95 Theses

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95 Theses

Whose perspective does it reflect?

Throughout the reformation we see that the north German, Scandinavian, and British nations were the ones to embrace the ideas put forth by Luther. This shows us something about who's perspectives were reflected in the 95 Theses, those of the people more distant from Rome and the church, who also were more "liberal" in their ways, the Holy Roman Empire being a collection of states which could have done more independently, Britain having had a proto-parliament, and Scandinavia so sparsely populated.

Perspectives being left out/challenged?

It is pretty clear that the 95 Theses are meant to challenge the perspectives of the church in Rome, and to provide another way to look at Christianity for the people of Europe. Naturally, seeing as Luther hoped to challenge and change the church's perspective, it is not included in the theses, and is of course being challenged.

What does it provide answers to?

From this source we can gather that the Church was not very well liked among Europeans, at least in Germany. The fact that Luther would do this at all, being a monk in the Catholic church himself, shows how corrupted the church was, or was at least perceived to be, at the time.

What's being left out?

Not much is said in regards to the secular powers of the church, such as the political and military powers excersized by the Pope. This doesn't provide any concrete evidence towards any further conclusions about the work, but it does show that Luther was much more concerned about the religious doings by the church and did not care enough about its secular goings on to comment on those.

What are the big ideas?

Essentially Luther argued that the Pope and the powerful members of the Catholic church had taken too much power on their own, and had forgotten that their job is to protect Gods kingdom and people. He points to things like sacraments of penance being wrongful, in that only God can forgive sin, and that confession to and forgiveness from the church is unnecessary.

How does the author communicate?

The author chose to communicate his ideas and beliefs in the form of a list of arguments regarding the Catholic church and what he felt was wrong with it. As the theses go on they build upon each other to create a stronger, larger point.

Who wrote it? Why?

The 95 Theses was written by Martin Luther, a German monk who taught theology. He wrote his theses in order to call out what was wrong with the church at the time, in order to facilitate reform within the church.

What does it look like?

The 95 theses, in its original form, was a piece of parchment paper nailed to the door of a church in Saxony. The look of the original paper and how things are written tell me that the article was written sometime around the 1500s or late 1400s, though we know it was written in 1517.

Significance

Revelations about the values of the past

The 95 Theses show, through their solely theological arguments, the value of religion in Europe at this time, and that when the church became corrupt, many Christians were upset enough to leave and begin their own churches. The document can also show us how corrupted the Catholic church had really become, not just in the context that one of their own monks would do something like this, but through the theses regarding indulgences, these theses show that the church had essentially been selling passes to Heaven.

Result in change?

We can conclude rather easily that the 95 Theses resulted in a great amount of change, bringing in the reformation of the catholic church, the start of various new sects of Christianity under the umbrella term of Protestantism, eventually this would cause the counter-reformation and the Thirty Years War. The world would be profoundly different if not for Martin Luthers 95 Theses.