Tag Archives: Protestant

Martin Luther in 1510

Mar­tin Luther in 1510 is an intrigu­ing fig­ure. Here we have a the­olo­gian who belongs to both of our churches, and as such is unset­tling to both of our per­cep­tions of who and what we are. Schol­ars on both sides have tried to man­age this Luther. Some on the Lutheran side have liked to empha­size his “Ref­or­ma­tion break­through” to an extreme degree. There is sup­posed to be an absolute, abject break with his past, a lightning-bolt dis­cov­ery of the true but long obscured gospel, a relent­less rejec­tion of all that came before—you see this even in cer­tain kinds of paint­ings of Luther, where he ham­mers the 95 The­ses to the door of the church with a stri­dent cer­tainty. This is the ultra-Protestant Luther who has no use for Rome, the Catholic church, or pretty much any­thing that came before him. Con­tinue read­ing →