Wikipedia assignment #3

Article length: 8586 words

Search Term: Martin Luther; Article Title: Martin Luther

Disambiguation Link: There is Martin Luther references as diplomat, musician, 1953 film, and resources, also linked is Martin Luther King

Discussion Link:  Under the discussion link for Martin Luther there are suggestions of what people would like to see included within the wiki article.  There is discussion about the legitimacy of certain issues, such as historical findings, figures etc.

History of Page: there have been 567 revisions, the last revision was on 22 Novermber 2008, the first revision was on 3 December 2001.

External Links: 11

References: 127

Further Readings: 18

This article highlights the life of Martin Luther the founder for the Lutheran church.  Martin Luther was a noted christian theologies who translated the bible for common people to read.  He shook the foundation of the modern church of his day by allowing those who typically did not have the opportunity to read the Bible the ability to read this profound book.

Schleitheim Confession

It is interesting how many separations there have been since the early formation of the church.  We have read a little bit about the prominence of the Catholic church, but now as the Calvinists, and the lutherans emerge there are more divisions rising amongst the church.  As differing views on the same text begin to rise, the words are not just simple words, but something to live and die for.  Because of the importance of the message to the nations of Europe, and the affiliation of their leadership to a certain religious affinity there is a lot of hostility towards groups who do not agree upon particular issues.  In the Anabaptist article they go into depth on certain critical issues to the church and their interpretation of the scripture.  One example being the practice of infant baptism.  As these questions become more hotly debated in this time, issues such as these begin to create a wedge between various sects of the church as we see within the 30 year war this type of conflict can easily get mixed with a political power, their quest for dominance, and their views on the Bible.

A Reforming Belief

Through the reformation it was interesting to see how many variables existed within debatable texts of Bible scripture.  It seems to me that when something was unclear people would simply insert their own opinions including that of the Pope.  This of course was quite dangerous due to the legitimacy of the Pope and how many people his views effected.  Even though there were quite a few disagreements there still was consistency in the text itself.  The Bible can be vague on certain pieces of scripture, however, that was most likely the intent.  For example when it is said render to Caesar that which is Caesars and to the Lord that which is the Lords.  This was referring to the question of taxes, and the validity of taxes.  Jesus did not state on all issues what is Caesars (government) and on all issues what is the Lord's so there is some variance in opinion.  One of the key points I derived from this section was the importance of the reformation and how crucial it has been even in our day that each person is able to read the Bible for themselves.  There is not an overruling power dominating the way scripture must be read, after all if that was only left up to the Pope some of the truth of the text would not arise.  The value and beauty of the Bible from a literacy stand point is how problems of text inevitably arise, but by talking about it the text comes to life just as much as it did to the first church.