Happy Reformation Day
Happy Reformation Day to all. On October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saints’ Day, Martin Luther conspicuously nailed his ninety-five theses to a church door in Wittenberg. His conscience dictated to him that the excesses and abuses of the Catholic Church of his day were offensive to God and oppressive to man, and corrupted the true religion of Jesus Christ. Luther’s theses were intended to foster academic discussion but became the spark that ignited a full-fledged reformation movement and a complete break from the Catholic Church. The Pope excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church in December 1520.
To commemorate this day, Lutherans worldwide celebrate Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday of October if that Sunday is not actually October 31. As part of that service, they sing the wonderful hymn written by Luther himself “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” (listen to it at this Wikipedia link), a hymn inspired by the protection Luther received from his patron in the mighty Wartburg fortress at Eisenach in the state of Thuringia in 1521 against the efforts of Catholic authorities to arrest and try him for heresy. While taking refuge at the Wartburg for ten months under the alias Junker Jörg, Martin Luther endured some of his darkest times but also translated the New Testament from Greek into German.
Martin Luther’s work has had a wide influence on the world, for both good and ill, throughout history. The Reformation he initiated led a century later to the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) that absolutely ravaged Germany, killing approximately 25% of its population (figures actually range from 15% to 33%). But it also paved the way for freedom of thought and faith from the strictures of a corrupted ecclesiastical institution. It also thereby contributed to the eventual Restoration of the Gospel by the Prophet Joseph Smith.
An interesting Latter-day Saint view of Martin Luther can be found in A. Burt Horsley, “Lutheranism,†Ensign, Oct. 1971, 30. There, Horsley quotes Luther with the following insight:
I have sought nothing beyond reforming the Church in conformity with the Holy Scriptures. The spiritual powers have been not only corrupted by sin, but absolutely destroyed; so that there is now nothing in them but a depraved reason and a will that is the enemy and opponent of God. I simply say that Christianity has ceased to exist among those who should have preserved it.
Whatever the merits of Luther’s reformist activities, they are worth the attention of Latter-day Saints, whether to study his theology for additional insight into the mission of Jesus Christ, or to challenge his doctrines with the insight we have gained through the latter-day revelations and Restoration of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Nice post, John, and a fine way to memorialize October 31st. Almost thou persuadest me to be a Lutheran.
Comment by Dave — October 31, 2005 @ 11:42 am
I concur. Thanks for the great post John.
Comment by J. Stapley — October 31, 2005 @ 12:10 pm
May a Catholic (convert from Protestantism) offer a respectful opinion?
There is a strong parallel between Luther and Joseph Smith, in that both of them believed that the established Church had gone off the rails and needed restoring. I give JS rather more credence because he was honest about believing this, whereas Luther merely erected a 500-year monument to his own ego while pretending allegiance to the historical Church.
I became Catholic when I realized that if I couldn’t accept JS’s claims (and I’m sorry to say so in this company, but I was unable to), then I could accept Luther’s even less. And when I look at what came out of both JS’s Restoration and Luther’s Reformation, I find I like the fruits of the Mormon Restoration much better.
Comment by Joel — October 31, 2005 @ 1:35 pm
Good point Joel. I actually think that your decision shows internal consistency. Post Vatican-II Catholicism has certainly addressed a lot of the problems that bothered Luther. I actually agree with you that considerations of authority tend to steer towards either the Catholic Church or the Restoration through Joseph Smith. For someone who holds to Joseph Smith, the Catholic Church has as little priesthood authority as its myriad Protestant split-offs (that is a large part of the reason for the need of the Restoration). But if I were Catholic, I could justifiably think that Joseph Smith had as little authority as any one of the myriad Protestant sects. Hopefully, however, one would engage in careful, prayerful consideration on this question and not reach this conclusion summarily.
Comment by john fowles — October 31, 2005 @ 1:59 pm
I am wondering if the world will ever have a “bloggernacle day” – not so much because it may have requiered and act of courage to iniciate the bloggernacle as it did to nail the ninety-five theses to the church door but because of way it oppened a door for views of a reformation a restoration and a revolution (the information revolution) to impact the history of a christianity commited open diologe. As a convert from protestantism to a sincere investigator of notion of a restoration – and one who also has lots of catholic frinds. (many of whom seem much more pracical than the people I meet at church) I would like to share my thoughs on the matter of wheather it is proper consider at length, the measure of debt Joseph Smith and his followers owe to the courage of Martin Luther and wheather the protestants have done justice to the causes instituted and the sacrifices made by the reformers.
It seems to me that if an appreciation of the right of expression is not followed with an open and equally sincere appreciation of the priveledge to reflect intellegently upon what has been expreessed freely – that the repetition of a history which seems to ring of “missed opportunity” is shure to follow.
The bloggernacle provides a truly wonderfull opportunity to enrich each other in the singular context in which it is presets itself. To me Catholosisim has a rich fund of history while that which was once freely heralded as “mormonism” (will it be replaced by “bloggernacle-ism”?) provides a rich fund of tennant which are steady enough to extrapolate from under the context of practical concerns.
Without this, the notion of belief orineted governmental intervention, into our daily lives, wheather based on the belief in God or some rediculously oversiplified “smallest common intelectual demonator” political consensus based concept such as… “natural selection” (of selfish beasts) is shure to yield dissapointing results.
History seems to bear this out with trajic regularity. So I say “Long live the bloggernacle and the good cause to which its adherents are so axiously engaged, regardless of their ultimate (or temparary) religious loyalties!
(What day would bloggernacle day fall on anyway?)
(Bloggernacle staff could email me on this)
Richard E.
Comment by Richard Edmiston — October 31, 2005 @ 6:10 pm