Relevance Today

[isidro]

Personally I love Martin Luther and all he provided for us not only in the religious forum but also allowing a greater expression of freedom from tyranny and leading the way to greater individuality and expression. Were it not for his intelligence and integrity we would still be under the thumb of a massive and abusive superpower. I respect Catholics of course but the Inquisitions among other things surely had need of changing. Am I missing anything? What have you noticed, appreciated, etc about this very amazing man and the effects of his labors?

[eccius]

It is important to understand that the Theses were not an attempt by Luther to "reform" the Church. Truly, the thesis took aim at an abused Canon, but have their merits more in choice of subject than of content. However, if Luther truly wanted to "reform", he would have approached the matter through the proper episcopal channels. Luther, too, was Catholic and, even more, was a talented dilectician, therefore, any conscious attempt to "reform" would have been issued in a more eloquent fashion than that of the provocations and slanders included in his Theses.

The events surrounding Luther's theses were an effort to provoke Tetzel to debate on the matter of indulgences so that Wittenbergers might see, first-hand, Tetzel's inability to defend his impure methods of sale (remittance of sin through indulgences, devoid of repentance.)

True, inquisitions, taxes, and other religious and secular sins were committed by the papacy, however, I think that we're all susceptable to human error, no? The intertwining of secular and religious authorities is perhaps an unaccomplishable task, as the functioning principles of both are polar opposites. While religion requires an intrapersonal discipline which will receive its justice apart from this world, society functions on discipline (ie - war, torture, imprisonment) as an immediate deterrant against the infliction of evils upon others.