A Biography of Martin Luther

This man which happens to be Martin Luther as you can see at the top of the page, was called a Protestant hero, a freedom fighter, a wise and insightful church leader by his supporters. Well, some people also called him a (n) heretic, an apostate, a profane terrorist, and a necessary evil or unwitting catalyst. But Luther called himself a simple monk or a simple Christian, I may add, and that’s what kind of changed the course of Western history (it started as a shock to the people).

Martin Luther was born on November 10^th of the year 1483, in Eisleben, Germany, and he died on February 18^th of the year 1546. Before I go there, I would like to talk about his life or in other words, a biography about Martin Luther. Martin Luther was the son of Hans and Magarete (Lindemann) Luther. After he was born, their family moved from Eisleben to Mansfeld. After all, Luther wasn’t the only son of his parents. He had three other brothers. Two died during outbreaks of the plague, and the other by the name of James, lived to adulthood. Luther’s father was a successful minor and smelter, and I think his mother was a housewife or something.

Luther was not only a German monk, but he was also a priest, professor, theologian, and a church reformer. He taught things that were dealing with the Reformation and it influenced the doctrines and culture of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions they had, and also of the Western civilization. Martin Luther's life and work influenced the development of western culture in other ways as well. His translation of the Bible furthered the development of a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation. His translation significantly influenced the English King James Version of the Bible. Due to the recently developed printing press, his writings were widely read, influencing many subsequent Protestant Reformers and thinkers.

Luther enjoyed music and believed that it would help people worship and praise God. He encouraged Christians to sing at church, home, or at work (basically, everywhere they went). Luther's hymns, including his best-known "A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. He got married on June 13, 1525, to Katherine von Bora. He decided to get married in order to set an example for other Protestant families and to rear children to serve the Lord.

In 1517, Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the University’s chapel door. They set out a devastating critique of the church’s sale of indulgences and explained the fundamentals of justification by grace alone. In Rome, cardinals saw Luther’s theses as an attack on papal authority. In 1518 at a meeting of the Augustinian Order in Heidelberg, Luther posted his positions with even more precision. In the Heidelberg Disputation, we see the signs of a maturing in Luther’s thought and new clarity surrounding his theological perspective – the Theology of the Cross.

In January 1521, the pope excommunicated Luther. In March, he was summonsed by Emperor Charles V to Worms to defend himself. During the Diet of Worms, Luther refused to recant his position. Luther refused to recant and on May 8^th he was placed under Imperial Ban, and was outlawed.

From 1533 to his death in 1546 he served as the Dean of the theology faculty at Wittenberg. He died in Eisleben on February 18, 1546.