Emily McAlhany
HST 6100
Dr. Vice
September 27, 2013
Martin Luther’s Theological Stance Martin Luther was a monk but he constantly felt like God was mad at him, he tried everything but he still could not shake that feeling. He disagreed with what the Catholic Church taught in regards to getting into heaven. He, like Erasmus, did not like the selling indulgences to get into heaven. However, unlike Erasmus, Luther openly states ideas against the Pope. As a monk, Luther had to remember passages and recite them, and he admits that one word in a passage confuses him. This passage is in the book of Romans, and the word in righteousness. He said he meditated day and night to try and understand the context of the passage. He re-read the text as it was written and figured out the meaning.
…I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed as it is written, He who through faith is righteous shall live.” There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: The righteousness or God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.”
Later in that same paragraph Luther talks about the things God does in us, like God gives us strength and wisdom. I think Luther is starting to tell us that it is through God’s Grace that we can do all of this things, and that it does not matter what we do, God has to decide to give us these things. In other words, I think this is his start to the idea of predestination. Concerning the practices of the church, Luther writes a letter to Archbishop Albert of Mainz about the buying of indulgences. Luther is concerned with the people buying these indulgences because