A current rover in Europe, as this writer was last week, would notice that 2017, five years from now, is the 500th Year of the Reformation. It seems, therefore, that lots of intellectual activities are planned, or already under way.
Reformation is of course connected with the name of Martin Luther. This is not the place to discuss him, nor do I have the capacity to. However, it is apparent that these 500 are based on the famous 95 Indulgence Theses that Luther put up against the papal behaviour in 1517.
The action led to the excommunication by the Pope, and his being summoned before the Imperial Diet at Worms four years later.
We saw at Worms, in Southwestern Germany, Luther's statue with the famous 'Hier Stehe Ich, Ich Kann Nicht Anders, Gott Helfe Mir! Amen!'(Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen), inscribed. He was supposed to have said them before the Diet but they are actually a legend.
He also translated both the Testaments into plain German, and got them published in one volume at Wittenberg, the central place of his activities, in 1534. By so doing, he showed his idea that there should not be an intermediary between the God and man.
May I add two more things. One is that, when the German Peasants' War broke out under his former colleague Thomas Muentzer, he advised non-violence, but when it was ignored, supported the repression by the princes and landlords, although he originally held them responsible. This reliance on the landed forces made some of his followers part with him.
Second, we not only saw at both the Luther House and the Bach House at Eisenach, in Central Germany, that Bach laboured very hard to edit Luther's works, but also got a feeling that some elements of the anti-Semitic prejudices traditional in Christianity had been retained in Luther's Reformation and through him in Protestantism. I sincerely hope that this point will be discussed in the coming five years.
This much is a continuation of the previous blog. My own interest, however, is if and when Reformation took place in the Asiatic religions. Can't we think Mahatma Gandhi as one such Reformer as far as India and Hinduism are concerned? I am separating anti-Semitism in this case.
Reformation is of course connected with the name of Martin Luther. This is not the place to discuss him, nor do I have the capacity to. However, it is apparent that these 500 are based on the famous 95 Indulgence Theses that Luther put up against the papal behaviour in 1517.
The action led to the excommunication by the Pope, and his being summoned before the Imperial Diet at Worms four years later.
We saw at Worms, in Southwestern Germany, Luther's statue with the famous 'Hier Stehe Ich, Ich Kann Nicht Anders, Gott Helfe Mir! Amen!'(Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me, Amen), inscribed. He was supposed to have said them before the Diet but they are actually a legend.
He also translated both the Testaments into plain German, and got them published in one volume at Wittenberg, the central place of his activities, in 1534. By so doing, he showed his idea that there should not be an intermediary between the God and man.
May I add two more things. One is that, when the German Peasants' War broke out under his former colleague Thomas Muentzer, he advised non-violence, but when it was ignored, supported the repression by the princes and landlords, although he originally held them responsible. This reliance on the landed forces made some of his followers part with him.
Second, we not only saw at both the Luther House and the Bach House at Eisenach, in Central Germany, that Bach laboured very hard to edit Luther's works, but also got a feeling that some elements of the anti-Semitic prejudices traditional in Christianity had been retained in Luther's Reformation and through him in Protestantism. I sincerely hope that this point will be discussed in the coming five years.
This much is a continuation of the previous blog. My own interest, however, is if and when Reformation took place in the Asiatic religions. Can't we think Mahatma Gandhi as one such Reformer as far as India and Hinduism are concerned? I am separating anti-Semitism in this case.
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