A New Vision of Faith 1

A New Vision of Faith 1

A New Vision of Faith:

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses

NAME

PROFESSOR

COURSE

DATE

A New Vision of Faith: Martin Luther’s 95 Theses

Few other documents have had as great an impact on the history of Western civilization than Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. This is the document which set into motion the Protestant Reformation, undermining the role of the Roman Catholic Church as the singular, unquestionable authority in the Christian world. Luther’s tenets reformed, literally, what Christian faith meant. The 95 Theses substitute a far more personal and individualized form of religion for the highly ritualized and clergy-driven practice of the Roman Catholic Church.

One of the most important attributes of the 95 Theses is the emphasis on the individual’s relationship with God, particularly in regard to repentance and the forgiveness of sin. In Luther’s era, it was the Roman Catholic clergy who were the ultimate arbiters of this process of the sinner’s reconciliation with God. The penitent would confess his sins to the clergy, who would then determine the appropriate penance and who would, ultimately, determine whether and when the penitent was forgiven. This system fell into corruption, however, as clergy increasingly began to use their authority to grant or withhold forgiveness under certain conditions, such as in exchange for gifts or other services to the Church or to the individual priest (often referred to as “indulgences”). Increasingly, then, divine forgiveness in Luther’s era was not an experience of faith but an almost mercantile exchange, the bartering of Earthly goods for divine services.

Luther repudiated these realities as a perversion of the Gospels and of the Church. Ultimately, he argued that redemption is not to be determined by the priest, the Pope, or any Church official, no matter how high-ranking. Redemption, according to Luther, is determined by the individual alone and the relationship s/he builds with God through prayer, penitence, and supplication. The individual does not need the clergy to intercede, through prayer, on behalf of the sinner. The sinner can go directly to God because the sacrifice of Christ made this direct communion with God possible; He was the ultimate priest who affected the reconciliation between God and man. Whether or not the person’s sins were forgiven would be determined not by the clergy, but by the individual, and all sins save for blasphemy could be forgiven, not through acts or works (such as gifts or services to the Church) but through faith in Jesus Christ and the atonement He brings alone.

Another vitally important revision in doctrine brought about by Luther’s document is the practice of religious study. It was believed in his era that only clergy should read and study the Bible and other religious texts. The rationale was that a lay person would be led too easily into mortal error, but one who had received the divine calling and who devoted his entire life to the spiritual life of study and contemplation alone was capable of understanding the Scriptures. This meant, of course, that religious instruction came through the clergy alone, that Biblical teachings came not from direct exposure to the text but through the teachings of the Church and its officials, particularly in the forms of catechisms and liturgies.

Luther, however, in keeping with the more individualized and personal form of faith that this emerging Protestantism espoused, found the direct study of Christian texts to be an essential part of the believer’s journey. This would lead to a dramatic surge in literacy, as the advent of the printing press and the famous Guttenberg Bible a few decades prior enabled the proliferation of the sacred text, putting it in the hands of ordinary people, and not just the clergy. This further weakened the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, not simply in regard to ecclesiastical matters but also in regard to political and social issues, on which the Church exerted a powerful influence, with the Pope, through the doctrine of infallibility and his status as God’s chosen representative on Earth, perceived as a higher authority than even the most powerful secular monarchs.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses not only changed the Christian Church; they also changed the Western world. Bringing about the Protestant Reformation, the theses instituted a new vision of faith, one built upon a personal and direct relationship with God. This included the premise of redemption through faith, not works, and determined not by the dictates of the clergy (including the bartering of divine forgiveness for Earthly goods and services) but by the individual’s private relationship with God. This also saw the advent of private study, as lay persons were now able to access the Scriptures for themselves; prior to this, it was believed that only the clergy should have access to the Scriptures, as lay persons were thought not to possess the spiritual tools to understand them, leading them dangerously into error. For Martin Luther and the 95 Theses, the spiritual life was to be found through private study and direct, personal prayer and supplication. This weakened the power of the Roman Catholic Church, not only in religious matters but in social and political ones as well, and the result was a whole new Church—and a whole new world.