Martin Luther: Religious innovator and underdog?

By Mr Wearn

Martin Luther is regarded by many as the initiator of the Reformation; a movement which created an alternative to the Roman Catholic Church and a new avenue for religious confession. From the publication of his 95 Theses, his life appears to be one of innovative change, but also one that lead to conflict and “suspected heresy”. How innovative was he? And just how far did he break the mould of convention at the time?

It is important to establish just how innovative Luther was, in context. To do so, we can examine Luther’s views on key events and how they differed from other reformers- allowing us to understand the extent to which Luther can be considered an innovator. This is crucial because the Reformation was not solely a German phenomenon but shows signs of encaptivating global socio-political change over the course of history.

With this in mind, the definition of the word “innovate” must be determined, and that is “to introduce changes and new ideas” and so, if Martin Luther is to be considered an innovator, he must have introduced new ideas and perspectives. In my opinion, it is fair to say that the evidence available shows Luther to be an innovator to a certain extent; however, the spread of his ideas was often accidental...

Firstly, the areas where Luther is regarded as being innovative must be examined, principally his thinking on indulgences. In his 95 Theses, Luther argues that “papal indulgences cannot remove the very least of venial sins”. This suggests that he was- at this point- challenging the established views found within the Church. Moreover, his stance becomes more radical when he argues within his “Sermon on Indulgence and Grace” (1518) that indulgences “help no one to improve”. From this evidence it is clear to see that Luther set out to change the traditional statusquo, and that his ideas were an obvious break from the conventional, widely accepted, religious thinking of the time. Therefore, it can be argued that, in his attempt to bring about change, Luther was acting to improve life within society, who, during this period, were still deeply religious. Furthermore, the effect that this view had on the established Church meant that Luther cannot be considered as someone who lacked innovation, or indeed a religious underdog, because teaching and objections like this shook the foundations of the religion he sought to change, and eventually led to Luther’s excommunication.

Further evidence to the innovative nature of Luther can be found if his statement that “indulgence-peddling remained a staple component of worship in Christian Europe” at the time is taken into consideration. This suggests that not only did Luther hold a different view to the Church hierarchy, but he also differed in opinion to the ordinary people, who, at this point, had no choice but to conform to the teachings of the Church.

Luther’s conflict with the Church’s overindulgences was closely related to his ideas about Justification in the eyes of God, and how people become worthy. This is because part of his thinking resulted in the creation of a new doctrine, which differed from the established idea that good works could earn you the grace of God. Luther believed that no amount of good works could earn the grace of God, as people were given grace through their faith. Therefore, the positions of works in a person’s life changed because, according to Luther, these works were not a necessity to earn grace, but were the result of grace, where the love that God showed the believer led to an outpouring of what society considered as ‘good works.’ Consequently, Luther’s ideas on justification can be considered as “faith alone, grace alone, Scripture alone” where the only prerequisite of being saved is believing in the fact that Jesus died on a cross for humanity, and that in a break from traditional thinking, the good works you do have no consequence in earning God’s grace because all Christians have already received it. This resulted in Luther believing that only through believing in this truth (that God had promised salvation and grace through His Son) could people gain eternal life in heaven.

In addition to this, Luther’s ideas did not just stop at the belief that people should not perform good works to gain the grace of God. In fact, he justified his beliefs by arguing that people should have known that they were saved based on their belief, and nothing more. However, this required people to be able to interpret the Bible themselves, a concept which has become known as a “priesthood of all believers” and subsequently implied that as most of the lay population did not speak Latin, the Bible had to be translated into the vernacular language so everybody could read it. Luther can be considered to be an innovator because it was, he who first translated the New Testament into German in 1522. Besides this point, there is also further evidence to be found in the fact that if “justification by faith has been rightly selected as the cardinal doctrine of the Lutheran theology” then Luther himself must have been the innovator of the movement and the change in thinking as, if it was not for the force behind the movement, he would not have gone to the Diet of Worms and refused to refute the suggested allegations. As a result, it is possible to argue that Luther, in terms of his thinking, was an innovator because he changed the ideas that had previously been established.

However, despite this wealth of evidence, the case is not as clear as could be assumed because there is also evidence to suggest that Luther himself was not as radical an underdog as some would argue...

For example, perhaps the biggest and strongest argument against the claim that Luther was an innovator is the fact that, during the entire period, he never actually intended to bring about a split with the established Roman Catholic Church, in fact “he was committed to the unity of the Roman Church” and therefore, it can be argued that he was not as innovative as people believe because he never intended his ideas to have such a large impact. Furthermore, it is believed that the publication of the 95 Theses was only intended for “academic circles” because they were written in Latin, the scholarly language, which, as already mentioned, was not understood by the majority of the population. Consequently, some have argued that Luther only intended for them to be used by the Church because if he wished for them to be generally known he would have written them in the vernacular so that people could understand them.

