How do Protestants feel about Martin Luther?

[FireDragon76]

The Law/Gospel distinction is Luther's greatest achievement, and one that is probably the least appreciated by non-Lutherans. Though I have seen a few Catholics and Orthodox (Fr. Aidan Kimel) use the Law-Gospel distinction.

As Luther goes on in years, he becomes more cantankerous, dogmatic, even fundamentalist. But the early Luther is quite good, still is relatively catholic and there is room for more ecumenical dialogue.

GV, the "priesthood of all believers" wasn't actually something Luther explicitly said. Just like he actually wasn't fond of "sola scriptura". It was something that Lutheran and Reformed scholastics came up with to use in debates against Roman Catholics. But it never meant what modern evangelicals mean by the term- individual autonomy in matters of religion.

Secularism was an outgrowth of religious conflict, then the Jesuits and Protestants resurrected skepticism to use in their "debates" and polemics. Eventually, skepticism took on a life of its own, esp. after philosophers like Hume got hold of it.

 

[Catherineanne]

They don't discuss the subject named because those subjects are purely "what denomination are you?" The subjects they do bear on are those perspectives held across Protestant denominations. Pedobaptism is far from a dogma held to across all Protestant confessions, but Sola Fide is 100%. So these are what actually have bearing here, since the question is whether or not Luther's theology of Sola Fide is the same as that of other Protestant conceptions of Sola Fide.

No, Sola Fide is not 100%. I had to check this one but I didn't think it was true; Anglicanism is rarely 100% anything, and on this point in particular many would have issues, and Anglo Catholics certainly would. And I suspect Methodists would also want something a little more than just faith.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_fide

 

[Catherineanne]

It seems Protestants these days tend to have more of a Calvinist bent than a Lutheran one. So what's the general consensus on Martin Luther?

Luther was a monk who married a nun. In the eyes of the church at the time (and possibly now; others may know more about that) this was regarded very clearly as incest.

Not really a role model, to say the least.

As for the polemic, that was a feature of the times. You should read some of the more angry writings of Thomas More; saintly they ain't.

 

[chevyontheriver]

The conflicts following the Reformation led most countries in Europe to grant religious freedom to their people. England is the most prominent example.

I don't think so. Jolly Olde England hunted down Catholics, burned Douay Bibles, and killed Catholic priests. It took a long time before the Catholic faith was even legal in England after the reformation. Lots of Catholic martyrs from England. My own ancestors were English Methodists and came to the New World for religious liberty.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Luther was a monk who married a nun. In the eyes of the church at the time (and possibly now; others may know more about that) this was regarded very clearly as incest.

Incest? That's a new one.

 

[Constantine the Sinner]

No, Sola Fide is not 100%. I had to check this one but I didn't think it was true; Anglicanism is rarely 100% anything, and on this point in particular many would have issues, and Anglo Catholics certainly would. And I suspect Methodists would also want something a little more than just faith.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_fide

Anglo Catholics don't consider themselves Protestants.

Sola Fide is one of the Thirty-Nine Articles (Article XI, to be precise).

 

[Constantine the Sinner]

Plenty of other examples that were not used in idol worship

There certainly is not plenty of surviving ancient Greek architecture.

What other religions should we level the temples of? All of them save Christianity? Or just the ones with statues? Because there's no statues anymore in the Parthenon.

 

[Constantine the Sinner]

Incest? That's a new one.

Something could be incest spiritually. Marrying your godparent, for instance, was considered incest.

 

[Cush]

Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.

Martin Luther

 

[Open Heart]

Luther had been suffering from ill health for years, including Ménière's disease, vertigo, fainting, tinnitus, anginaand a cataract in one eye.

I consider many mental health problems to be physical, as they respond to medication. Luther also suffered from Scrupulosity, a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Today we treat OCD with SSRIs.

 

[chevyontheriver]

Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.

Martin Luther

I don't know about Luther giving permission to sin, but I'll have that beer to spite the devil.

