Why Did Martin Luther Start The Protestant Reformation.

Why did Martin Luther start the Protestant Reformation? After five centuries, it is easy to reduce the Protestant Reformation to a dispute over corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. But was it dissension over corruption or was it more complex than that? While corruption existed in the Church during the Renaissance, the Reformation was as much about politics, theology, and individualism, as it was about rooting out corruption. When looking at the religious values that guide human choices, why did Martin Luther break away from the Catholic Church? It would seem that patience and more open communication by both sides could have prevented the initial break between Martin Luther and the Catholic Church. This would have spared the†¦show more content†¦Luther’s study of St. Paul, through the lens of St. Augustine, changed how he felt. Luther came to understand that the righteousness of God of which Paul wrote in Romans 1:17, referred to the righteousness by which the sinner is graciously justified by faith, not the standard of righteousness by which God would judge sinners struggling to attain justification by their own efforts. This understanding transformed the troubled monk, who now found peace with God through faith. He saw his discovery or recovery of the ancient Pauline teaching as a radical departure from the views of the medieval doctors of the Catholic Church. And yet this was not so. Unbeknownst to Luther, the leading medieval commentators held the same view of the righteousness of God. Luther also came to understand faith as God’s merciful gift by which we receive the further gift of justification, in contrast to all human efforts to merit or earn God’s favor. As a way of insisting that human beings contribute nothing of their own to justification, Luther insisted that man is justified by faith alone. Luther’s discovery was more than a personal breakthrough. He was by now a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, where he preached this understanding of the righteousness of God to students. Yet not until the question of the sale of indulgences arose in Luther’s diocese did the issue acquire legs, as the journalists say. Luther’s subsequent break with theShow MoreRelatedMartin Luther And The Protestant Reformation1029 Words   |  5 Pages The Protestant Reformation was a reform movement in the 16th century that was against the Roman Catholic and its way of controlling things. Martin Luther, a reformer along with John Calvin and Henchurches VII. Luther may have had full faith in God, but he also had fear in him and his powers. They questioned the authority of the church and argued over political and religious powers in the hands of the bible. Martin Luther was the starter of it all. Martin Luther was a German monk who decided to startRead MoreMakayla Horton. Dr. Skaggs. 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