Martin Luther the Monk - Essay Example

Martin Luther is one of the most famous Christian religious preachers in the history. He was born at Eislenben in the year 1483. In Mansfeld, Martin Luther’s father, Han’s Luther served as a leaseholder of the smelters and several copper mines. Hans Luther worked very hard to earn his family a good standard of living and he wanted Martin Luther to become a lawyer by profession. In order to accomplish this, he first sent Martin Luther to the Mansfeld based Latin schools. After that, Martin Luther gained education in Madgeburg in the year 1497 followed by Eisenach in 1498.

By the year 1501, Martin Luther had turned seventeen years old. That was when he joined the University of Erfurt which was more of a whorehouse and a beerhouse than a university. In 1505, Martin Luther gained the postgraduate degree. Contrary to his father’s dream of seeing Martin Luther as a lawyer, Martin wanted to study the Scriptures. In order to achieve that, Martin Luther went to the Augustinian canons, where he spent about three years. He was proclaimed to be a priest in the year 1507.

Martin Luther offered lectures on the Scriptures and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. Over a very short period of time, Martin Luther became a very influential and inspiring preacher. Martin Luther commenced the exploration of evangelical perfection and tried to comply with the Augustinian order’s rule, but it did not take him long to realize that there were a lot of doubts and uncertainties in it. Theological problems enhanced his spiritual complexities which particularly included the message of grace and the ambiguities in nature of indulgences.

“Luther had entered on the search for evangelical perfection with serious zeal and sought exactly to fulfill the rule of the Augustinian order, but he soon found himself struggling against uncertainties and doubts” (“Martin Luther”). Subjects included in the course of biblical exegesis that he taught at the University of Wittenberg included Romans, Psalms and Galatians. Martin Luther served as the professor at this university between 1513 and 1518. His courses of lectures speak of his mind’s maturity and richness.

He was appointed as the preacher in the Parish Church in 1514. The pulpit of this church was essentially a locus of the preaching ministry. Martin Luther preached the Scriptures to the common people and made every possible effort to make them analyze their personal lives in context of the religious Scriptures. During this, Martin Luther noticed many things that were inappropriate with his Church as well as with the whole world. “[T]he Roman Church has always maintained the true faith, and that it is necessary for all Christians to be in unity of faith with her” (Luther cited in Pastor).

Therefore, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther collected Ninety-Five Theses to elicit the truth and attached them to the All Saints’ Church’s door in Wittenberg. This date is known as the All Saints’ Day’s eve. “Martin Luther, Doctor, of the Order of Monks at Wittenberg, desire to testify publicly that certain propositions against pontifical indulgences, as they call them, have been put forth by me” (Machiavelli and More 273). Although those theses tended to criticize the papal policy, yet they never refuted the papal prerogative.

They also did not challenge the doctrine of purgatory much. However, those theses emphasized upon the intrinsic spirituality of the Christian faith. Martin Luther attempted to forward the copies of those theses to his own bishop as well as the Archbishop of Mainz, but the process was interrupted by the intervention of the printing press. In spite of the effort of the printing press to hinder the process, numerous copies of the theses got spread which made an otherwise local issue an issue of huge significance and controversy to be discussed among expanding circles.

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