95 Theses
The "95 Theses" were a set of propositions written by Martin Luther in 1517, challenging the Catholic Church's practices, particularly the sale of indulgences. Luther's act of nailing the theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg is considered a key event in the Protestant Reformation. The document sparked widespread debate and ultimately led to a schism within Christianity.
7 Key excerpts on "95 Theses"
eBook - ePubBeyond the Ninety-Five Theses
Martin Luther's Life, Thought, and Lasting Legacy
- Stephen J. Nichols(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- P Publishing(Publisher)
...By confronting the medieval Roman Catholic Church, he was challenging one of the largest political and ecclesiastical machines the world has ever seen. His action on that last day in October set the stage for a century of upheaval in Germany and across Europe. In fact, repercussions of Luther’s actions still ring out today. All who call themselves Protestants trace their roots to this protest in the Ninety-Five Theses. Martin Luther intended that these arguments, written in Latin, be directed toward church scholars for debate. He prefaced his arguments with a request that “those who cannot be present to debate orally with us will do so by letter.” That debate never materialized. The arguments, entitled Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences and known popularly as the Ninety-Five Theses, were translated into German, printed (the printing press had been developed relatively recently), and rapidly circulated throughout the cities and villages of Germany. This was only the beginning: by posting the Ninety-Five Theses, the young Augustinian monk set in motion one of the most significant events of western history, the Protestant Reformation. The Ninety-Five Theses is a text that everyone knows of, most refer to, but few actually read. Such a crucial text, though, deserves to be read widely. Today’s readers might be surprised that the arguments lack the crystallized expression of the later Reformation doctrines, such as justification by faith alone. Also, Luther assumes his readers are aware of medieval theology, as well as events of the first two decades of the sixteenth century. Consequently, this edition offers explanatory notes to help readers navigate the text. To set the Ninety-Five Theses in its historical context, we begin with a brief look at the life of Martin Luther and the events in and around 1517. 13.1 Wittenberg on the Elbe River (1546)...
eBook - ePubMartin Luther
Catholic Dissident
- Peter Stanford(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Hodder Faith(Publisher)
...In the Ninety-Five Theses, by contrast, he was able to let off steam, on the grounds that debating points, to make any exchange lively, had to be put in a provocative style. This was no sleight of hand to allow himself to express in the Ninety-Five Theses the dissent he really wanted to include in his letter to Albrecht. Luther genuinely did appear to hope that such a face-to-face disputation might be possible, with the archbishop’s blessing. Nailing it The familiar image, explored countless times over 500 years by artists, is of Martin Luther posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31 October, the eve of the day when the faithful would stream in and purchase indulgences while standing in the presence of a display of relics. If it is an act that sounds eccentric now, it was a routine practice at the time. Those who wished to announce their disquiet about anything happening inside their church, or more generally in Church matters, could do so by fixing a notice on the door. One obvious parallel is with the posting of the ‘Twelve Conclusions’ on the doors of Westminster Abbey and Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London in 1395 by the Lollards, religious reformers who shared many of the same concerns Luther was soon to air about the power, authority and corruption of the papacy. Nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg: this nineteenth century illustration captures the story of Luther’s famous act of defiance, but there is no reference to any such public gesture of rebellion in any of Luther’s extensive writings and speeches. In the Lutherhaus, the museum based in Luther’s home in Wittenberg, there are plenty of illustrations of him taking his stand at the door of the Schlosskirche. An early seventeenth-century depiction places him there, quill pen in hand, in the midst of writing his theses, as if using the door as his desk...
- Martin Luther, Henry Wace(Authors)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing(Publisher)
...Martin Luther NINETY-FIVE THESES or, disputation on the power of indulgences Illustrated Luther’s 95 Theses (or Dr. Martin Luther's Debate to Clarify the Value of Indulgences) was a kind of manifesto that criticized Catholic theology. In his Theses, Luther argued that the prevailing religious doctrine of the day destroyed faith. The hammering of this 1517 document to the door of the Wittenberg church marks the start of the Reformation and the history of Protestantism. Due to the conflicts surrounding the ideas presented in his Theses, a wave of religious wars broke out in Western Europe. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY LETTER. DISPUTATION OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER CONCERNING PENITENCE AND INDULGENCES. PROTESTATION. Translated by Henry Wace...
