stellenbosch University. </span></em></p>
Authors Lutz and Klingholz explore how mass literacy became a revolution that changed the world.
Martin Gustafsson, Education economist, Stellenbosch University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86804
2017-11-13T10:10:10Z
2017-11-13T10:10:10Z
Like Lenin, Luther launched a bloody revolution – and yet he was let off the hook
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194169/original/file-20171110-29324-1tj6lkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3988%2C2943&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Troublemakers both.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>2017 marks the anniversaries of two revolutions that tore Europe apart. They both shredded existing structures of authority and unleashed mass fervour, ideological zeal, passion and popular agitation for greater self-rule. These revolts resulted in civil war, sectarian bloodshed, revolutionary violence and counter-revolutionary oppression. </p>
<p>The first was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/protestant-reformation-38255">Protestant Reformation</a> of Martin Luther, who inaugurated the West’s modern age when – <a href="http://time.com/4997128/martin-luther-95-theses-controversy/">according to myth</a> – he hammered his 95 Theses to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31 1517. The second was the 1917 October Revolution, led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, usually known as Lenin. As did Luther’s protest against Catholic dogma and church authority, Lenin’s revolution unleashed upheaval on a massive and often bloody scale. </p>
<p>Yet while Lenin is widely reviled as the founding father of modern totalitarianism, Luther is celebrated not as a fanatic and rebel but as the founding father of a new era that would come to be based on freedom of conscience and individual autonomy. What explains this historical discrepancy? </p>
<p>Perhaps what commends Luther to us today is his political moderation, a sharp contrast to Lenin’s unflinching radicalism. Luther was horrified by the <a href="https://www.museeprotestant.org/en/notice/the-radical-reformation/">Radical Reformers</a> such as the Swiss pastor Huldrych Zwingli and German preacher Thomas Müntzer. Luther fulminated against the ordinary peasants who took his protest against the church as the signal for a wider social revolution against the oppression of princes and bishops in the Holy Roman Empire. </p>
<p>In fact, Luther applauded the brutal suppression of the peasants, citing Romans 13.1 as justification: “Let everyone obey the superior powers, for there is no authority except from God.” Lenin, by contrast, famously promised Russia’s downtrodden “bread, peace, land” and claimed that “a revolutionary class cannot but wish for the defeat of its government in a reactionary war”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194190/original/file-20171110-29341-1h573qs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lenin and the Bolsheviks, riding high in 1921.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lenin,_Trotsky_and_Voroshilov_with_Delegates_of_the_10th_Congress_of_the_Russian_Communist_Party_(Bolsheviks).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is said that the communism unleashed by Lenin resulted in the deaths of scores of millions of people over the last century. Yet consider the violent mayhem of Europe’s wars of religion, all of which stemmed from Luther’s anti-Catholic protest. They stretched from the start of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-War">Peasants’ War</a> in 1524 to the end of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Thirty-Years-War">Thirty Years’ War</a> in 1648. It isn’t unreasonable to wonder how many deaths Luther and his revolution are responsible for.</p>
<p>As early as the 1520s, Luther was already demanding that the authorities “smite, slay and stab” those communist peasants who were inspired by his own example to overthrow existing property relations as well as the church – property evidently having more divine status in his eyes than the Pope.</p>
<p>Perhaps Luther is celebrated because his ideas succeeded. Perhaps the wars of religion, with all their hideous fanaticism, were worth it in the end; after all, they helped inaugurate a modern world founded on secular authority, religious pluralism, liberal toleration and individual freedom of conscience, in contrast to the superstitious fanaticism of the Middle Ages. Or is it merely the additional 400 years’ distance that does it? Will our successors in the remote future of November 2417 be as sanguine about the October Revolution as we are today about the Reformation? </p>
<h2>Arm’s length</h2>
<p>Most people would rightly recoil from such a cold-blooded assessment, rejecting a conclusion that casually reduces millions of deaths to part of a process of historical experimentation and social improvement. Yet that is the outlook we take when we revile Lenin’s communism while celebrating Luther’s Reformation. </p>
<p>Perhaps a better response would be to rethink the way we account for historical change – to stop thinking of society as something stable and settled that’s only upended by bad, seductive ideas and fanatical schemers. Modernity was not, after all, Luther’s invention, nor communism Lenin’s. Both men (and their followers) were expressing and seeking to direct forces of change that no single individual could ever fully command. </p>
<p>And while today’s world is testimony to Luther’s bloody victory over the radical peasants of the 16th century, the grotesque absolutism of the Soviet years was testimony to Lenin’s failure. “I am, it seems, strongly guilty before the workers of Russia,” he wrote, in recognition of not having succeeded in halting Stalin from recreating Tsarist despotism.</p>
<p>As the radical reformers and peasants of the 1520s show, egalitarian revolts against hierarchy and oppression are as enduring and familiar as hierarchy and oppression themselves. Today, liberal democracy and the global order are in crisis; many of the severest challenges of modernity are posed by the workings of capitalist society itself, not by revolutionary ideologues. And as history also shows, sometimes, in the end, it is the revolutionaries who offer the solution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philip Cunliffe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Two revolutions, 400 years apart, set in chain processes that claimed millions of lives.
Philip Cunliffe, Senior Lecturer in International Conflict, University of Kent
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86449
2017-11-08T11:16:53Z
2017-11-08T11:16:53Z
When Americans tried – and failed – to reunite Christianity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193655/original/file-20171107-6742-tg5m8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/holy-bible-cross-401248822?src=nKWWEhRSGtTrN7MmThvzkQ-1-12">LeventeGyori/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five centuries ago, Martin Luther, a German monk, initiated a split in Christianity that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. After the Reformation, deep divisions between Protestants and Catholics contributed to <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674062313">wars</a>, <a href="http://elections.harpweek.com/1876/cartoon-1876-large.asp?UniqueID=7">hostility</a> and <a href="https://exhibits.library.villanova.edu/chaos-in-the-streets-the-philadelphia-riots-of-1844/">violence</a> in Europe and America. For centuries, each side denounced the other and sought to convert its followers.</p>
<p>Then, in the early 1900s, ambitious Protestants in the U.S. attempted the unthinkable. Building on ideas circulating in Europe, they took charge of an effort to negotiate the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1JgwAQAAIAAJ&dq=approaches%20toward%20church%20unity&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q&f=false">reunion of Christianity</a>.
They failed, of course. Strange as it might now seem, their effort is nevertheless informative. Here’s why.</p>
<h2>How it started</h2>
<p>By 1900, atheists and agnostics <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10820.html">were becoming more prominent</a> in the U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-distrust-of-unbelievers-runs-deep-in-american-history-71776">Anxious Protestant religious leaders</a> started to argue in favor of a united Christianity to stop the spread of these ideas.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QB5WAAAAMAAJ&dq=passing%20protestantism&pg=PA15#v=onepage&q&f=false">Noted</a> theologian and fellow at Yale <a href="http://drs.library.yale.edu/HLTransformer/HLTransServlet?stylename=yul.ead2002.xhtml.xsl&pid=mssa:ms.0623&query=&clear-stylesheet-cache=yes&hlon=yes&big=&adv=&filter=&hitPageStart=&sortFields=&view=over#did">Newman Smyth</a> complained at the time about religion’s “lost authority” in family, community and intellectual life. He <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=QB5WAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=smyth+passing+protestantism&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju0oSx45jXAhVM9YMKHcmaDvIQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">declared</a>, “a Christianity divided in its own house against itself” could not survive. </p>
<p>In response, in 1910, a very small but highly influential group comprising theologians including Smyth, as well as ministers of prestigious churches and noted business professionals, committed themselves to “Christian unity.” </p>
<p>For this group, unity <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100411860">meant more than</a> cooperation or mutual understanding. It meant the actual reunion of Protestantism and Catholicism. </p>
<h2>The influential WWI chaplain</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193648/original/file-20171107-6718-1jup5kl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monument to Charles Henry Brent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMonument_to_Charles_Henry_Brent.jpg">AndreoBongco (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Their most significant member was <a href="http://www.bu.edu/missiology/missionary-biography/a-c/brent-charles-henry-1862-1929">Charles Brent</a>, an Episcopalian bishop. </p>
<p>In the early 1900s, Brent had been a missionary to the Philippines. While there, he became friends with John Pershing, the <a href="http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00517.html">army officer</a> overseeing much of the territory acquired by the U.S. This friendship would propel the bishop to greater prominence. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193656/original/file-20171107-6718-1pmxgi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">General John Joseph Pershing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AGeneral_John_Joseph_Pershing_head_on_shoulders.jpg">Bain News Service, publisher, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Pershing took command of U.S. forces in Europe. He persuaded Brent to organize and lead the newly established <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674972155">corps of army chaplains</a>. As he built up the ranks of chaplains, Brent showed his own commitment to Christian unity. Though a Protestant, he made a Catholic priest his second in command and encouraged recruitment of Catholic chaplains.</p>
<p>When Brent returned to the United States in 1919, he was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1JgwAQAAIAAJ&dq=approaches%20toward%20church%20unity&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q&f=false">even more convinced</a> that “a divided Church” was a “fundamental disloyalty to Christ.” He lent his name to publications and events to build support for the cause. </p>
<h2>Failure to unite</h2>
<p>Proponents of unity recognized the need to proceed slowly with this difficult task. Smyth, for example, insisted that they not rush to put forward “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1JgwAQAAIAAJ&dq=approaches%20toward%20church%20unity&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false">particular plans or measures</a>.” Rather, the group should simply arrange meetings and conferences where Catholics and Protestants could discuss their differences. Smyth hoped that the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=1JgwAQAAIAAJ&dq=approaches%20toward%20church%20unity&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false">“sentiment for unity”</a> would emerge from dialogue.</p>
<p>But years of discussion brought no progress toward actual unity. The biggest obstacle was that, despite repeated invitations, Catholics took no part in the effort beyond sending unofficial observers to occasional meetings.</p>
<p>There were other issues as well. Protestants expected concessions from both sides. They also expected Catholics to limit the power of the papacy. One Protestant theologian, Charles Briggs, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=rRk3AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3AVyN5zMBJnSYC&pg=PA212#v=onepage&q&f=false">had anticipated</a> that the Vatican would place a system of checks and balances on the pope. In exchange, Protestants said they might accept the papacy, abandoning a critique that dated back to the Reformation. </p>
<p>Catholics found such expectations to be absurd. They rejected any demand for changes to their church.</p>
<h2>Global peace through Christian unity?</h2>
<p>Despite these difficulties, motives beyond religion gave the movement’s leaders new inspiration in the 1920s. They thought Christian unity offered a path to global peace.</p>
<p>It was a time when America’s role in global affairs seemed uncertain. While American intervention had helped allies win the war, the U.S. had <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/Feature_Homepage_TreatyVersailles.htm">rejected</a> the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement which ended the war. The U.S. also refused to join League of Nations, brainchild of President Woodrow Wilson, formed to resolve international disputes. The possibility of another war loomed large. </p>
<p>To this group, Christian unity <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100144530">offered an alternative means</a> to achieve peace. It was a way of preventing more bloodshed. In correspondence with a friend, Charles Brent worried that only “new unity among the churches” would prevent “hideous waves of terror” from striking “people of the next generation.” </p>
<p>Another supporter, peace activist Peter Ainslie, predicted that fights between Catholics and Protestants would continue to spark global conflicts. Only the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=g78XAAAAYAAJ&dq=peter%20ainslie&pg=PA78#v=onepage&q=unity&f=false">union of Christian forces</a>” would bring an end to militarism and lead to global peace, he noted.</p>
<h2>Not enough support</h2>
<p>Statements like these highlight how some Americans connected religion to international politics after World War I. But they also reveal why the unity effort failed to win broad support.</p>
<p>The American people had as little interest in global Christian unity as they did in the League of Nations. After the turmoil of the war years, many wanted a focus on domestic issues. They had no wish to remake familiar institutions like the church. This became clear in the 1920 presidential campaign, when Warren Harding won a landslide victory after running an isolationist campaign. His slogan, “<a href="https://millercenter.org/president/harding/campaigns-and-elections">Return to normalcy</a>,” signaled an end to the previous decade’s lofty efforts to transform the world.</p>
<p>Furthermore, most Protestants had as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=naGlCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP5&dq=saving%20faith%20mislin&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=false">little enthusiasm</a> for these efforts as Catholics. They argued that institutional reunion of Protestantism and Catholicism was not needed. “Outlook,” a nationally read Protestant periodical, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dto6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA636&dq=outlook+%22distinctive+denominational+peculiarities%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiv5f7h4pjXAhVF5IMKHc9HCUMQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q&f=false">ran an editoral</a> stating that both sides already agreed on the “essential elements of Christianity” and whatever differences remained were merely “distinctive denominational peculiarities.” </p>
<h2>Living with differences</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193645/original/file-20171107-6722-awcl7z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-praying-bible-cross-on-table-522242725?src=bMumc43GvAMXN9QdXNBFDg-1-0">Tiko Aramyan/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The effort for unity was not a complete failure, though. It helped advance unity through dialogue. Its greatest success was a <a href="https://archive.org/details/wccfops1.064">1927 conference</a> in Lausanne, Switzerland. Organized largely by Americans and presided over by Charles Brent, the gathering prompted new dialogue among Protestants, both in the United States and in Europe.</p>
<p>In fact, the main unintended consequence of the unity campaign was that it caused people to realize that they did not want actual unity. It was possible, in other words, to accept the post-Reformation division of Christianity. The differences separating the Protestants and Catholics could be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=naGlCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP5&dq=saving%20faith%20mislin&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=false">shrugged off</a> as “peculiariaties” rather than intolerable divisions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mislin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In the early 1900s, a group of Protestants in the US attempted a reunion of Christianity. They failed, of course, but they prompted a new dialogue.
