Sublime

Into this maelstrom stepped Martin Luther, a theology professor at Witten­berg. In 1517, his posting of 95 grievances against the Catholic Church was only a hint of how the status of the individual was changing. Luther’s most revolutionary act was his defiance at the Diet of Worms, where he elevated the solitary believer — armed only with the Bible

Under the pen of Luther, the principles of the movement became ever clearer: the ‘priesthood of all believers’, the complete dependency of the soul on God’s grace, unmerited election to salvation, the ‘bondage of the will’ of fallen humanity (either to the devil or to God), the ‘freedom of the Christian’, salvation by faith and not by works, and th

Under the pen of Luther, the principles of the movement became ever clearer: the ‘priesthood of all believers’, the complete dependency of the soul on God’s grace, unmerited election to salvation, the ‘bondage of the will’ of fallen humanity (either to the devil or to God), the ‘freedom of the Christian’, salvation by faith and not by works, and th

by affirming Augustine’s inwardness and the ability of each individual to read the Bible and stand before God’s justifying action themselves, Luther rejects that some people are spiritually dependent on what other people do. What the priest and pope do is not superior in kind to what farmers and housemaids do.