Calvin is considered by some the one who codified the Reformation in the form that it finally took and is considered by the same to be the truly premier theologian of the era. So, who is Calvin, and what should we think of him as Lutherans? What did Luther think of him?
In the year 1529, Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli came face to face in the city of Marburg, Germany for a discussion on political unity among protestants.
There are few men of the 15th and 16th centuries that deserve our attention more than Erasmus Desiderius of Rotterdam. He represents the pinnacle of Christian humanism, an intellectual movement that revitalized classical and biblical scholarship north of the Alps.
It’s probably not what you think. In his devotional writings on the Magnificat, Luther carefully outlines how we should and should not honor this “Most Blessed Virgin Mother.”
According to this schema Luther saw all of human life ordered across three spheres of structured relationships: the politia, the oeconomia, and the ecclesia.
What benefits do we gain from Jesus’ ascension? Lutheran Reformers in their sermons point us to the scriptural answers to these questions. They emphasize Christ’s victory over sin and his continual presence with his church in the world.
Rather than leaving Adam and Eve in the depravity of their alienation and hostility, God promised One Who would come and crush the serpent’s head. Jesus is the promised Seed of the Woman Who would reconcile a world of sinners back to God.
In the midst of a world whose consideration of Christ’s death is perhaps not so different than our own, Luther published a Good Friday sermon: “A Sermon on how to Contemplate Christ’s Holy Sufferings.” This sermon appeared in pamphlet form in 1519...
In this sermon, Luther determined to set the record straight concerning man’s contemplation of Christ’s sufferings.
In the second article of the Augsburg Confession, Lutherans confess, “It is also taught among us that since the fall of Adam all men who are born according to the course of nature are conceived and born in sin...
If you want to start an argument among Lutherans, just bring up the topic of worship and the liturgy. What was Luther’s preference? Whose side was he on?
Luther’s emphasis on heeding the call to love and patience is insistent in these sermons. It even impacts that essential distinction between the “musts” and the “free.” Luther can see that even in the things which are “musts” and are matters of necessity, such as believing in Christ, love nevertheless never uses force or undue constraint.
The Gospel reading for Invocavit is Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. While Luther never explicitly refers to the text, he warns his hearers of succumbing to the devil’s temptations when they neglect the Word of God.
On Invocavit Sunday (the First Sunday in Lent), 1522, Martin Luther began a series of eight short sermons in which he taught the people of Wittenberg how the reformation of the Church should be carried out.
A key teaching of the Reformation is Luther’s understanding of the three estates established and instituted by God: the church, the home, and the state.