David Mislin, Assistant Professor of Intellectual Heritage, Temple University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86350
2017-11-01T10:18:32Z
2017-11-01T10:18:32Z
How Martin Luther gave us the roots of the Protestant work ethic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192698/original/file-20171031-18693-m1uhea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">William de Brailes, circa 1250AD</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The posting of 95 theses is not the only act for which Martin Luther is famed. In 1522, he began the work that would last a lifetime: translating the Bible. This was not a neutral act. If we can trace <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-martin-luthers-reformation-tells-us-about-history-and-memory-85058">society’s influence on tales of his theses’ posting</a>, we can also see similar factors at work as Luther deliberated over what a German Bible should say.</p>
<p>Luther’s was not the first German Bible translation. When he translated the New Testament, there were already <a href="http://www.ionasword.net/2017/08/16/bibles-on-the-net-1/">18 German Bibles in print</a>. What was different about Luther’s text? Partly the source – older Bibles were based on the <a href="https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-jerome-the-bible-translator/">traditional Latin text attributed to Jerome</a> (circa 400AD). Inspired by humanist scholars such as <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/erasmus.shtml">Erasmus</a>, Luther translated from Greek and Hebrew – the original biblical languages. </p>
<p>He was also determined to communicate God’s word in a way that would strike people afresh. Like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/william_tyndale/">William Tyndale</a> in English, Luther coined new words and deliberately reworded well-known texts. Christians who had been used to “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary) now heard an angel give her “Greetings”. A natural translation, Luther argued, would be simply “Liebe”, that is “Dear…” Mary. </p>
<p>But Luther well knew that in rewording this New Testament dialogue, he was undermining centuries of “Hail Mary” penance. Jesus’ command to repent – “poenitentiam agite” – interpreted in the medieval church as “do penance” through ritual actions, provided the starting point for Luther’s 95 theses, because of his distaste for indulgences, which he saw as a corrupt form of repentance. In Luther’s view this – and the notion that Jesus’ mother had power over Christians’ destiny – were flawed.</p>
<h2>A new understanding</h2>
<p>If the changes Luther introduced were sometimes visibly doctrinal, there were other concerns at work, too. Translating the Bible into everyday language involved deciding how to frame a text that would shape everyday life.</p>
<p>Though the New Testament was complete in 1522, a full Wittenberg edition of Luther’s Bible did not appear until 1534. By that point, other reformers – most notably <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Huldrych-Zwingli">Ulrich Zwingli</a> and colleagues in Zurich – had completed alternative translations from the original languages. </p>
<p>Why were they ahead? Luther’s work seems to have stalled in 1525. That year, tens of thousands died during the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-War">German Peasants’ War</a>, an uprising prompted in large part by the notion that the Bible (and God) supported the cause of the lowliest in society. In the aftermath, Luther became more reticent about <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/650697">who should read the Bible and when</a>.</p>
<p>Evidence of this rethinking can be seen in the book of Ruth, the story of a widow who emigrates with her widowed mother-in-law, marries Boaz – a relative of her late husband – and so becomes the great grandmother of King David. Luther first translated this short Hebrew text in 1524, revising it very slightly for a 1525 reprint (the speed of reprinting is itself an indication of how eagerly his work was received). </p>
<h2>Ruth: the ‘proper’ woman</h2>
<p>By 1540, Luther was once again revising the Bible. This time he worked with a team of colleagues. The records of this work include notes taken by one of the team and marginal annotations that Luther himself made in a copy of the Bible, along with the published revision. They got to Ruth on April 7 1540. There was not much to edit here, but <a href="http://www.ionasword.net/2017/04/19/watching-luther/">Ruth 2:7</a> presented a particular challenge.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192701/original/file-20171031-18686-xwra5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The original text of the story of Ruth in Luther’s translation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Luther University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scholars today are uncertain <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1517346">how to fit together the last Hebrew words of this verse</a>, which are: “this”, “rest” (or “stay”), “the house” and “little”. The landowner (Boaz) has asked his harvest manager about a strange young woman (Ruth). The manager’s answer seems staccato, words piled together without due grammatical attention. <a href="http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=jewishstudies_papers">Some have suggested</a> this is stylistic – that we are meant to imagine the manager stammering his response.</p>
<p>Ruth has arrived at the field, hoping to gather leftover grain after the harvesters. But has she been stood waiting for an answer, an example of patience? Was she on the verge of giving up and going home, heightening the drama of Boaz’s sudden arrival? Can Boaz see her sitting indoors? One scholar traced 18 different ways of translating the passage, gathering together <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1517346">Greek, French, English and German</a> texts through to the present day.</p>
<p>The 1540 records show Luther and his fellows agreeing first that Ruth is a “fromm” – that is a “proper” or “pious”, woman. This opinion intrudes upon the biblical text in chapter one, and recurs as a remark on <a href="https://archive.org/stream/werkediedeutsche03luthuoft#page/364/mode/2up">Ruth 2:10</a>. Right after that note, the discussion turns back to verse 7: “Her stay in the house is little”, the minute-taker writes in Latin. “A comment on her habits”. In Luther’s own handwriting we learn that Ruth is not like other women, accustomed to lounging around at home.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192702/original/file-20171031-18686-1odag73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sleeping Venus: how artists in Luther’s day were inclined to picture women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Midway through this remark, he switches from Latin – the language of scholarly discourse – to the language of his target audience. In the <a href="http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/bsb00096751/image_310">printed German Bible of 1541</a> and its successors, the whole sentence appears in the margin.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192685/original/file-20171031-18711-joq8uc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luther’s marginalia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Difficult Hebrew words are taken out of context and turned into a commentary upon her whole character. Luther is convinced that Ruth is a decent woman. The textual uncertainty is determined by her model status: modelling the best of possible female behaviour.</p>
<p>In Ruth, the ready and willing worker, we sense the beginnings of what Weber would term the <a href="https://is.muni.cz/el/1423/podzim2013/SOC571E/um/_Routledge_Classics___Max_Weber-The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism__Routledge_Classics_-Routledge__2001_.pdf">Protestant work ethic</a>. That ethic is normally associated with the later Reformer, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestant-ethic">John Calvin</a>, whose teaching about predestination created an anxiety that drove Protestants to ensure they spent their time well. But in the margins of the 1541 Luther Bible and its successors, we can see that concern already at hand. Good women should not be idle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Iona C Hine is director of 500 Reformations, a not-for-profit initiative at the University of Sheffield disseminating research about Luther, Reformation and its aftermath. </span></em></p>
As well as his 95 Theses, Luther took on the awesome challenge of a new German translation of the Bible in which he set out to challenge both doctrinal and social beliefs.