 

[chevyontheriver]

I consider many mental health problems to be physical, as they respond to medication. Luther also suffered from Scrupulosity, a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Today we treat OCD with SSRIs.

If he were treated for his mental health issues with proper SSRI therapy I wonder if he would ever have been famous. What would the world look like today?

 

[FireDragon76]

I consider many mental health problems to be physical, as they respond to medication. Luther also suffered from Scrupulosity, a form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Today we treat OCD with SSRIs.

I wouldn't say its simply due to OCD. I believe for Luther it was far more perverse than simple scruples. Luther was physically and emotionally abused as a child, as were many children back then. He basically constructed God in the image of his father, a lot of medieval religion did- God was a heavenly king or father modelled after an earthly one, it was just natural to think this way. The doctrine of the Trinity for the average priest or layman had become just a slogan of Church power. He was so steeped in these experiences even when he read the Church Fathers he can't lay it completely aside, even in his own theology there is a tension at times between the Good Cop/Bad Cop God. He was correct to point back to Christ as the heart of God, but he didn't always go full enough into this and explore it theologically, because he was so steeped in medieval Augustinianism which had become enthralled with the Dies Irae image of God, the pervasive sense of doom and the need to denigrate fleshly life.

I also think this explains later his mixed feelings about Mary. He connected the Mother with Mother Church in his mind and he started projecting onto Mary his subconscious resentments towards the Church. So he started preaching against the intercession of the saints in the late 1520's, even though earlier he did not do so (as late as 1522 he wrote a sermon on the Magnificat in fact that did just the opposite). I don't think its a coincidence Luther had a certain indifference to women. Most early Protestants did, and you still find it in some Protestant circles. Jung had written about this as a nominal Protestant, that it had removed the symbolic apprehension of ones subconscious mind by excluding symbolic mediation of reality.

So, Luther should be read carefully. His early years around the time of the 95 Theses he is still energetic and optimistic, but later in his life he becomes quite gloomy and his theological imagination starts to shrink. He may have also literally started having dementia.

The one absolutely positive thing I can say is that Luther was probably one of the few men during his lifetime that absolutely took God and sin seriously at a time when many did not. Sloth certainly wasn't one of his vices, at least not in his young years.

 

[Albion]

Re the OP...

How do I feel about the most important figure in the history of Christianity for the past 500 years? For many reasons, he's one of my great favorites and role models, even though I don't agree with all of his doctrinal conclusions.

 

[Constantine the Sinner]

Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.

Martin Luther

The Devil doesn't tell people not to drink, what sort of nonsense is this.

 

[Constantine the Sinner]

Re the OP...

How do I feel about the most important figure in the history of Christianity for the past 500 years? For many reasons, he's one of my great favorites and role models, even though I don't agree with all of his doctrinal conclusions.

I think he had some very righteous objections to the wickedness of Rome, but I also think Luther himself was a very wicked fellow.

 

[Albion]

The Devil doesn't tell people not to drink, what sort of nonsense is this.

That would be complicated to go into, but suffice it to say that it takes some familiarity with Luther's way of speaking and making points to appreciate what's to be taken at face value and what is meant colloquially. Although he was the greatest Bible scholar of his day, he was very much an approachable, down-to-Earth kind of personality.

 

[Albion]

I think he had some very righteous objections to the wickedness of Rome, but I also think Luther himself was a very wicked fellow.

He's so often maligned by Catholics who want to fight the Reformation all over again that he's not well known to a lot of people who nevertheless know the name. IOW, I understand where you're coming from.

 

[FireDragon76]

If he were treated for his mental health issues with proper SSRI therapy I wonder if he would ever have been famous. What would the world look like today?

Probably not. SSRI's have profound effects on the brain. In Luther's case, his ruminations gave him insights that other people could not grasp. Particularly the nature of thought-action fusion so common to obsessive rumination.

 

[pescador]

Whenever the devil harasses you, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: do not drink, answer him: I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.

Martin Luther

These are the words of an alcoholic. Are you sure that Martin Luther wrote this, considering that drunkenness is often spoken of as a sin in both testaments.