Why are you asking this here? Why are you trying to help your friend’s daughter short-circuit the class instead of learning the material? If she’s being asked this, it’s because she’s supposed to know the basic ideas of Luther’s Address to the German Nobility. Either the professor hasn’t gotten the ideas across effectively, or the student is slacking. Quite possibly there’s some combination of the two at work–no student and no professor is perfect, after all. But either way, she needs first of all to make sure she’s read all the assigned material for the class. If she hasn’t, then that’s her problem and helping her out by asking the question on the Internet is simply hindering her education. If she has done her homework and still doesn’t understand, she should ask her professor. No matter whether it’s the professor’s fault or not, the professor needs to know that at least one student isn’t getting the message. I know I always want to know that.
Edwin
Edwin, no need to try to impress me with your learned background. I too have taught at the univeresity leveI. If you were uncomfortable answering the question, you were certainly free to pass right by my post.
I have no idea why my friend’s daughter asked her mother this question. Nor, quite frankly, do I care. It could have been an assignment, it could have been a classroom discussion, it could have been a disagreement between classmates in the dorm. I assumed it was for a class, so that’s what I put in my original post. Our entire conversation, between my friend and I, was by email from two states away.
What I do know is that my friend, a fallen-away Catholic who is struggling with not just with her faith, but in her life, provided me an opportunity to talk about faith, God and theology. I was able to send her the information people here were gracious enough to provide, invite her to these forums and the
catholic.com website and engage in a dialouge with her that has been years coming. By God’s grace, perhaps this will prompt her to continue to seek answers on other questions of faith and lead her back to the Church. I’d trade an opportunity to open someone’s eyes to the love of Christ for the possibility a freshman college student may be slinking out of one assignment any day. When the Holy Spirit opens the door you don’t slam it shut in his face.
Finally, if it is for an assignment, the answers provided here would only point her in the right direction for further research and reading. They were all great answers and much appreciated, but they certainly weren’t comprehensive enough to get a decent grade on any paper I’ve ever had the privilege, or the misfortune, of reading.
Patricia
And Wall 2 is a strawman.