Iona C Hine, Researcher in English and Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86330
2017-10-31T14:30:50Z
2017-10-31T14:30:50Z
Brexit to Bonfire Night: why the Reformation still matters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192617/original/file-20171031-18689-1l7wkg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Monument of Martin Luther in Eisleben, Germany, the town of his birth. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/monument-martin-luther-on-town-square-586275236?src=xuKu_SmTjTS_ksq1zEi2_Q-1-10">Shutterstock/dugdax</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five hundred years ago <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-martin-luthers-reformation-tells-us-about-history-and-memory-85058">Martin Luther</a>, a German monk, attacked the Catholic Church in a move that sparked the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/english_reformation_01.shtml">Protestant Reformation</a>. The effects are still being felt in Britain today – from the celebrations of Bonfire Night to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/law-expert-where-the-brexit-battles-over-the-repeal-bill-will-be-fought-in-parliament-80980">powers that parliament</a> have to deal with Brexit. </p>
<p>In parts of Europe Reformation Day commemorates the moment Martin Luther produced his <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses">95 Theses</a> that criticising the Catholic Church. As Luther and his followers developed their ideas, they created Protestant churches independent of the Pope in Rome. </p>
<p>Although almost 60% of people identified themselves as <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/articles/religioninenglandandwales2011/2012-12-11">Christians in the 2011 census</a> in Britain only 5% of the population regularly <a href="https://faithsurvey.co.uk/download/gb-church-attendance-1980-2015.pdf">attend church</a>. But the Reformation affected more than people’s religious lives. When Henry VIII used some of Luther’s ideas to break away from Rome, he created <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-henry-viiis-break-with-rome-tells-us-about-parliaments-role-in-brexit-70078">new powers</a> that are still relevant today.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=816&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192619/original/file-20171031-18686-1x6ksv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1026&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Henry VIII engraved by W.T.Fry and published in Lodge’s British Portraits encyclopedia, United Kingdom, 1823.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/henry-viii-14911547-engraved-by-wt-81842377?src=jN8kZi_uloq9Es5C2Un0MQ-1-1">Shutterstock/GeorgiosKollidas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Henry VIII became interested in creating an independent church in England when the Pope refused Henry a divorce to allow him to marry <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/people/anne_boleyn/">Anne Boleyn</a>. In 1529, Henry VIII and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/zttdjxs">Thomas Cromwell</a> called parliament to pass legislation that transferred all the powers and wealth of the Pope and the Catholic Church into the hands of the King. </p>
<h2>Henry’s power-grab</h2>
<p>Over the next few years, as Henry dismantled the power of Catholicism, a new rhetoric of English independence emerged. In 1533, parliament argued that “this realm of England is an empire”, with no political or legal obligations to the European Church. Taxes that went to Rome now stayed in England, and Henry declared himself Supreme Head of the Church. His successors, Edward VI and Elizabeth I used many of those powers to make that church Protestant. </p>
<p>The process of breaking with Rome also granted Henry VIII huge powers. In 1539 Henry effectively transferred these to himself with an act that allowed the King – without parliament – to amend or make new laws. This is the basis of the <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/henry-viii-clauses/">“Henry VIII powers” in the Brexit Repeal Act</a>, which allow ministers to adopt European laws without parliamentary scrutiny. </p>
<p>The ripples of that power-grab from 1539 were felt in Westminster in August when Ministers were urged to put extra checks in place to limit “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40868285">sweeping powers</a>” included in the EU Withdrawal Bill. The bill aims to repeal the European Communities Act and convert EU law into UK law. It also enables the government to make changes further down the line without presenting new legislation to Parliament – known as “delegated powers”. Labour’s Hilary Benn, chairman of the Brexit select committee, suggested this could amount to “a blank legislative cheque”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lRJGA7mezaA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The Reformation did more than change our relationship with Europe and the Catholic Church – it changed how the English viewed themselves. In the conflicts of 16th-century Europe, religious identities were politically charged. Protestantism became part of the national identity, contrasted with Catholicism that the Elizabethans portrayed as dangerous and foreign. </p>
<p>When the Spanish Armada <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/tudors/adams_armada_01.shtml">failed to invade</a> in 1588, the English claimed they were saved by a Protestant wind. When Robert Catesby (played by Kit Harrington in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bloody-truth-why-bbcs-gunpowder-had-to-be-so-violent-86264">Gunpowder</a>) and Guy Fawkes failed to blow up parliament, once again it was argued that God was looking after the English. Celebrations on November 5 over the following decades celebrated God’s protection from foreign and treacherous Catholicism. As Gunpowder shows, the truth was far from this simple. But Bonfire Night became an indelible part of the national calendar. </p>
<p>Events are being held throughout Europe in 2017 to mark the 500-year anniversary. It is a national holiday in Germany, with <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/">concerts, pageants</a> and church services planned. At Westminster Abbey, the Church of England is celebrating “the start of the Reformation” <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2017/09/2017/10/archbishop-to-mark-agreement-with-catholic-and-lutheran-churches-on-500th-anniversary-of-the-reformation.aspx">in a service</a> that includes an act of reconciliation between Lutheran and Catholic Churches. The BBC is showing a range of programmes, including a documentary by David Starkey and a drama about Catholic plotters in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05j1bc9">Gunpowder</a>. </p>
<p>Not only did the Reformation change English politics it changed the perception that the English had of themselves. While church attendance may have <a href="https://faithsurvey.co.uk/uk-christianity.html">declined</a>, we can see the legacy of the Reformation in many areas of our lives in 2017.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86330/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosamund Oates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Martin Luther’s Reformation resulted in Henry VIII making law changes which are still having an effect on today’s Brexit negotiations.
Rosamund Oates, Senior Lecturer in History, Manchester Metropolitan University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85197
2017-10-31T09:52:23Z
2017-10-31T09:52:23Z
Luther’s musical legacy is the Reformation’s unsung achievement
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191443/original/file-20171023-1717-134stdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=64%2C5%2C3819%2C2276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-view-organist-playing-pipe-organ-735416491?src=8ww7MugciSpY9-Sc_uq2Dg-1-24">JohnKruger/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five hundred years ago this month, Martin Luther triggered what would become the Protestant Reformation with a document protesting corruption in the Catholic Church. At its heart, his Reformation was a movement about the nature of sin and the means of salvation; about the power of the church versus the authority of scripture. But it also helped to shape modern religion in other, more unexpected ways: one of these was through the birth of congregational song.</p>
<p>By the 15th century, music had become one of the most prominent features of religious worship. Most parish churches had <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hrBZ9npRAHEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA83#v=onepage&q&f=false">at least one organ and a small semi-professional choir</a>; these modest resources were dwarfed by the great cathedrals and monasteries. The singing of <a href="https://youtu.be/bI2WazTO0iw">complex polyphonic music</a>, where the voices of singers weaved elaborately together, had become an important means of praising and serving God. </p>
<p>Even within the medieval church, this elaborate music had had its critics. In 1325, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=H8e78zaI8YoC&lpg=PA195&ots=r9oENLIMx4&dq=pope%20john%20xxii%20edict%20music&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q&f=false">Pope John XXII issued a decree</a> criticising musicians who “intoxicate the ear without satisfying it”. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bI2WazTO0iw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/aeh6713.0001.001/257:AEH6713.0001.001:12?page=root;size=100;view=image">Writing later</a> in the 14th century, the Oxford theologian whose writings inspired the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/lollards_01.shtml">English “Lollard” heresy</a>, John Wycliffe, wrote that the more time men spent singing, the less they observed God’s law. On the eve of the Reformation, the humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus complained that the people were <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hrBZ9npRAHEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA46#v=onepage&q&f=false">three times removed</a> from the music of the church, by dint of its use of Latin, complicated musical style, and non-participation.</p>
<h2>Waxing lyrical</h2>
<p>In large part, the Reformation sought to banish what it saw as the ritual excess of the late-medieval church. The Swiss reformer Huldreich Zwingli, a talented musician, had <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hrBZ9npRAHEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false">the organs of Zurich dismantled</a> and its choirs disbanded. The Frenchman Jean Calvin restricted religious music in his adopted home of Geneva to the unaccompanied singing of the biblical Book of Psalms. This <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hrBZ9npRAHEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q&f=false">“metrical psalmody”</a> was also popular in England, although in cathedrals there, organs and choirs continued to prosper with the support of Elizabeth I. </p>
<p>Even the Catholic Church sought to <a href="https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct22.html">regulate music to some degree at the Council of Trent</a>. A (likely false) story persists that it was only the beauty of <a href="https://youtu.be/BRfF7W4El60">Palestrina’s <em>Missa Papae Marcelli</em></a> that stopped the council banning polyphony from the church altogether.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BRfF7W4El60?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In the midst of this challenging environment, Luther’s love of music rings loud, clear and true. In the <a href="https://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/tabletalk.v.xxxix.html"><em>Tischreden</em></a>, the record of his mealtime conversations, Luther proclaimed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I always loved music; whoso has skill in this art, is of a good temperament, fitted for all things.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He argued that schoolmasters and preachers ought to be skilled in music, “or I would not regard him”. The Reformation was in part born out of Luther’s struggles with his own conscience and sense of sin. There is a ring of personal truth about his claim that music was: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best solace for a sad and sorrowful mind; by it the heart is refreshed and settled again at peace.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Luther waxed most lyrical about the power of music in the <a href="https://sites.duke.edu/conversions/files/2014/09/Luther-Preface-to-Symphoniae-iucundae.pdf">foreword to Georg Rhau’s <em>Symphoniae iucundae</em></a> (“Delightful Symphonies”, 1538), addressed “to the devotees of music”. In it, he praised music as “the excellent gift of God”, “instilled and implanted” in all creatures “from the beginning of the world”. Any man or woman not touched by the power of music, he wrote with characteristic earthiness, deserved to hear nothing else but “the music of the pigs”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191715/original/file-20171024-30577-1kfmu4u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All together now…</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/glasgowamateur/8329857232/in/photolist-dG5Gm9-iihLN1-34Ydj3-rqWKtN-niGeJF-ndYEBf-c5YU9m-e8m1E6-niGgHG-pyjFuM-fpY2dM-4uXAQV-6vTK22-8niUXH-j185VM-niGgFN-rt7Zvt-afF579-9kSLBv-62p2Qa-7njY4J-jDmLmz-pyTn6C-qUFDDk-SeVcZY-mD34rB-e8m1CT-ny986J-mD4caG-niGfx7-boLVrB-a6ncMu-niGh4y-nAbMd8-niGexw-nzTQQt-nzTQyB-acZ7Pm-fvtPwA-niG6AD-ny98Eu-nAbMA2-nAc4c1-nAc5jb-ny98r3-niGf5y-2KtnK-ceKuML-nBXPhR-dbvHUG">Charles Clegg/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Praise be to hymn</h2>
<p>Luther’s reformation therefore integrated the simple unison plainchant and complex polyphony of the Catholic Church into his new Protestant liturgy almost wholesale. However, Luther also brought significant change, through the introduction of the congregational singing of vernacular psalms and hymns. People had sung religious music before of course – many Christmas carols have medieval origins. But never before had the people played an active, musical role in church services. </p>
<p>This was a democratisation of one of the most popular and emotive dimensions of religious worship, and a powerful weapon in the Reformation’s battle for hearts and minds.</p>
<p>By allowing composers to write original lyrics, rather than just setting the words of scripture, Lutheran hymns could also communicate new religious doctrines. The most famous hymn of Luther’s own composition was <a href="https://youtu.be/uI7QMtXBLgY"><em>Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott</em></a> (A Mighty Fortress is our God). The second verse reads: </p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing…</em></p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uI7QMtXBLgY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The message was clear: mankind could not rely on their own good works; salvation came from God alone.</p>
<p>In 1620, the German Jesuit Adam Contzen remarked that Luther had converted more souls with his hymns than with all his books and sermons. Whatever else we make of Luther’s Reformation, it is clear that he gave the world a musical gift which continues to resound in the present day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Willis works for University of Birmingham and has received funding from the ARHB (2005-6), ARHC (2006-9) and the Leverhulme Trust (2010-13).</span></em></p>
In the great reformer’s eyes, if you didn’t love a rousing tune you deserved only “the music of the pigs”.