In addition to this, the fact that today “most scholars of religion put less emphasis on Luther alone as the source of religious change” suggests that he himself was not as innovative as first thought. This is the result of the role of the other reformers, from whom Luther diverged, being examined more fully and them being seen as greater innovators in comparison. In addition to this evidence, it has also been suggested that the other, more radical reformers- particularly the Calvinists- criticised the Lutherans (who followed Luther’s doctrine) “for having made compromises with the old religion and not having carried reform far enough”.

This raises another important issue, although Luther is considered to be the first person to break away from the traditions of the Roman Church, it has been shown that this is not true, as in Bohemia this had already been achieved and therefore the idea that Luther was an innovator because he brought about new thinking to religious ideas- by suggesting that it was possible to follow God in a way that was different to the Roman Church- is inaccurate because it had already been seen to exist and in addition it was considered to be a viable option by those in Bohemia. However, this idea is subject to the view that although Luther himself never actively sought a split, it occurred as a result of his innovation in the first place, and therefore it is inconsequential to argue that he was not an innovator because there was already an established independent church within Europe (as Luther’s innovation brought about the first independent confession within the Holy Roman Empire). Image above: shows the Holy Roman Empire

Also, although innovative in some areas, Luther was still subjected to the traditional views on certain topics. For example, his position regarding the Jews remained like those views held by people within the Catholic Church. It is this respect which to some represents the least innovative area of Luther’s teaching because he saw the Jews as “stiff-necked” for rejecting the message of Jesus Christ. This was common for people within Catholic Europe, as in times of economic troubles the Jews, as they were easy scapegoats, were often blamed because, by rejecting Jesus, they became outsiders. This is seen to be the case before Luther became a prominent figure as, in 1492, the Jews were expelled from Spain which gives further weight to the idea that it was commonplace within the Catholic countries of Europe. Moreover, Luther’s opinion on this issue is highlighted once again in his writings, when he called the Jews “disgusting vermin” and recommended that they be expelled from the Empire” once again refuting the idea of innovation because it can be seen that Luther was still tied to the prehistoric ideas of the Roman Catholic Church and its predispositions. This once again suggests Luther’s unwillingness to break with the Church because there is evidence which shows that, had Luther been able to foresee the effects of his actions, he “would have taken due precaution... to make them more easily understood” once again limiting extent of his desire for innovation and change within the Roman Church.

In conclusion, whilst many see Luther as an innovator, it cannot be overlooked that he “remained a child of his time” in the fact that he remained committed to his belief in God. It is within this restriction that the notion of Luther as an innovator must be considered; therefore, he can be seen as an innovator by the standards of the period because he brought about a change in the everyday thinking of many people. However, his value as an innovator in modern times can be questioned more because, although he changed the religious thinking of the day, he never questioned the idea that God exists, and therefore many people today would argue that he was not innovative in the strongest sense of the word because he merely sought to reform the existing ideas, not radically change them into something completely different, for example a system based on science rather than belief in God.

Moreover, his position within the reformation can be seen by the fact that “his writings formed such significant propaganda” because if he was not seen as an innovator, the people involved with the reformation would not have pointed to his works for justification. In addition, the Roman Church would not have excommunicated him had it not been for the innovative nature of his works. Furthermore, the techniques that were used to distribute the ideas that had come from Luther can also seem to be innovative because Luther used the newly invented printing press to such an extent that some have argued that the printed book was “absolutely paramount in creating public knowledge of reform”.

Finally, Luther’s desire to see reform within the Catholic Church can be interpreted in two ways, which will ultimately lead to different opinions of the extent of his role as an innovator. The first of these is the fact that he was not an innovator because he was unwilling to break from the established Church and only parted ways when it became clear that there was no chance of the reform he wanted. This idea is in direct contrast with the argument that Luther was an innovator for the sole fact that he pushed for change. This is because the definition of an innovator is not someone who brings about change deliberately, but someone who brings about a change in thinking through their actions, whether these are accidental or purposeful.

Therefore, the weight of evidence and the fact that the result of Luther’s actions brought about a change in perspective for many people within the Holy Roman Empire suggests that he was in fact an innovator, although not to the extent of some of the other reformers, notably Zwingli and Calvin, with whom Luther argued with over the status of Sacraments, leading to him being considered by some in the nineteenth century as a “great conservative religious teacher”24 as he restrained from the complete innovativeness of the other reformers.