Joe Heschmeyer tackles the complex legacy of Martin Luther. Was he truly evil, as some Catholics were taught? Or is the truth more nuanced? Joe delves into Luther’s writings, revealing a man passionate about Christ but also struggling with pride and arrogance.
Transcript:
My parents were raised prior to Vatican II, and they were told in school that Martin Luther was one of the most evil human beings who ever walked the earth.
The good old days.
And I know that the pope is a big fan of Mark Luther, and the Vatican has issued stamps for Martin Luther. I mean, I hate to use the cliché about the truth of somewhere in the middle, but is all this appropriate? I mean, for someone who destroyed the unity of Christianity?
Ah, great question. Thank you.
That’s a very good question. I would say I do think it is an exaggeration to call him one of the most evil men to ever exist. I think it’s fair to say both, that he seemed to have a clear interest in following Christ and the teachings of Christ, and a clear problem with pride, with arrogance. I don’t even think one needs to be Catholic to recognize that. I think a Protestant reading the writings of Martin Luther is confronted both with a man who seems like he’s trying to follow Jesus, and a man who is very prickly about anyone disagreeing with him, and who says some very nasty things about those with whom he disagrees on basically anything, and is often quite uncharitable.
And I would even suggest that as he goes on, by all evidence, he gets worse and worse. He begins pretty supportive of the German peasants who are feeling oppressed. And then when they revolt, citing Luther as an authority, he argues that they should all be killed. I mean, he advocates everyone to kill them openly or secretly. He originally had a pretty tolerant view of the Jews, suggesting that the reason they hadn’t converted to Christianity is because of the scandals in the Catholic Church. When they don’t convert to Lutheranism, he suggests that their rabbis should be killed, their synagogues burnt down, and the Talmud destroyed. He basically wants to outlaw Judaism entirely, and also refuse them safe passage on the highway and everything else. So when you look at the career of Luther, his kind of theological trajectory, we don’t find evidence of someone growing in holiness. We find someone who seems to have a genuine and passionate desire to serve God, and then you can kind of see it get corrupted over time as he becomes more kind of embittered and disillusioned maybe with Christianity in general and the church in particular. I don’t know. I mean, different people are going to read Luther differently. He’s a little enigmatic at times, but that’s my own two cents in terms of how I read him.
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