Jonathan Willis, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86514
2017-10-30T22:51:06Z
2017-10-30T22:51:06Z
The preacher who changed Europe: Reformation at 500 years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192470/original/file-20171030-18683-11f8bds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4037%2C2693&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a professor and preacher, published the 95 Theses, a list of debating points on the Christian religion which sparked the Reformation movement.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Jonathan Schoeps/Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Five hundred years ago, on the eve of All Saints Day, 1517, an obscure professor and cleric at an upstart university in Electoral Saxony published a lengthy list of scholarly debating points over the theology of indulgences. </p>
<p>The “Ninety-Five Theses,” as they came to be called, catapulted Martin Luther into the centre of a controversy that would soon affect all of Europe in staggeringly diverse ways — from great wars and religious persecution to massive educational renewal and marriage reforms. </p>
<p>Luther did not treat the “Ninety-Five Theses” with anything remotely resembling the importance that we attach to them today. Neither he nor his contemporaries looked to them as “the beginning” of the Reformation. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean that we can’t use this anniversary to re-examine Luther, theology or ideas about God. We can recall how from the “Ninety-Five Theses” onward, these ideas affected modern European civilization and beyond. </p>
<p>This anniversary could serve to remind us about the importance of theological ideas. Christian disputes over divine justification 500 years ago affected many fundamental aspects of modern civilization and culture that today seem far from their theological origins. </p>
<p>Historical scholarship doesn’t always keep Reformation ideas about God in focus. Secular histories tend to downplay or ignore the theology of the Reformation in favour of culture, identity or the economic modes of production.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, religious scholars — confessional historians (from within various church denominations) — tend to skew Reformation history in favour of their own denomination, thereby making the very consideration of theology seem suspicious. </p>
<p>The histories that purposely skew or ignore debates about the nature of God end up giving us an odd picture of the 16th century. Under these accounts, Luther became known in the 20th century as a proto-fascist or nascent classical liberal, a radical rebel or archconservative. </p>
<p>These accounts made him hardly recognizable as a pastor and preacher of the word of God. But his theology changed Europe. </p>
<h2>Education for all believers</h2>
<p>Luther’s ideas directly impacted the overhaul of 16th-century education. His theological insistence of the “priesthood of all believers” was the idea that, under the saving power of God’s grace, there was no distinction in the righteousness of the peasant or priest, beggar or bishop. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192487/original/file-20171030-18725-1sd9otf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A video installation displaying Luther’s nailing of the theses in the exhibition ‘95 Treasures‚ 95 People’ in the Augusteum in Wittenberg, Germany. The focus of the exhibition is on Luther’s nailing of the theses on the door of the Castle Church. The exhibition lasts until Nov. 5, 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Jens Meyer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Luther, the monasticism of the time directly opposed the “priesthood of all believers,” in at least implying, if not explicitly claiming, that monastics led holier, more righteous lives than everyone else. </p>
<p>Luther thereby called for the complete dissolution of monasteries. With this enormously disruptive policy, a disastrous effect on education soon arose. Monasteries were the primary centres of education in the early 16th century and most children were taught in a monastery or cathedral, a tradition going back 700 years to the Carolingian Renaissance. </p>
<p>Luther and the evangelical reformers were forced to rebuild the entire educational system — and they did it at a time when expanding trade and commerce, encouraged by imperial expansion and growing monarchies, made education seem useless for most ordinary people. </p>
<p>Over his career as a reformer, Luther consistently put forth one basic theological reason why education so greatly mattered: An ignorant people were susceptible to spiritual darkness. All people — boys and girls, men and women — needed God’s grace and all needed to be educated to understand the scriptures. All preachers needed to be educated to expound them. </p>
<p>A tyrannical and apostate church had flourished because of ignorance. Therefore, Luther and evangelical reform, on the basis of theological commitment, pursued universal education, which included literacy and basic catechesis, wherever their reforms went.</p>
<h2>Reconciling government and gospel</h2>
<p>Consider also Luther’s political and social thought. Luther argued that God had ordained “two kingdoms,” one spiritual (inner) kingdom, and one temporal (outer) one. For Luther, there was never any true conflict between the two kingdoms — between the demands of government and the freedom of the gospel. Instead, the apparent conflict was due to the limits of human understanding and to the sinful abuse of them. </p>
<p>His two kingdoms idea helped Christians discern their duties to God and to their neighbours in the often confusing and clashing claims that authorities demanded of them. </p>
<p>For the peasant, Luther’s two kingdoms offered comfort in the harsh demands of worldly duties. For the magistrates, Luther settled consciences over the need to enforce and coerce, which appeared to conflict with the command to love one’s neighbour. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192507/original/file-20171030-18720-ij7boy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In order to defend his ideas, Luther used short and approachable pamphlets. In this treatise from 1520, he sought to refute the Roman Church’s claims that only the pope could interpret Scripture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://publications.newberry.org/dig/rcp/luther-pamphlets?path=luther">(courtesy of the Newberry)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To the peasants (for example, during the rebels in 1525), Luther warned against violent revolt; to the princes, he warned against abuse of power. Each station had its purpose in the temporal kingdom. Each person was called to the gospel. </p>
<p>In one fell swoop, Luther’s theology affirmed the spiritual equality of bakers and bishops, princes and priests, all the while defending each or their ranks as a divine service to their neighbours.</p>
<p>In Luther’s view, the “two kingdoms” were derived from biblical truths that, in his view, could not be explained other than as binding truths for all Christians. Government was instituted by God and thus must be generally honoured and obeyed, as the apostles Peter and Paul had taught about the Roman emperors. </p>
<p>Christians must also heed the pivotal teachings of Jesus to turn the other cheek, love one’s enemies, give over one’s cloak and give no resistance to an evildoer. Neither the injunctions of the apostles nor the teachings of Jesus could be ignored or rejected. So Christians, Luther thought, had to figure out how to do both.</p>
<h2>The depth of Biblical study</h2>
<p>In our age and context, when the role of the Bible as a general cultural, spiritual and civilizational focus has been removed, the power of Luther’s theology to teach human beings how to live with seemingly clashing biblical imperatives is easily overlooked. </p>
<p>Luther insisted that the Bible provided its own interpretation, and that most people could begin to understand it. Though he also warned how unruly theological ideas could be.</p>
<p>Many past histories of the Reformation, particularly Catholic and secular ones (though for opposite reasons: the first to vilify, the second to praise) pointed to Luther as a progenitor of individualistic or personal interpretation of the Bible. This seems very far from the truth about Luther’s theology, beginning with its first public appearance in the “Ninety-Five Theses.” It helped open the door to the depth of biblical study, not its abandonment. </p>
<p>To be sure, in the 19th century, in the wake of “higher criticism” and others, it may have appeared then to some Christians as though the Reformation’s effects upon biblical studies were ultimately destructive. </p>
<p>But consider Luther’s own view: He held that the Bible was so profound that a sufficient understanding of scripture required much more than one lifetime, and that theology founded upon it would be deeply unsettling for everyday lives. </p>
<p>This was certainly true for the effects of his theology upon the world in the aftermath of the publication of the “Ninety-Five Theses:” 500 years ago, European society was unsettled and transformed by the ideas of a monk/professor turned reformer. The effects live on to this day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jarrett Carty received funding from Fonds québecois de recherche sur la societé et la culture (FQRSC). Project title: Luther et la réforme politique. Funding period: 2011-2014.</span></em></p>
Historical accounts of Martin Luther skew or ignore debates about religion and make him hardly recognizable as a pastor and preacher. But his theology changed Europe.
Jarrett Carty, Associate Professor, Liberal Arts College, Concordia University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86048
2017-10-30T19:03:01Z
2017-10-30T19:03:01Z
Revisiting the Reformation: how passions sparked a religious revolution 500 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192384/original/file-20171030-17693-vz0b83.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Luther's act quickly came to be seen as the foundation of the Reformation, as shown in this centenary broadside, Göttlicher Schrifftmessiger, 1617.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jfhutson, Wikipedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>October 31 2017 marks 500 years to the day when Martin Luther famously sent his Ninety-Five Theses to Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz, criticising what he saw as corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. This moment is usually seen as the beginning of the Reformation, and the birth of Protestant Christianity, whose denominations together claim close to a billion members today.</p>
<p>But simplifying the story of the Reformation to this one act obscures the many individuals and factors that were essential to this movement becoming a spiritual revolution. </p>
<p>As with all movements, the Reformation was generated and sustained by strong passions about powerful ideas and emotional attachment to figureheads. Scholars are increasingly recognising their significance.</p>
<p>For Luther was not the first or the only person of his age to hold views critical of the contemporary church but, in 1517, these ideas were projected through a sophisticated media package of emotional rhetoric and images that intensified their potency. </p>
<p>Contemporary fears about sin and anxieties about greed were at the heart of the concerns that Luther voiced. In 1515, the Pope, Leo X, had sought funding to complete the re-building of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome through an indulgence campaign. Indulgences were certificates that Christians could purchase in order to reduce the time they would have to spend in penance for their sins. Over time, the institution of indulgences had become hugely popular and profitable, and was increasingly criticised for its abuses. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191141/original/file-20171020-1048-f7jzu6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indulgence selling in a church, Augsburg, 1521.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jfhutson/Jeanjung212, Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, in 1517 in Mainz, a German city then part of the Holy Roman Empire, half of the funds raised from the indulgences were instead diverted to the Cardinal. On October 31, Luther – a monk and lecturer in theology at the University of Wittenberg – wrote to the Cardinal to complain. </p>
<p>He included a Latin essay, with 95 different points, questioning the practice of indulgences. This work hit a nerve not just with the Cardinal; a significant number of people wanted to read Luther’s concerns. Within weeks, the Ninety-Five Theses were widely published in Germany, in Latin and then German, and were soon available all across Europe. </p>
<h2>Voicing anger and passion</h2>
<p>Luther was emboldened and his criticisms grew stronger. In the provocatively entitled treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Church of 1521, his previously nuanced critique of indulgences was reduced to one proposition: they were “a swindler’s trick”, and many other church teachings and practices had become “wicked and despotic”. </p>
<p>Luther’s increasingly vocal denouncements of church institutions drew strong emotional reactions, even among those who supported reforming the church. The scholar <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erasmus">Erasmus of Rotterdam</a> was one of them. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191142/original/file-20171020-1086-50y9dr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=911&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Holbein, portrait of Erasmus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Erasmus, who was accused of “laying the egg that Luther hatched” for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novum_Instrumentum_omne">bringing humanistic studies to bear on the Bible</a>, described the dissent that Luther was fomenting as a tragedy, fearing “the evils surrounding that wretched Luther” would lead to increased attacks on the humanities by monks and conservative theologians. These fears were exacerbated by what Erasmus perceived as overly passionate language of Luther’s followers, the Lutherans.</p>
<p>Even those who ultimately would come to support these ideas disliked Luther’s approach to stirring up support for the movement. Wolfgang Capito, a future Protestant, wrote to Erasmus in 1521: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Lutherans are crazier, excessive, and more arrogant than ever; they fix their teeth on anybody, and reproach everyone to their face with shameless barbarity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1534, Erasmus found himself under attack from Luther as “the devil incarnate”. Erasmus responded that Luther was “harsh, violent, and Procrustean, always spewing tragedy”. </p>
<p>Erasmus proposed that Luther should instead:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>teach through arguments, then, if the situation demands, agitate the emotions; but one should not casually stir up the more violent feelings known as passions. Truly to never stop being vehement, to never stop crying out vehemently with tragic words, is madness rather than eloquence. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the Dutch humanist’s calls for moderation would fall on deaf ears, and the movement surrounding Luther grew stronger, dividing European Christianity forever.</p>
<h2>The emotional power of images</h2>
<p>The movement’s power did not just stem from passionate words though. The painter and printmaker Lucas Cranach the Elder played a crucial role in creating Luther’s public image ahead of the Diet of Worms, a political assembly, where, in April 1521, Luther was expected - but eventually refused - to retract his criticisms.</p>
<p>Cranach employed two visual strategies to justify Luther’s positions. In one engraving, he portrayed the reformer as a scholar whose critical views on the church’s practice were valid because he had closely scrutinised the word of God. In a second print, Cranach showed Luther as an ascetic monk in devout communion with his faith, standing in a niche similar to those in which sculptures of saints were commonly displayed in Catholic churches.</p>
<p>While Cranach had only subtly hinted at Luther’s saint-like status, other artists soon underlined this association by depicting Luther surrounded by a halo or inspired by the spirit of the Holy Dove.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191144/original/file-20171020-1045-s403dp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hans Baldung, Portrait of Martin Luther, 1521.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikiart</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The emotional power of such prints stemmed partly from the fact that soon after the Diet, Luther had disappeared from public view. Having been excommunicated and declared an outlaw by the Pope and the Emperor, he remained hidden in great secrecy at Wartburg castle until the spring of 1522. Luther’s disappearance, and presumed death as a martyr to his faith, only helped to enhance his popularity, and that of his printed image.</p>
<p>For Catholic viewers, Luther prints caused great concerns. Cardinal Girolamo Aleandro was horrified not only about the inappropriate depictions of a convicted heretic as a saint, but also about the reverence paid to such images by the masses: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are recent pictures of Luther with the symbol of the Holy Ghost above his head, or with the cross. And there is another print in which he is shown in glory. And people buy these things and they kiss them! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These portraits were thus not only successful at creating a visual defence of Luther’s positions, but their reception highlights the emotional engagement of the masses with this public persona.</p>
<p>Movements often create origin stories and figureheads, but the success of the Reformation was forged not by any one man, but by emotions that the many who aided the spread of these ideas, engaged and galvanised in word, in print, and in image.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Broomhall receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirk Essary receives funding from the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanne Meurer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Greed, guilt, fear, anger and love gave power to a spiritual movement that was catalysed 500 years ago this week.
