When people think about the Lutheran Reformation, they normally think of the radical rejection of pope and emperor, of a progressive break with theological tradition or of the exultation of the individual self, tangential to the rise of humanism.
But the Lutheran Reformation was not a radical reformation; it was a conservative reformation. It was a theological reforming of Augustinian thought extrapolated over a series of centuries.
Like any movement, however, there was one particular “shot heard ‘round the world:” the posting and mailing of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses.
One fateful evening, on July 2, 1505, as he was returning back to the university at Erfurt, a lightning bolt struck near him during a thunderstorm. Calling upon St. Anne, he vowed that he would go into a monastery if she would let him live. And so, on the 17th of that very month, Luther entered a cloister at Erfurt, where he would abide by the rule of St. Augustine.
In 1507, Luther was ordained a priest. The following year, he was made a part of the newly founded Wittenberg University. He received two bachelors (one in “Biblical Studies” and another in “Peter Lombard’s Sentences”) and a Doctorate in the Bible. It is not until 10 years from his ordination that Luther would begin what we later would call “The Reformation.”
On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted a list of 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, submitting them for academic debate. For good measure, he likewise sent them to his bishop, Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545). The gist of the theses is simple: They were a direct attack on the granting of indulgences.
What were indulgences? The Jubilee Indulgences were official papal assurances of the forgiveness of sins, given to all for a small contribution. Johann Tetzel (1465-1519), a Dominican Friar and the Grand Inquisitor of Poland, was made the Grand Commissioner of Indulgences for Germany in 1517 by Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg, the Bishop of Mainz. It was thought that all of the proceeds were going to Rome for the funding of St. Peter’s Basilica; however, half of the money was going to Cardinal Albert in order to make up for the hefty sum by which he secured his bishopric. Tetzel was not allowed to sell these indulgences in Saxony, yet he did, and Luther reacted with his aforementioned theses.
Any evaluation of these theses must be done in light of Luther’s distinctly Augustinian theology. These theses were first and foremost not a rediscovery of the Gospel. Luther was already a monk who had studied the Doctor Grace; simple indulgences were not going to change his understanding of the Augustinian articulation of justification.
Luther reacted the way he did not because he wanted everyone to realize that they didn’t have to work for their salvation; rather, he posted the theses because he realized that indulgences were cheating. Every Augustinian knew that we were saved by grace working internally through love. That is not something you can buy; rather, it is something God must pour into you and you must do. And so, to Luther, it seemed that Indulgences undermined Christianity itself, but not because he had discovered the Gospel.
Likewise, one must not think of the theses as an attempt to undermine the papacy at Rome or the Bishopric in Germany. Yes, some of Luther’s words toward the Pope were quite stern. Regardless, he still appealed to the Bishop of Mainz and Pope Leo X in the events which followed, suggesting that he did not see the event as a clean break. As a son of Augustine, schism with the One Holy Christian Apostolic Church would be the furthest thing from his mind; rather, he saw his theses as a critiquing of church practices.
And finally, Luther did not post the 95 Theses as a great act of humanism, the philosophy that declares men are the standard by which the universe must be measured. Though we saw that he was taught to be skeptical during his time at the University at Erfurt, he did not, in his critique of the indulgences, leave the authority of Scripture.
Like his counterparts, he believed in the Augustinian articulation of Original Sin and man’s need for God’s grace; therefore, any humanistic thought would be foreign from his theology, especially at this point in its development. So, then, we can put to rest the misconception that the 95 Theses were a great act dedicated to human achievement.
It is very easy to misunderstand Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses- almost as easy as misunderstanding the point of the Lutheran Reformation in general. We should not conflate the renaissance with the reformation. We should not label Martin Luther as a schismatic.
And above all else, we should not see the reformation as a break with the theological and ecclesial traditions that came before it. In its essence, the reformation was a purification and correction of the Augustinian theology, which deluded with Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism though it was, came to be the sedes doctrinae of the Western Church. Martin Luther revised Augustine's legacy, keeping the content that was biblical and throwing to the wind that which was merely philosophical speculations and abuses.
