In 1517, Martin Luther unintentionally sparked one
of the biggest political and religious revolutions know to-date in Germany by
simply tacking his work “95 Theses” to the door of the Wittenberg church. In
this document, Luther directly attacked the Pope and the Catholic church by
spelling out
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| Martin Luther wrote the "95 Theses" which sparked on the biggest religious revolutions in Germany's past. |
many of their faults. While priests in the Holy Roman Empire and
other religious figures of the time despised his works, the secular people
found Luther’s words to be prominent and they quickly gained popularity.
Although Luther's main goal was to not become a revolutionist from this, it
happened nonetheless. By simply introducing and arguing the fact that not just
the clergy, but every person had a hand in the running of the church, Luther
certainly made the flame ignited by his theses much larger.
When it came to making a cultural impact on
society, Luther was said to be one of the first propagandists to exploit the
fairly new medium that was known as the printing press (10:58). When he
utilized this it ultimately effected how written texts were mass produced and
spread throughout the country, especially many of his own works. This made
Luther's words much harder for the Catholic church to silence because he could
spread his thoughts with an ever growing amount of ease. When the printing
press was introduced in our film as a new medium my mind automatically went
straight to thinking about social media. Being an IMS major I spend a lot of time
studying several types of mediums and social platforms. Each one varies on how
it is used and what kind of material can be shared. In Luther's case, he is
spreading mainly his ideas put into words and images and comparatively it is
very similar to Facebook because on this platform people can share their
thoughts, images, videos, links, and anything that you could possibly think of
with the press of a button. While it wasn't so quick and easy with the printing
press, it certainly made the spread of information much faster.
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| A printing press similar to the one Luther utilized for spreading his works to people throughout the country. |
Alister McGrath from Oxford University stated in
our film, “…if the Christian life is being lived authentically, then you must
expect to suffer” (5:45). This is something that we can establish that
Luther lived by as he received backlash from his work. However, Luther stood
his ground, never once differing from or renouncing his words even after Luther
received the excommunication order from Pope Leo X. In fact, the
excommunication order meant very little to everyday people especially as the
emissary carried it farther north (19:00).
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| When Luther was in hiding he began to translate the Bible into German. This aided the everyday individual in understanding Luther's view point on the Word of God. |
When it came to seeing Martin Luther as a religious
revolutionist and someone who was important to the German-speaking lands, I
couldn't quite grasp how he was until the 7 religious sacraments were
discussed. When Luther had gone straight to scripture and only found 2 - The
Lord's Supper and baptism - I began to understand why he was seen this way. Having
something you believe for your whole life to be true suddenly proved false
seems revolutionary in itself. To further the people's understanding
Luther went above and beyond, translating the Bible into German so that the
Word of God was accessible to the common man thus letting the people themselves
see the truth of what he spoke (40:00).
Word Count: 546
Martin Luther: http://www.biography.com/people/martin-luther-9389283
Printing Press: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press
Printing Press: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press
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