Susan Broomhall, Director, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Western Australia
Kirk Essary, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, The University of Western Australia
Susanne Meurer, Lecturer, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85058
2017-10-30T09:24:58Z
2017-10-30T09:24:58Z
What Martin Luther’s Reformation tells us about history and memory
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192062/original/file-20171026-13355-8447yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Willem Pauwels/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The story we tell of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation 500 years ago is a window on how the past speaks to the present, and how the present imposes itself on the past.</p>
<p>It is a story everyone, more or less, is familiar with. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther, a member of an obscure house of Augustinian friars in Wittenberg, went to the door of the town’s Castle Church and nailed to it a sheet containing 95 Theses. This <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">revolutionary document</a>, attacking corrupt teaching on indulgences and the papal authority lying behind it, was the foundational text of Protestantism. Luther’s bold action in publicising it was the starting pistol for a revolt that threw Germany into turmoil, and which soon <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09b4ylt">permanently divided Europe as a whole</a>.</p>
<p>To this day, Luther’s action has inspired both admiration and emulation. Perhaps the most powerful moment came on July 10 1966, when <a href="https://archive.org/stream/mylifewithmartin00kingrich#page/n313/mode/2up/search/magnificent+symbolic+gesture">Martin Luther King Jr. marched to the door</a> of Mayor Daley’s City Hall in Chicago and nailed up a set of demands for social and racial justice. His wife, Coretta King called it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A magnificent, symbolic gesture that rang down the centuries from his namesake.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192068/original/file-20171026-13367-ihd6ez.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Legacy. An event that echoes down the centuries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/summer1978/16125056543/in/photolist-qyV8wg-5Ta5k6-75PMmL-9DzZLH-5TepPU-qEsKmA-ahKWZ3-DNeFys-dPNmgg-eMyo21-SdEXcQ-98anXK-pLoPkv-ahKXLW-SsG9oQ-ahH9Gt-cvSBes-J7ftik-98dJAb-662jzm-r2rKns-xJhnJ-ahHak2-dzqow8-98dJA7-8XvS2g-9HWd6M-9HW66M-98anXH-d6u4RW-9HYXr1-gwY7YH-e2VnYB-xJhow-aghVTJ-dQej58-77cNUB-2fNeEr-9HYZQ9-WN6w2t-qMhQV2-aFe4sq-e2VnKv-bdzPNB-e3245d-dehuuY-daPnMK-Dttppx-exumbL-qSdRk2">RV1864/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Myth and the man</h2>
<p>The posting of the 95 Theses is a key moment in the popular historical consciousness. It is an irresistible meme celebrating liberty of conscience and righteous protest against the abuse of power. It is the symbolic heart of commemorations to mark “the start” of the Reformation, taking place in Germany and across the world this year.</p>
<p>In truth, it probably never happened. The <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/martin-luther/history-stories/on-the-doors-of-the-wittenberg-churches/">posting of the theses was first recorded</a> in the mid-1540s, by associates of Luther not in Wittenberg in 1517. Luther himself, in a voluminous body of often autobiographical writing, never mentioned it. </p>
<p>We know he sent (“posted” in the alternative sense) the Theses to the Archbishop of Mainz on October 31, 1517. But <a href="http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/mainz_letter.html">in that letter</a> – and various others sent over subsequent months – Luther insisted the wide distribution of the Theses was none of his doing. In fact, he said that he had deliberately held back from initiating a public debate to give the authorities a chance to reform the practice of selling indulgences.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/192065/original/file-20171026-13315-y7mptd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mainz cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mainz-cathedral-83432284?src=em3J3Il4S5bIpu0ZSMfjxw-1-29">Scirocco340/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Quite possibly, later commentators assumed the Theses were posted because this was the normal procedure for initiating a disputation. It was a <a href="http://www.lutheranquarterly.com/uploads/7/4/0/1/7401289/lq-95theses-leppin_wengert.pdf">regular part of scholarly life</a>, laid down in the Wittenberg University statutes of 1508. Faculty deans were to ensure that theses (discussion points) were placed in advance on the doors of all city churches. The actual posting was a chore undertaken, not by senior professors like Luther, but by low-ranking officials – most likely using wax or glue rather than nails. </p>
<p>It is conceivable the 95 Theses were posted, perhaps in mid-November – but if so, it was an unremarkable administrative task unlikely to have been undertaken by Luther himself. In effect, it was the 16th-century equivalent of updating a university faculty webpage.</p>
<h2>Centenary story</h2>
<p>It took a long time for the image of Luther hammering at the door to capture the imagination of Europeans. It first came to the fore in 1617, when beleaguered Protestants in Germany fixed on the idea of a Reformation centenary to defy a resurgent Roman Church. </p>
<p>But interest remained patchy: there was no attempt at a realistic visual depiction of the scene before 1697. Only in the 19th century, after the third Reformation centenary of 1817, did the event which Germans called the <em>Thesenanschlag</em> become <a href="https://literaryreview.co.uk/nailing-the-myth">a regular theme of painting, poetry and novels</a>. It resonated perfectly with “great man” theories of history – and the prevalent notion that the Reformation was more about liberation and enlightenment than doctrinal niceties (few could remember what the 95 Theses actually said).</p>
<p>Historical memory in the 20th century took a darker turn. For patriotic Germans in 1917, the hammer-wielding Luther became a token of wartime struggle and defiance, and in the subsequent generation Nazis appropriated the <em>Thesenanschlag</em> as symbolic of the <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/nazis-exploited-martin-luther-s-legacy-berlin-exhibit-highlights-how">overthrow of a corrupt old order</a>. A more wholesome, liberal version of the myth has since reasserted itself, though one still sometimes tinged with anti-Catholic stereotypes (as in the commercially successful <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYyP5a_BD90">Luther movie of 2003</a>). </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GYyP5a_BD90?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Low on memory</h2>
<p>All this matters because the image of Luther at the door has so much shaped our view not only of when the Reformation started but of what the Reformation was. Of course, we need “events”, periods and concepts (including “the Reformation” itself) to organise our knowledge and understanding of the past. But all too easily they become timetabled stops along the fixed tramlines of historical development.</p>
<p>Luther in 1517 was no “Protestant”. He was a reformist Catholic friar. His theses on indulgences are in some ways surprisingly <em>unradical</em>, articulating the unease many thoughtful churchmen felt about the practice. Only later, through a combination of political circumstances and Luther’s own theological radicalisation, did a breach with Rome become irreparable. At no stage can it be considered “inevitable”.</p>
<p>Anniversaries are by definition commemorative and retrospective occasions. But we should use them to ask searching questions and interrogate old verities, not just to remind ourselves of what we think we already know.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85058/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Marshall receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>
Just what are we celebrating when we imagine an Augustinian friar nailing a document to a church door?
