The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1965) and The Freedom of a Christian by Martin Luther (1999) are quite distinct in their goals for human nature and development, though both are in agreement with respect to humanÆs tendency to indulge in self-gain. In The Freedom of the Christian, Luther (1999) makes the case for human beings to develop their inward or spiritual nature in order to be truly free, ôit is evident that by no outward work or labour can the inward man be at all justified, made free, and savedö (2). Within the individual there is a conflicting duality of the flesh against the spirit or the outward individual against the inward individual. Machiavelli, in contrast, does not believe in speculation about the spirit or metaphysical realm. He only knows what he has experienced in the earthly realm. His perspective on individuals is that they will tend toward satisfying their own self-gain, what Luther might view as the outward portion of the dualistic individual. Machiavelli does not posit a superior realm or inward plateau that an individual can attain through the good works of faith preached by Luther. Instead, Machiavelli feels that any leader who ignores the reality of this realm in favor of trying to reach such a plateau will end disastrously. As he states, ôàmany have imagined republics and principalities such as have never been known to exist in reality. For the manner in which men live is so different from the way in which they ought to live, that he who leaves the common course for that which he ought to follow will find that it leads him to ruin rather than to satisfyö (Machiavelli 1965, 76). In other words, while Luther encourages man to do good works of faith in order to reach a higher realm, Machiavelli argues that only the common or, to Luther, outward realm exists and to try to aspire to any other leads to ruin.
The true Christian is not a pope, a priest, or any other member of the clergy to Lut...