Essay: Martin Luther King’s Views on Theology

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This essay discusses views of Martin Luther King on theology. Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German theologian and a major leader of the Protestant Reformation. He is occasionally called the father of Protestantism, and one of the major branches of “main-line” Protestantism — Lutheranism.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German theologian and a major leader of the Protestant Reformation. He is occasionally called the father of Protestantism, and one of the major branches of “main-line” Protestantism — Lutheranism — is named after him. His studies had evidently led him to the conclusion that Christ was the sole mediator between God and man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are consequence by God’s grace alone (sola gratia) and are received by faith alone (sola fide) on the part of man. This point of view apparently turned him against scholastic theology, which highlighted man’s role in his own salvation, and against many church practices that emphasized justification by good works. In his Small Catechism of 1529, Luther clearly denies grace alone and faith alone in favor of adding baptism and the sacraments.

The doctrine of Indulgences, with its worldly view of sin and sorrow, became the specific focus of Luther’s indignation. The sale by the church of indulgences — the remission of sequential punishments for sins committed and confessed to a priest through the payment of money — brought in much returns. He said in his argument with Erasmus:

The essence of the matter in dispute, and have not wearied me with irrelevancies about the papacy, purgatory, indulgences, and such like trifles (for trifles they are rather than basic issues), with which almost everyone hitherto has gone hunting for me without success” (Rupp and Watson, 1969)

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