Peter Marshall, Professor of History, University of Warwick
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/85237
2017-10-25T09:51:21Z
2017-10-25T09:51:21Z
Germany commemorates the birth of the Reformation in art, song and Playmobil
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190903/original/file-20171018-32378-1l8yftz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C6%2C1943%2C1315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/33421022256/in/photolist-SVitxE-QDjEvm-LF1XxJ-MMCrF1">Nick Thompson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Germany will shortly enjoy a national holiday to celebrate a moment that tore Europe apart. In Wittenberg, <a href="https://lutherstadt-wittenberg.de/en/">a small town in Saxony-Anhalt</a>, politicians and church leaders will gather to take part in a commemorative service at the Castle Church. There, 500 years ago, Martin Luther supposedly nailed up his 95 theses against indulgences, challenging the pope’s authority to grant remission from punishment for sin.</p>
<p>Whether or not Luther actually nailed anything to the church door remains <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses">a matter of debate</a>. But his list of objections to the practices of the Roman Church, alongside his subsequent writings, without doubt set in train a series of events that led to the splintering of western Christendom.</p>
<p>Luther’s Reformation has always played a prominent part in German commemorative culture. Already in 1617, the anniversary of the 95 theses was marked with great solemnity in Lutheran areas of the Holy Roman Empire, against a backdrop of religious and political tensions that led, less than a year later, to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Thirty-Years-War">the outbreak of the Thirty Years War</a>. Each subsequent centenary has been given a particular flavour by its immediate historical context. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191175/original/file-20171020-22940-1upwhmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A commemorative medal from 1617.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.museum-digital.de/bawue/singleimage.php?objektnum=2916&imagenr=13243">Landesmuseum Württemberg</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Through the centuries</h2>
<p>In 1817, Luther provided a focal point for the aspirations of a German nation in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. In 1917, during World War I, numerous festivities and a flood of images and texts celebrated Luther as the embodiment of the German spirit. He was paired with Bismarck, and held up as an inspiration for every German during the nation’s ongoing <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/wiki/anniversary/from-the-reformation-until-today-politics-on-luthers-back/">struggle for honour and power</a>.</p>
<p>Commemorations of Luther’s birthday augmented these Reformation centenaries. In 1983, for example, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) celebrated Luther as a socialist champion, a progressive force who contributed, in the words of the East German leader, Erich Honecker: “To progress, to the development of world culture.”</p>
<p>In 2017, October 31 will mark the culmination of a whole decade of <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/2017/luther-decade/">quincentenary festivities</a>. There have been around 10,000 individual events, ranging from <a href="https://www.3xhammer.de/de/">three major national exhibitions</a> in Berlin, Wittenberg and Eisenach to numerous smaller commemorations organised by individual states, towns and local communities. </p>
<p>These have provided an opportunity to attract tourists, in particular to Luther sites such as Wittenberg and Eisleben (where the reformer was born and died) that languished in obscurity under the GDR. They have also offered an important chance to explain to a broad public not only the Reformation’s historical outlines but also its contemporary relevance. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190896/original/file-20171018-32382-vyiw0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luther’s statue dominates the main square in Wittenberg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wittenberg-germany-nov-4-main-square-205855486?src=BKAymTSoSQCfmX0Q2r2laQ-1-58">gary yim/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet the 2017 anniversary has attracted its fair share of criticism. Sceptics have spoken of <a href="http://www.mdr.de/tv/programm/sendung760202.html">“Luther veneration” and of “Luther hype”</a>. Federal and state subsidies – taxpayers’ euros – have flowed into a commemoration in which the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) has played a central role. That has seemed, to some, inappropriate. The co-financing of the EKD’s 2017 ecumenical Kirchentag (Church Assembly) has proved <a href="http://www.mz-web.de/wittenberg/finanzierung-so-teuer-ist-der-evangelische-kirchentag---und-so-wird-er-bezahlt-26975524">particularly controversial</a>.</p>
<p>From a historian’s perspective, much of the anniversary rhetoric has <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21713843-500th-anniversary-95-theses-finds-country-moralistic-ever-how-martin-luther-has?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/nailedithowmartinlutherhasshapedgermanyforhalfamillennium">reanimated outdated narratives</a> about how “one great man transformed the world” and about the Reformation as the birthplace of modernity. In the US, for example, the public broadcaster PBS <a href="http://www.pbs.org/program/martin-luther-idea-changed-world/">anachronistically attributed to Luther’s Reformation</a> a drive towards freedom of religion and women’s rights. </p>
<p>In 2017, the “dark side” of the Reformation, in particular Luther’s anti-Semitism, has been discussed more thoroughly than ever before, but still, a primary focus on Luther as the harbinger of individual freedom has left relatively little space for public discussion of his social conservatism.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190897/original/file-20171018-32348-emm0e5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Berlin: a cardboard sculpture of a naked Martin Luther challenged his anti-semitism in May 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/FELIPE TRUEBA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Immortalised in plastic</h2>
<p>What, then, will remain from the 2017 centenary? The best answer is probably the rejuvenation of Wittenberg, and the costly but necessary renovation and restoration of Reformation sites throughout eastern Germany. </p>
<p>The EKD’s extensive programme of outreach, its determination to facilitate reflection and discussion though workshops, exhibitions and less formal events, will certainly have touched many individuals, both Christian and non-Christian.</p>
<p>For public consumption, Luther’s relatively uncontroversial role as a translator of scripture has been highlighted: the first thing to greet the visitor to Wittenberg is a <a href="https://r2017.org/neuigkeiten/beitrag/einzeleintritt-fuer-buchturm/">27-meter tower in the form of a bible</a>. Luther <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/18/the-reformation-classical-musics-punk-moment?CMP=share_btn_tw">was himself a gifted musician</a>, and the hymns that he wrote played an important part in spreading the evangelical message. The musical heritage of the Reformation, with Johann Sebastian Bach as its apogee, <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/magazin/artikel.php?artikel=1079&menuid=1">has proved to have particular appeal</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190901/original/file-20171018-32345-19bfijn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Getting their hands on the best selling Playmobil figure of all time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lwf_eleventh_assembly/27512614673/in/photolist-HVckPp">The Lutheran World Federation/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Reformation historians, the catalogues from the three national exhibitions alone comprise 1,500 pages of excellent images and analysis. There are numerous new Luther biographies, the best of which neither idolise nor vilify the reformer, but give a rounded picture of him as a thinker and as an individual: an exceptional figure, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gh/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/gerhis/ghx045">but also a product of his time</a>. </p>
<p>With a little distance, we will have another Reformation anniversary to analyse, another milestone of German commemorative culture to mine for what it tells us about Protestant identity. And perhaps best of all, thanks to Playmobil, many of us who study the period now have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/feb/18/martin-luther-playmobil-figure-sold-34000-in-72-hours">at least one little plastic Luther</a>, complete with quill pen and Bible, on our desks.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget Heal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Martin Luther has always given the country a chance to examine itself. Half a millennium on, the picture is more complex than ever.
Bridget Heal, Director of the Reformation Studies Institute, University of St Andrews
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/83340
2017-10-25T00:17:07Z
2017-10-25T00:17:07Z
Martin Luther’s spiritual practice was key to the success of the Reformation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191701/original/file-20171024-30558-51qqjy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Luther's 95 Theses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Luther95theses.jpg">Ferdinand Pauwels, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">95 Theses</a> to the door of Germany’s Wittenberg Castle Church and inadvertently ushered in what came to be known as the Reformation. </p>
<p>In his theses, Luther explicitly attacked the Catholic Church’s lucrative practice of <a href="http://martinluther.ccws.org/indulgence/index.html">selling papal indulgences</a> that promised individuals they could purchase absolution from their sins and hasten their way into heaven. </p>
<p>This was far more than a simple critique of the indulgence trade. Luther <a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-34/dr-luthers-theology.html">challenged</a> the Church’s overall authority. Over the next century, Luther’s ideas <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2016.07.007">seeded upheavals</a> and transformed the Western world by diminishing the Church’s power and introducing new spiritual possibilities for everyone.</p>
<p>In researching our book, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-spiritual-virtuoso-9781474292429/">“The Spiritual Virtuoso,”</a> we found Luther’s personal life and spiritual practice played a key role in shaping his message and drawing enthusiastic support from ordinary people.</p>
<h2>How Luther’s message spread</h2>
<p>Luther had once been a friar in the strict monastic <a href="http://www.augustinian.org/order/">Order of St. Augustine</a>. The head of the order, Johann von Staupitz, however, believed that Luther could serve God better if he were no longer isolated from the larger society. </p>
<p>Staupitz arranged for Luther to pursue doctoral studies and join the University of Wittenberg as a professor of biblical theology. When Luther posted his theses, he was both an ordained priest and a professor. </p>
<p>Luther’s students were among the first to respond enthusiastically to his message that all Christians were equal in God’s eyes and could reach heaven based on their own faith. His students also believed that they had the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1262373">moral obligation</a> to share their new understanding, so that more people could benefit from it.</p>
<p>They spoke of reforming the church to members of the growing urban middle classes. They reached out to townspeople by <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0003122411435905">translating the Latin Bible</a> into vernacular German and encouraging education for men and women alike. </p>
<p>As the movement built up, guildsmen, merchants and aristocrats came to share Luther’s vision of an authentic, incorruptible Church grounded in spiritual equality. Prince Fredrick the Wise, the University of Wittenberg’s founder, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2012.01680.x">became one of Luther’s early advocates</a> and other princes provided him with political protection and financial help.</p>
<h2>Life as a monk</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=848&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191704/original/file-20171024-30587-1wrppy7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/1533_Cranach_d.%C3%84._Martin_Luther_im_50._Lebensjahr_anagoria.JPG">Lucas Cranach the Elder, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, it was not just Luther’s ideals that contributed to his success. We found that it was also his personal story of spiritual renewal that added to his extraordinary appeal. </p>
<p>As the German states became more urban, more commercial and more affluent, the old social order was disrupted and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1262373">Church increasingly removed</a> itself from its members’ daily dilemmas. </p>
<p>At the time, Luther, following the wishes of his father, was pursuing law. However, <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/leben/moench.html">dismayed by</a> an increasingly materialistic society, he abandoned his legal studies to enter the friary of the Augustinian hermits.</p>
<p>Luther remained a monk for nearly 20 years. During his early years in the monastery, Luther obsessed about his personal failings and sins and worked hard to excel as a monk. Beginning his day at 3 a.m., Luther tried to purify himself through practices like fasting, confession, reading scriptures late into the night and silently praying at almost every moment. </p>
<p>For penance, he fasted to the point of emaciation and would even strike himself with a whip. </p>
<h2>The spiritual virtuoso</h2>
<p>We call Luther a “spiritual virtuoso” because he completely devoted his life to religious study and practice. His intense commitment to spiritual perfection resembled the perseverance of outstanding virtuosi in fields like music, athletics or dance.</p>
<p>During his career, Luther wrote thousands of sermons and pamphlets, composed hymns, preached every week and <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/martin-luther-lessons-from-his-life-and-labor">engaged in tireless work</a> on behalf of the emerging Protestant churches. </p>
<p>Over a century ago, the German sociologist Max Weber thought about hermits’ and monks’ isolation, self-denial and intense dedication and defined their absolute commitment <a href="http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Virtuoso.htm">as a kind of virtuosity</a>.</p>
<p>Spiritual virtuosi devote themselves to comprehending and <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814798041/">enacting a higher spiritual purpose</a>. They are willing to sacrifice their earthly comforts and pleasures in order to reach unity with God or another higher power.</p>
<p>The essence of spiritual virtuosity is personal humility. To that end, virtuosi tend to be reluctant leaders. Because of their unease with worldly power, they are wary of having themselves confused with the message. Luther was not interested in leading a social movement or reaping material rewards. What he wanted to do was to serve God and bring God’s word to others. </p>
<p>It was the students in Luther’s movement, and the clergy who supported them, who became the key activists and organized widespread support in Wittenberg, Basel and other university towns. We call them “virtuosi activists.” Luther himself preached, lectured and debated, but he was not much troubled with strategy or organizational tactics of organizing a movement.</p>
<p>In 1530, when the emerging Protestant movement presented its <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iii.ii.html">profession of faith</a> to the German emperor in Augsburg, Luther played a minor role and did not even attend the conference. Luther’s central goal was to show people how to reach toward God through personal faith. </p>
<h2>Luther’s impact</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=772&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/191705/original/file-20171024-30577-1b9knov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=970&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Side of collection box of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that served as a collection box for contributions to the Abolitionist cause.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARemember_Your_Weekly_Pledge_Massachusetts_Anti-Slavey_Society_collection_box.jpg">Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Protestant Reformation was the first significant social movement in modern history that was organized by activist spiritual virtuosi. Since then, other social movements have built upon Luther’s ideals of spiritual equality.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20051029170656/http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/">American anti-slavery movement</a>, for example, emphasized spiritual equality of everyone before God, not just white Christians. The 20th-century human potential movement, building on the earlier work of spiritual equality, focused on the immense potential in each person and the <a href="https://nyupress.org/books/9780814732878/">importance of communicating directly</a> with a higher power in many different ways. </p>
<p>Today, smaller contemporary virtuosi activists continue to enact and expand the ideas. We believe groups like the <a href="https://sojo.net">Sojourners’</a> community and the <a href="http://www.sanctuarynotdeportation.org/">Sanctuary movement</a> are examples of such work, for they spread faith in spiritual equality. </p>
<p>The rebellion against the Roman Church was wholly unanticipated and succeeded against all odds. In showing new spiritual possibilities, Luther also showed us one way to bring about social change.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83340/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
On the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, two scholars explain how Luther’s personal and spiritual life contributed to his success.
