K
Katholikos
Guest
moved from another thread
My Q is, do many Lutherans (and other Protestants) read Luther in his own words, or genuine histories of Luther, or do they read about Luther, which – in my experience – presents the goodly, courageous man valiantly fighting against an oppressive, monolithic Church. You know, the Great Reformer image --the image that is portrayed in recent films about him.
This is not exactly the truth about Luther. He was a tortured soul and a scoundrel. For example, he “could find no Scriptural justification” for forbidding plural wives, and approved the bigamous marriage of Philip, Landgreave of Hess, both in writing and by sending his sidekick, Melanchthon, and another to act as witnesses to the “marriage.” His bitter, ugly anti-semitism made him the hero of the Nazi party, which culminated in the holocaust. And so on.
Yes, I know, there’s plenty of dirt to be distributed on both sides of the Catholic-Protestant divide. But Luther’s warts are obscured by heavy applications of whitewash.
No offense intended, but I’m wondering why one never hears about these (and other) facts. Luther must have a good press agent.
Jay (ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, “ex-static” to be Catholic!)
My Q is, do many Lutherans (and other Protestants) read Luther in his own words, or genuine histories of Luther, or do they read about Luther, which – in my experience – presents the goodly, courageous man valiantly fighting against an oppressive, monolithic Church. You know, the Great Reformer image --the image that is portrayed in recent films about him.
This is not exactly the truth about Luther. He was a tortured soul and a scoundrel. For example, he “could find no Scriptural justification” for forbidding plural wives, and approved the bigamous marriage of Philip, Landgreave of Hess, both in writing and by sending his sidekick, Melanchthon, and another to act as witnesses to the “marriage.” His bitter, ugly anti-semitism made him the hero of the Nazi party, which culminated in the holocaust. And so on.
Yes, I know, there’s plenty of dirt to be distributed on both sides of the Catholic-Protestant divide. But Luther’s warts are obscured by heavy applications of whitewash.
No offense intended, but I’m wondering why one never hears about these (and other) facts. Luther must have a good press agent.
Jay (ex-Southern Baptist, ex-agnostic, ex-atheist, “ex-static” to be Catholic!)