Luther's Reformed Version of Christian Doctrine

The Ninety-Five Theses (1517) of Martin Luther (1483-1546) are often seen as marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Since the theses objected primarily to the sale of indulgences by the church the Reformation is often seen as being based principally on the problems of the Roman church's moral laxity and abuses of power. But Luther saw the corruption of the church as an inevitable consequence of the fact that it was merely a human institution and the theses derived not only from his objection to church abuses but from his belief that the church and Christian theology, as an expression of the authority of this worldly church, suffered from basic flaws that could only be corrected by reform efforts that went far beyond the mere correction of problems, such as the sale of indulgences, that were not just impoverishing the German people and states but were undermining their spiritual lives as well. A brief examination of the relationship between the theses and the contemporary corrupt practices of the church will be followed, therefore, by a discussion of the relationship between Luther's broader theological notions and the way the questions addressed by the theses provided a platform for a far more extensive overhaul of church doctrine.

When Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses against the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (1517) on the door of the collegiate church of Wittenberg he was, ostensibly, following a traditional method of notifying the scholar

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, architecture and pomp from which power was to be inferred (Cristiani 65). But in order to support their temporal power and their new style of self-presentation the popes needed a great deal of money "and so the Curia used every means to acquire it" (Cristiani 65). The sale of indulgences attacked by Luther may have been "foremost among Rome's predatory practices" but the Germans saw the papacy as employing every possible means "to transfer church power and income from German to Roman hands" so that not only were people being cheated of money they could ill afford to lose, the quality of the clergy was seriously degraded as the cure of souls in Germany was given to people whose lives were often scandalous in themselves (Ozment 13). The papacy had, in essence, become a temporal monarchy that employed its power over people's spiritual lives to exact funds from the people and from those desiring lucrative church offices. The benefices, or livings, granted to the clergy had to be purchased from Rome at the highest possible price and were given in many cases to people who did not possess the requisite learning and spiritual qualities--and often lived less than exemplary lives--and they, in turn, often commissioned even less quali

Category: Philosophy - L