Christian History Magazine—Issue 39: Martin Luther: The Later Years
Overview
Not too much is widely known of Luther’s life after he sparked the Protestant Reformation in 1517 and attended the Diet of Worms in 1521. And yet his later years merit as much attention as his youth. Luther left several lasting legacies on the Church: congregational singing, hymn-writing, the empowerment of women and the sacrament of marriage are a few among many. Join Christian History & Biography in looking at the achievements, influences and struggles of an old man for the sake of a young Church.
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Top Highlights
“In 1523, Luther accused Catholics of being unfair to Jews and treating them ‘as if they were dogs,’ thus making it difficult for Jews to convert. ‘I would request and advise that one deal gently with them [the Jews],’ he wrote. ‘… If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.’” (source)
“Fifteen years later, however, rumors of Jewish efforts to convert Christians upset him, and he wrote a treatise venting his frustration. In it, Luther concluded that converting Jews had become hopeless.” (source)
“Luther now proposed seven measures of ‘sharp mercy’ that German princes could take against Jews: (1) burn their schools and synagogues; (2) transfer Jews to community settlements; (3) confiscate all Jewish literature, which was blasphemous; (4) prohibit rabbis to teach, on pain of death; (5) deny Jews safe-conduct, so as to prevent the spread of Judaism; (6) appropriate their wealth and use it to support converts and to prevent the lewd practice of usury; (7) assign Jews to manual labor as a form of penance.” (source)
“God had deserted the Jews, leaving them to wander homeless without a land or temple of their own. And if this was God’s attitude, then one might with good conscience ignore the Jews. Why would God desert his own people if he did not despair of them? He had rejected them and turned his attention to the ‘new Israel,’ the Christian church. Luther thus accepted the existing notion that the promise given to Jews was now transferred to Christians.” (source)
- Title: Christian History Magazine—Issue 39: Martin Luther: The Later Years
- Author: Christian History Institute
- Series: Christian History Magazine
- Publisher: Christianity Today
- Print Publication Date: 1993
- Logos Release Date: 2009
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546
- Resource ID: LLS:12.30.39
- Resource Type: Magazine
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-10-05T16:39:22Z