Marion Goldman, Professor Emeritus, University of Oregon
Steve Pfaff, Professor, University of Washington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/77540
2017-05-16T00:53:47Z
2017-05-16T00:53:47Z
On the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, remembering Martin Luther’s contribution to literacy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169392/original/file-20170515-7005-58odc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An exhibition for the Luther monument in Worms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jens Meyer</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s famous <a href="http://www.luther.de/en/95thesen.html">95 Theses</a>, which helped spark the founding of the Reformation and the division of Christianity into Protestantism and Catholicism. </p>
<p>The 95 Theses critiqued the church’s sale of indulgences, which Luther regarded as a <a href="http://www.lutherdansk.dk/Web-babylonian%20Captivitate/Martin%20Luther.htm">form of corruption</a>. By Luther’s time, indulgences had evolved into payments that were said to reduce punishment for sins. Luther believed that such practices only interfered with genuine repentance and discouraged people from giving to the poor. One of Luther’s most important theological contributions was the “<a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/10/the-priesthood-of-all-believers">priesthood of all believers</a>,” which implied that clerics possessed no more dignity than ordinary people. </p>
<p>Less known is the crucial role Luther played in making the case for ordinary people to read often and well. Unlike the papacy and its defenders, who were producing their writings in Latin, Luther reached out to Germans in their mother tongue, substantially enhancing the accessibility of his written ideas.</p>
<p>In my teaching of philanthropy, Luther’s promotion of literacy is one of the historic events I often discuss with my students.</p>
<h2>Early years</h2>
<p>Born in Germany in 1483, Luther followed the wishes of his <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/236142/martin-luther-by-lyndal-roper/9780812996197/">father</a> to study law. Once, while caught in a terrible thunderstorm, he vowed that if he were saved, he would become a monk.</p>
<p>Indeed, Luther later joined the austere <a href="http://augustinians.net/">Augustinian</a> order, and became both a priest and a doctor of theology. Later he developed objections to many church practices. He <a href="http://martinluther.ccws.org/treatises/index.html">protested</a> the promotion of indulgences, the buying and selling of clerical privileges, and the accumulation of substantial wealth by the church while peasants barely survived. Legend has it that on Oct. 31, 1517, Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, the <a href="http://www.visit-luther.com/luthercities/lutherstadt-wittenberg/the-luther-connection/">town</a> where he was based.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169394/original/file-20170515-7005-fdxaq4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Luther’s 95 Theses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keren/2989215726/in/photolist-5y9vGb-ij6QZ2-947VLg-97Fvbp-4xpjR8-98p6jJ-5rNEt8-auJkMV-dmkNTG-aCsCfD-dwGi3a-9ooLyE-gVREC-qb33n-6YYCrn-apkkuE-drPTNL-fz65JT-8VFNaz-98kWei-98kVGH-8nqFTX-8pgH81-8RzGw-dwKbnL-dwDFCF-4JYgaw-dmkLjP-ayjny6-AwmGsB-dwG5PM-5zZGoA-6qoSrP-8nqFZ8-947Vvk-bnbw3B-8nqFEx-6Z3SRf-8U8PF3-9dHQGR-8nqG6T-98p5MU-6Z3SR3-9a6RRV-97FvBV-6YYCs6-6YYCre-6gthVc-8ntPJs-4xtw4h">Keren Tan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He was branded an outlaw for refusing to recant his teachings. In 1521, Pope Leo X <a href="http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10decet.htm">excommunicated</a> Luther from the Roman Church. His patron, <a href="http://reformation500.csl.edu/bio/frederick-the-wise/">Frederick of Saxony</a>, saved Luther from further reprisal and had him taken in secret to a castle, where he remained for two years. </p>
<p>It was during that time that Luther produced an immensely influential translation of the New Testament into German. </p>
<h2>Impact of Luther’s writing</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/educator/modules/gutenberg/johann/">Gutenberg’s</a> earlier introduction of the printing press in 1439 made possible the rapid dissemination of Luther’s works throughout much of Europe, and their impact was staggering. </p>
<p>Luther’s collected works run to <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">55 volumes</a>. It is <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/21541719">estimated</a> that between 1520 and 1526, some 1,700 editions of Luther’s works were printed. Of the six to seven million pamphlets printed during this time, more than a quarter were Luther’s works, many of which played a vital role in propelling the reformation forward.</p>
<p>Thanks to Luther’s translation of the Bible, it became possible for German-speaking people to stop relying on church authorities and instead read the Bible for themselves. </p>
<p>Luther argued that ordinary people were not only capable of interpreting the scriptures for themselves, but that in doing so they stood the best chance of hearing God’s word. He <a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">wrote,</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Luther’s Bible helped form a common German dialect. Prior to Luther, people from different regions of present-day Germany often experienced great difficulty understanding one another. Luther’s Bible translation promoted a single <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-02/martin-luther-didnt-just-reform-church-he-reformed-german-language">German vernacular</a>, helping to bring people together around a common tongue.</p>
<h2>Expanding literacy</h2>
<p>This view, combined with the wide availability of scripture, shifted responsibility for scriptural interpretation from clerics to the laity. Luther wanted ordinary people to assume more responsibility for <a href="http://www.bible.ca/history/philip-schaff/7_ch04.htm">reading</a> the Bible.</p>
<p>In promoting his point of view, Luther helped to provide one of the most effective arguments for universal literacy in the history of Western civilization. </p>
<p>At a time when most people worked in farming, reading was not necessary to maintain a livelihood. But Luther wanted to remove the language barrier so that everyone could read the Bible “<a href="https://www.cph.org/p-667-What-Luther-Says.aspx">without hindrance</a>.” His rationale for wanting people both to learn to read and to read regularly was, from his point of view, among the most powerful imaginable – that reading it for themselves would bring them closer to God.</p>
<p>For much of Luther’s life, his remarkable output in theological treatises was exceeded only by his <a href="http://fortresspress.com/product/luthers-works-volume-55-index">Bible commentaries</a>. He believed that nothing could substitute for direct and ongoing encounters with scripture, which he both advocated for and helped to shape through his detailed commentaries. </p>
<h2>Reading to interpret truth</h2>
<p>Luther had <a href="https://www.luther2017.de/en/news/universitaet-und-reformation/">many reasons</a> to favor the dissemination of learning. He was a university professor. His 95 Theses were intended as an academic disputation. His teaching and scholarship played a crucial role in the development of his theology. Finally, he recognized the crucial role students would play in carrying his movement forward. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169395/original/file-20170515-7009-18dzhqn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr., namesake of the German reformer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/urbanophile/358943676/in/photolist-xHFs5-89WNBx-9rFRF6-PTQmb-fXXLTi-dehuuY-5Z1m4V-98anXx-6bRV3E-ndXHEJ-RRkZqw-98anXB-8xZpaN-dS2tZF-d7KkyY-ahKWSm-ahHaBZ-e324eh-b7US9c-dxqbkx-9btSq7-bcZHc2-FQvNN4-8w8ngR-a5Y8Wm-dNFm7h-jj366Z-7gzbUw-nQMZ7S-3JANq-4mQKbd-RbxqoW-qFFNcC-4ZuKCQ-9ipZfF-fbZCVX-nR6VJZ-89Euxq-4EX6zK-asU1VW-8ateDG-qzEsvQ-dQjVGs-pQF1vn-qSdRk2-68kz5-RwqMJh-RbwjJ1-nvxtr-ahH9Gt">the.urbanophile</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So powerfully did Luther’s influence reverberate down through the ages that, during a visit to Germany in 1934, Rev. Michael King Sr. chose to change both his and his son’s <a href="http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_king_martin_luther_michael_sr_1897_1984/">name</a> to Martin Luther King. MLK Jr., namesake of the great German reformer, would make full use of the power of <a href="https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html">free speech</a> in catalyzing the American civil rights movement.</p>
<p>In posting his 95 Theses, Luther was encouraging a vigorous exchange of ideas. The best community is not the one that suppresses dissent but one that challenges ideas it finds objectionable through rigorous argumentation. It is largely for this reason that the founders of the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-i">United States</a> took so seriously freedom of religion, free association and the protection of a free press.</p>
<p>Luther trusted ordinary people to discern the truth. All they needed was the opportunity to interpret what they read for themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Luther translated the Greek New Testament into a common German dialect that ordinary people could read, without help from clergy.
Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/71535
2017-01-20T13:24:10Z
2017-01-20T13:24:10Z
Five of the most violent moments of the Reformation
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153446/original/image-20170119-26563-10ik3uv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blood on the streets: the 1572 St Bartholomew's Day massacre. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Francois_Dubois_001.jpg">Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre by Francois Dubois via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been 500 years since what is seen as the “start” of the Reformation, when the German monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, challenging practices in the late medieval Catholic Church and ushering in a schism that led to the rise of Protestantism across Europe. </p>
<p>For the Lutheran and Catholic churches, the anniversary has been an occasion for attempts to bridge some of the divides of the Reformation, including a <a href="https://cruxnow.com/papal-visit/2016/10/31/catholic-lutheran-churches-pledge-work-shared-eucharist/">joint service</a> between Pope Francis and the Lutheran Church in Sweden, and Pope Francis’s <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37827736">acknowledgement</a> of the positive elements of Luther’s teachings. On January 17, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York released <a href="http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/articles.php/5826/reformation-anniversary-statement-from-the-archbishops-of-canterbury-and-york">a statement</a> expressing regret for the divisions of the Reformation. </p>
<p>During the seismic religious changes of the 16th and 17th centuries, atrocities were committed and martyrs were made. Episodes of violence had a profound impact on those who lived through them, and those who discussed, read about or have remembered them since. Here are five episodes of violence that shaped how Europeans saw themselves for centuries after.</p>
<h2>1. The German Peasant’s War (1525)</h2>
<p>Martin Luther’s search for a purer form of Christianity could appeal to different groups for different reasons. His doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, stressing the spiritual equality of all men in the eyes of God, was particularly powerful for those at the bottom of the hierarchy. </p>
<p>The attempts by peasants in the Holy Roman Empire to realise the Gospel message – a message which to them promised social as well as spiritual equality – led to one of the largest popular rebellions in early modern Europe, with rebel armies made up of as many as 40,000 in some areas. The violent actions of the peasants were met with violent condemnation by Luther <a href="http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/peasants1525.html">in print</a>, while harsh suppression by the authorities meant that tens of thousands lost their lives in the rebellion’s aftermath.</p>
<h2>2. The end of the Kingdom of Münster (1536)</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153448/original/image-20170119-26582-1sfi39a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cages still left on St Lambert’s Church in Munster, where the bodies of the rebellion’s leaders were displayed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ptwo/14847099269/sizes/l">ptwo/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just a decade after the Peasants War, the spectre of Reformation-inspired anarchy returned to the Holy Roman Empire. In Münster, a group of radical Anabaptists took control of the city and established a spiritual government. Its challenge to the religious and political status quo was considered immediate and grave: the practice of polygamy within the community was viewed as just one manifestation of all that was at threat. </p>
<p>When the new government began to collapse, the Catholic authorities moved in: the leading Anabaptists were put to the sword, <a href="http://www.executedtoday.com/2012/01/22/1536-the-munster-rebellion-leaders/">their body parts placed in cages on the outside of the cathedral</a>. For contemporaries, Münster and its bloody end was an argument for obedience to the secular and religious authorities. It also resulted in an enduring suspicion towards religious radicals: while not all Anabaptists embraced violent revolution, they became the target of hostility across Europe.</p>
<h2>3. The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s Day (1572)</h2>
<p>This massacre was perhaps the most notorious episode of religious violence of the Reformation era. On August 24, 1572, in the midst of celebrations of a marriage between a Catholic princess and a Protestant king, at least 2,000 French Protestants were <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/St-Bartholomews-Day-Massacre-Documents/0312413602">murdered on the streets of Paris</a>.</p>
<p>The news of events in Paris also sparked massacres in other French cities. While the direct role of the French monarchy in the massacre, and the exact numbers killed, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005493t">remain sources of debate</a>, the “popular” element of the violence was striking: victims were often known to perpetrators. Catholic powers praised the killings, and the French Protestant cause saw a wave of exile and conversions. </p>
<h2>4. The Thirty Years War (1618-1648)</h2>
<p>This war, or series of wars, is sometimes remembered <a href="http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/content/CXXIII/502/554.abstract">as the last of the wars of religion</a>. Some of its origins lay with tensions over the religious settlement offered in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which allowed for Lutheran and Catholic territories within the Holy Roman Empire. A Protestant revolt against Catholic Habsburg rule in Bohemia spiralled into a conflict in which all the major powers of Europe became involved. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153581/original/image-20170120-5211-iqv774.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the etchings from a series called Les Grandes Misères, which depicted the destruction during the Thirty Years War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Grandes_Mis%C3%A8res_de_la_guerre">The Hanging by Jacques Callot</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Parts of the German-speaking lands were utterly decimated – some areas lost between a quarter and a half of their population. The episodes of violence associated with both Protestant and Catholic troops in the war were legendary, and stories spread across Europe. </p>
<h2>5. Christian violence against non-Christians</h2>
<p>As the historian Nicholas Terpstra <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/history/european-history-after-1450/religious-refugees-early-modern-world-alternative-history-reformation?format=PB">recently argued</a>, the Reformation-era drive for purity was turned not only against rival Christian denominations, but also against non-Christian populations. </p>
<p>In this light, the victory claimed <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nk276">in 1492</a> by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, rulers of Castille and Aragon, over the Muslim populations of the Iberian peninsula with the fall of the Kingdom of Granada, is a more appropriate starting point to the Reformation than Luther’s actions in Wittenberg. </p>
<p>The “reconversion” of Spain to Christianity, and the expulsion of the Jewish and Muslim populations of the peninsula were hugely significant acts of symbolic and practical violence. And, beyond both 1492 and 1517, as Spain and other European nations acquired overseas empires, they also began to convert and subdue non-European peoples, sometimes with great violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katy Gibbons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have called for repentence for the divisions caused by the schism between the Protestant and Catholic faiths.
Katy Gibbons, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Portsmouth
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/71176
2017-01-12T11:57:01Z
2017-01-12T11:57:01Z
The political theology of Jacob Zuma
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152406/original/image-20170111-4582-g1o685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rogan Ward/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma kicked off the new year by declaring that God was on the side of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Speaking ahead of the ANC’s 105th birthday celebrations which took place at the <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/in-pictures-anc-celebrates-105">Orlando Stadium</a> in Soweto, he reiterated a statement he has made several times before – that the party will rule <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-07-05-zuma-repeats-that-anc-will-rule-until-jesus-comes">until Jesus comes</a>.</p>
<p>This time he went even further, hitting back at the party’s detractors by <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/special-features/anc-turns-105/anc105-god-is-on-our-side-says-zuma-7347557">declaring</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We believers never forget that, just like the son of man who came to wash away all of our sins, the birth of the ANC happened to free the people who were oppressed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By implication, it would seem, any president of the ANC must be pretty well in with God, and those against him, on the side of the Devil.</p>
<p>Put aside, for the moment, any thought of whether Zuma actually believes this twaddle. Consider instead that it actually fits the liberation movement cosmology of the ANC.</p>
<p>In the beginning, there was the Garden of Eden, centred in Merrie South Africa, an ancestral land blessed by plenty, peace, wealth, comfort and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2013/12/10/you-know-ubuntu-as-an-operating-system-mandela-knew-it-as-his-lifes-mission/?utm_term=.63853f35e7c2"><em>ubuntu</em></a> - (or human kindness). </p>
<p>Then came the Fall. </p>
<h2>The chosen instrument of Providence?</h2>
<p>Originally Africans had had the land, and the whites had come with the Bible. Colonialism and apartheid saw the whites grab the land, leaving the blacks with the Bible. But then along came the ANC, with many clerics at its head, with its fore-ordained mission to restore South Africa to its rightful owners. And save South Africa it did, leading the country to <a href="http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=65-24E-6">redemption by finally vanquishing apartheid in 1994</a> under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-loss-of-faith-in-heroes-like-mandela-may-not-be-such-a-bad-thing-65690">messianic leadership of Nelson Mandela</a>.</p>
<p>Alternatively, of course, there is the secular version of much the same story, told in psuedo-scientific, Soviet-style Marxist language. This time round, the vehicle of salvation is the <a href="http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft958009mm&chunk.id=s1.4.2&toc.id=ch4&brand=ucpress">class alliance</a> of the ANC with the South African Communist Party. This embodied a simultaneous struggle for national liberation and socialism – although now redemption comes in two stages, first that of the <a href="http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?ID=1850">national democratic revolution</a>, and only then, the heaven-on-earth of <a href="http://www.sacp.org.za/10thcongress/build.html">socialism</a>.</p>
<p>Common to both versions is the certainty of history. It is the ANC that represents the people, and knows their true interests and destiny. Even if, on occasion, it follows the wrong path, as the chosen instrument of Providence it will find its way back to the straight and narrow. </p>
<p>All other parties are therefore heretics and impostors, and are therefore bound to be overcome, for the ANC and the people are one. The ANC will therefore rule until the End of History, or Jesus’ second coming. Which is why, in a previous speech late last year, Zuma had felt confident enough to tell church leaders who had become critical of the ANC to stay out of politics and <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2016/12/04/Stay-out-of-politics-%E2%80%93-pray-for-us-instead%E2%80%9A-Zuma-tells-church-leaders">stick to religion</a>. It is only the ANC, apparently, which is entitled to blur the two. As far as Zuma is concerned, it is the ANC which is the historic bearer of Good News.</p>
<p>For as the ANC slogan had it at the last general election in 2014, the party had <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-has-a-good-story-to-tell---mbalula-2030433">“a good story to tell”</a>. Which is a good thing, for in his message to the ANC at its birthday bash, Zuma had little or nothing to say. He acknowledged South Africa had been going through hard times – mostly, he said, because of hostile global conditions – but assured the faithful that continued pursuit of ANC policies of “transformation” would lead to <a href="http://www.anc.org.za/content/statement-national-executive-committee-occasion-105th-anniversary-african-national-congress">better times ahead</a>.</p>
<h2>From saints to sinners</h2>
<p>The problem for Zuma’s political theology is that far too many members of the ANC have been experiencing a <a href="https://theconversation.com/ministers-call-for-zuma-to-resign-signals-internal-rebellion-in-south-africas-cabinet-69663">dramatic loss of faith</a>. They look back in fondness to the years of the struggle against apartheid when the ANC – whatever its earthly faults – was recognisably and unequivocally on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-governing-anc-buys-itself-time-as-the-unravelling-begins-56627">side of right and the righteous</a>. </p>
<p>It had more saints than sinners, and its ethos was one of duty, self-abnegation and sacrifice. The individual was as nothing; the movement, the struggle, was everything. Yet now they look at the ANC of Zuma, and see little else but a leader and his acolytes deeply mired in <a href="http://ewn.co.za/Topic/Nkandla-scandal">corruption</a>, the party torn apart by <a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-in-south-africas-capital-leaves-anc-vulnerable-at-the-polls-61534">factionalism</a>, and selfishness rampant. The interests of the people, they say, have been forgotten. The party must therefore “self-correct” – and do so quickly if it is to win back its sheep who have strayed.</p>
<p>Is there a <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-and-the-95-theses">Martin Luther</a> within the ranks of the ANC willing to risk all and to nail his or her manifesto of reform to the church door? If so, it is becoming increasingly difficult to see one. </p>
<p>Party deputy president <a href="https://theconversation.com/ramaphosa-has-what-it-takes-to-fix-south-africas-ailing-anc-but-70866">Cyril Ramaphosa</a> has recently positioned himself as the reform candidate to replace Zuma when his term as party president expires in December 2017. He took a firm <a href="http://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/anc-cant-be-bought-ramaphosa-20170106">stand against corruption</a> just prior to the ANC’s birthday. By openly decrying the perversion of the party’s electoral processes, bewailing votes bought by money stuffed in the boots of cars, and deploring <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-is-at-an-inflection-point-will-it-resist-or-succumb-to-state-capture-66523">“state capture”</a>, he put clear distance between himself and Zuma.</p>
<p>However, he doesn’t make a very convincing reformer. Not only has he previously kept as quiet as a church mouse as Zuma has lurched from scandal to scandal, but he lacks a significant congregation within the ANC. </p>
<p>Nor is it likely that his major rival in the succession race, <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2017-01-10-womens-league-defies-anc-on-dlamini-zuma/">Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma</a>, the president’s ex-wife, would get to grips with the corruption and patronage that has sunk deep into the ANC.</p>
<p>As she would have been placed in power by Zuma’s own disciples in order to defend their interests and keep their boss out of jail, she would be too deeply compromised to drive the money-changers out from the temple. It therefore seems unlikely that the ANC will prove able to cleanse its soul and present itself as a credible saviour to the voters in the <a href="http://www.enca.com/south-africa/anc-must-get-house-in-order-or-risk-losing-2019-elections-sacp">general election in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>It is true, certainly, that the ANC may be able to use its considerable powers of persuasion to lure some lost sheep to the polls. Yet many will not only stay away but cast their votes elsewhere, throwing an ANC victory into question. Zuma may preach that with God on its side, the ANC will never fail. Yet with the ANC in its present <a href="http://www.loot.co.za/product/susan-booysen-dominance-and-decline/cngg-3347-g950">state of decline</a>, God seems an unlikely backer at the next general election. God, it would seem, is not an ANC loyalist, but rather a floating voter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The problem for Jacob Zuma’s political theology is that far too many members of South Africa’s ruling ANC have been experiencing a dramatic loss of faith in a party they see as no longer righteous.
Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.