In this course we will discuss the history of some ideas that have been hugely influential in the modern west and that were taken out to the rest of the world. The discussion centers on an extraordinary and historically important figure, a sixteenth century German man named Martin Luther. Luther is recognized today as the originator of many of the most significant ideas that continue to affect and shape who we as modern people are and how we see the world and ourselves for better and for worse. In the first section, we will explore why Luther thought the Bible was the most important volume for everyone to have and read. Included here will be a careful consideration of Luther's anti-Judaism, which contributed to western antisemitism and some of the greatest horrors of the twentieth century. In the second section, we will talk about the idea of freedom and how Luther's understanding of freedom in Christ affected the way modern thinkers understood what it means to be human in community. Important in this section is the consequential contradiction between freedom and slavery in western thought and their co-existence in western societies. The third section will be all about the many complicated relations between religion and politics. NOTE: Students wishing to sign up for free access to all instructional course content should click on the "Sign-In" button in the upper right hand corner. Those who wish to take the course and complete a certificate that requires payment, please click the Enroll button on the left side of this page.
Introduction to Luther and the Bible
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From the course by Northwestern University
Luther and the West
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Meet the Instructors
Christine HelmerArthur E. Andersen Teaching and Research Professor, Professor of Religious Studies and German
Department of Religious Studies
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There are statues of Martin Luther around the world.
And in nearly all of them, Luther is represented as an imposing figure,
dressed in his academic robes and always with a Bible in his hand.
Luther had a profound and intimate relationship with
the text of Scripture which he cherished above all other books.
If we had to point to only one, and the most important achievement of
Luther's life and work, it would be that he made the Bible into a book
that is read around the world and not only by elite educated men.
Luther grew up at a time when almost no one read the Bible.
This is hard for us to imagine today when thanks to the internet,
all texts are available all the time.
But in Luther's day, the Bible existed in a Latin translation called the Vulgate.
Most people could not read Latin however and the Catholic church
strictly prohibited translations into the modern European languages.
Despite this, so great was people's hunger to read the Bible that occasionally
fragments of it were translated usually at great risk of persecution and even death.
In the fourteenth century, for example, an Englishman named John Wycliffe inspired
a movement to translate the Bible into English.
In time, the Wycliffe inspired translation will be responsible for
about 80% of the King James version published after the Reformation.
But in Wycliffe's own time, Catholic authorities had him arrested and
his translation confiscated and destroyed.
In the 15th century, a group of Christians calling themselves Law Lords were
burnt at the stake by the authorities just for
having a translation of pieces of Saint Peter’s epistles from the New Testament.
What was so frightening about ordinary people reading the Bible?
Catholic authorities were afraid that uneducated people would come up with
strange and possibly dangerous ideas when they tried to understand some of the more
mysterious passages in the sacred text.
Luther was aware of this risk, but
he also believed that to put the Bible in the hands of the ordinary
Christians was to give them a powerful tool to think for themselves.
In particular to think for themselves about religion and to discover for
themselves the truth about Christ.
Luther not only translated the Bible from its original languages into German,
he also made sure that those translations were published and made widely available.
As a result, for the first time in Christian history,
everyone could read the Bible.
The common person on the street, the woman in the marketplace,
the child at school, as well as religious authorities.
Making the Bible accessible like this in ordinary language completely
transformed German culture as well as the German language.
It also shaped how people approach the Bible today.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Luther's translation and dissemination
of the Bible changed everything about the way that people read, think, and act.
In this first unit, we will learn about Martin Luther's personal and intellectual
relationship with the Bible and about how that relationship ignited the reformation.
Luther was at different times of his life an ordained Catholic priest who
preached daily on the Bible and
a professor of theology who lectured on the Bible to his students.
Luther cherished the Bible because he believed it offered what he had sought so
passionately and painfully all his life.
The hope of forgiveness for his sins, granted by living Jesus Christ.
Luther spent many years in the monastery attacked by the devil,
or as some people might say today, suffering from anxiety and depression.
He was terrified of eternal damnation, but in the Bible stories about
Christ which he read throughout these dark and frightening hours,
Luther found the comfort and certainty that God was not angry with him.
That God is a merciful God, who loves, forgives and gives life to the sinner.
Luther loved the bible the way we might love a person who saved our life, and
he wanted everyone to have access to this life saver.
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