Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Major works

•          “Ninety-five Theses” (1517)

•          The Babylonian Captivity of the Church

•          Bondage of the Will

Importance

•          German monk became primary leader of the Protestant Reformation

•          Linked with Lutheran denomination

•          Promoted justification by faith alone

•          Promoted sola scriptura

•          Held to consubstantiation

•          Opposed indulgences

•          Questioned authority of the papacy (considered it antichrist)

•          Held to two marks of church—Word and sacraments (Baptism and Lord’s Supper)

•          Held to strong view of predestination

•          Rejected church tradition as being equal to scripture

•          Rejected allegorical exegesis (although inconsistent himself)

•          Promoted priesthood of believers

•          Viewed the state as the ‘left-hand of God.’

•          Asked to recant of his views at the Diet of Worms (1521)

•          Involved with specific apocalyptic expectations concerning the End

•          Considered the book of James a “strawy epistle.”