eBook - ePubChristian History in Seven Sentences
A Small Introduction to a Vast Topic
- Jennifer Woodruff Tait(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- IVP Academic(Publisher)
...- five - MARTIN LUTHER’S NINETY-FIVE THESES (1517) “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” W ith this sentence, a young Augustinian monk began proposing a set of theses for academic debate by his ecclesiastical superiors. He was worried about the abuse of money by leaders in the church. Especially, he wanted to protest the recent sales campaign of Johannes Tetzel, a Dominican friar who was raising money for the Fugger bank and the local archbishop, Albert of Brandenburg, by selling indulgences—money that would ultimately make its way back to Pope Leo X for the building of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Surely, if the people in charge knew, he thought, they would do something. They did something—but it was not exactly the something that the thirty-three-year-old Luther wanted. Luther was not the first to call for reform in the way the medieval Western church was preaching, teaching, and living out the gospel. Cries for such reform had echoed down previous centuries, as we’ve read, and many in the early sixteenth century already wanted change. In Basel, humanist author Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) had just published a controversial Greek New Testament; in Glarus, priest Huldrych Zwingli (1484–1531) was reading it. But for better or worse, Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, meant for an academic debating hall, were what set off the thunderstorm that reshaped Western Christianity. 1 W HERE W E A LL S TARTED? Some years ago, when I was in graduate school at Duke University, I was going over the course schedule with my mother on the phone and happened to mention that Duke offered a class on Luther. “Oh, you should take that one,” she said...
eBook - ePub- Michael A. Mullett(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Some, indeed, seem almost flippant – for instance a discussion (Thesis 29) as to whether the souls in purgatory actually ‘wish to be redeemed’. At the same time, minute consideration of the treasury of merit (56–62) and of speculations over such matters as whether the power of the pope suffices, by itself, for the remission of penalties (6) can seem legalistic. At various points, Luther’s attempt to make himself the pope’s spokesman against abuses for which the papacy was directly responsible – ‘If the Pope knew the exactions of the preachers of Indulgences, he would rather have the basilica of St Peter reduced to ashes than built with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep’ (50) – can read unconvincingly. There is also considerable theological conservatism in the Theses, including an unquestioning acceptance of the doctrine of purgatory. Even so, the 95 Theses caused a sensation throughout Germany when they were published. In November Luther sent copies of them to friends, and these seem to have been the origin of the printed versions that appeared in major cities before the close of the year. In Nuremberg a further breakthrough was made in turning the Theses into a public manifesto, when their original Latin text was converted into a printed German version. The Nuremberg-born artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) typified an enthusiastic response among large numbers of his fellow Germans and sent Luther a set of woodcuts as a present in gratitude for the Theses. How, though, do we really explain the positive popular response to the 95 Theses? The answer is that the Theses responded to the deep religious anxieties of many about sin and guilt, showing that forgiveness came about through genuine and individual repentance and the response that this would evoke from a merciful God when contrasted with the illusory security of indulgences...
eBook - ePubOur Ninety-Five Theses
500 Years after the Reformation
- Alberto L. García, Justo L. González(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Bestsellers Media(Publisher)
...C HAPTER 15 A N E XPLANATION OF O UR 95 T HESES J USTO L. G ONZÁLEZ A YEAR AFTER HE POSTED HIS 95 Theses, Luther published an Explanation of the 95 Theses, which was some twenty times as long as the original theses. He felt compelled to do this because his original theses were not intended to be a full explanation of his positions, but rather a list of points that Luther sought to debate with other scholars and theologians. They were literally “theses,” and they did not intend to be teachings, but rather suggestions, points to be discussed. Naturally, since Luther was right in much of what he said, these theses soon became a prime expression of some of the points of Protestant theology. Were we to follow Luther’s example as he explained his 95 Theses, multiplying the space employed by twenty, much more space than this entire book would be required. Still, it will not do simply to state our 95 Theses with no further explanation. However briefly, we must seek to make them clearer and more coherent. This is the purpose of the present chapter. It is important to remember that these theses, like Luther’s, make no claim to express the totality of our faith, or even to be absolute statements of fact. Rather, they are points for reflection and discussion. This means that in many cases they must be nuanced, details must be clarified, forgotten points must be mentioned, different views must be acknowledged, and so forth. Rather than diminishing the value of our theses, this will enhance it, for it will help us in the unavoidable task of every Christian community, as well as of every believer, of reflecting on our faith and questioning the ways in which we live and practice it. Our purpose here, then, is to simply offer a measure of coherence and order to our theses, so that future discussion may be more fruitful. Quite clearly, there is no single order in which these theses should be presented. As we shall see, some issues or themes appear repeatedly in different contexts...
eBook - ePubThe Reformation
What you need to know and why
- Michael Reeves, John Stott(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Monarch Books(Publisher)
...Martin Luther’s 95 Theses Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter. In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance. 2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance, i.e. confession and satisfaction, which is administered by the priests. 3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers mortifications of the flesh. 4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven. 5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his own authority or by that of the canons. 6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God’s remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases reserved to his judgment...
