Luther did indeed reform on the basis that common Germans should have access to the scripture. I believe a reasonable case can be made that a thread of the philosophy of equality of all men before God is found, generally, in that line of reasoning. However, let's examine some of Luther's actual published works.
In 1543, Luther wrote to Christians a proscription of the Jews:
Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.
Lest this be seen as just a general slur on the man, he gets more specific about how the Christian must treat the Jew:
I brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who have Jews under your rule-- if my counsel does not please your, find better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, this dear mother, all hristians, all authority, and ourselves. Do not grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us...
There's a lot, but here are the specifics:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them....
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed....
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them....
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb....
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews....
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and put aside for safekeeping....
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as was imposed on the children of Adam...
All of the ellipses do not change the meaning, each admonition I quoted above is the specific action, and the following paragraph which I expurgated is just the justification for the action, all about devils, evil, etc.
Here is the paragon of Christian scholarship, specifically advocating the destruction of Jewish homes and places of worship, the killing of Rabbis, the taking of their money and livelihood, the denial of safe passage and putting them to hard labor.
Did his more famous scholarly list have a greater (and more good) influence? Perhaps, but this more obscure list comes from the same Christian scholarship and might easily have been the playbook from which German horrors sprung 400 years later. I should do the research and discover if Luther's writings show up in Nazi propaganda -- it certainly sounds suspiciously similar.
What are we to make of this? I think it's hard to say. I conceded early on that Luther's battles with the Catholic church on behalf of the common (Christian) German can be defended as a statement on equality, but it is much more the relative of the equality of Orwell's pig Napoleon "...but some animals are more equal than others.", than it is the relative of Thomas Jefferson's notion "...that all men are created equal..."
The translation of On Jews and their Lies taken courtesy of Fordham University.
5 comments:
Yep, Luther went nuts at the end of his life, died 1546, and wrote horrible things that many suggest fueled the Nazis. For other examples of terrifying failures from great men see Einstein refute quantum mechanics, "God does not play dice."
But, hating Jews has come from Christianity. And Luther was obviously not as ecumenical as I am.
Hating Jews is obviously contrary to the teachings of Jesus, but tribalism seems to spring from religious organizations too easily.
It is a dangerous outshoot of faithfulness, and is the most serious challenge to someone like me who defends the value of religion.
Here is my metaphor (which obviously contains the conclusion within it): science & technology brought us the atomic bomb, transfats, and global warming. Should we abandon them? Of course not, they are the only things that can deliver us from many of the problems that we face.
Matt: Jim, you wrote: Yep, Luther went nuts at the end of his life, died 1546, and wrote horrible things that many suggest fueled the Nazis.
I dispute this. In a letter written in 1514 (Letter to George Spalatin, Wittenberg) Luther wrote:
My heart is fuller of these thoughts than my tongue can tell. I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted.
He did not actively promote the killing of Rabbis until much later, but when Martin Luther accuses someone of blaspheming God, I think that's a pretty strong indicator the doesn't feel warmly toward them.
Early on he advocated that the Christian treat the Jews kindly, but only to point of converting them, not allowing them to live as they pleased. To steal a later phrase, better dead than Jewish.
Jim: There are two bad positions here. One is, we are better than the Jews; the Jews are wrong. The second is, we should go kill all the Jews.
The second is horrible and terrifying, but is not a part of the Christian message. Murdering Jews is not a Christian value, and just because a Christian said it doesn't make it so.
The first statement can be attributed to Christianity. And while Christianity, like any other movement in our world is evolving and moving away from that, it is a fact that this sentiment is a part of the predominant Christian message.
So, I separate them out because I need to address the first issue much more carefully. Luther's early comments represent mainstream thinking. They are easily derived from scripture and a part of the arc of the story that is Christianity. The later comments are not.
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