In declaring whose lives matter, Martin Luther failed his own idolatry test

Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther rebelled against a religious system that in his view forced people to worry constantly about their worth before God. In an age when sudden death was common and few people questioned the reality of an afterlife, Christians were told that eternal damnation awaited them unless they confessed to the proper authorities—ordained clergy—so they could be absolved of any mortal sin before their death. Those who sought absolution were admonished to perform works of satisfaction to reduce their anticipated time in purgatory. The purchase of indulgences counted as one such work. This system was backed by compelling theology and embodied in concrete hierarchical institutions with authority structures. The clergy claimed the authority, designated by God, to determine the ultimate worth of lives.

Luther rebelled against this system because he felt crushed by it; he knew that he could not be worthy before God. Although he belonged to the system’s elite—the spiritual class of monks, mendicants, and clergy that claimed particular merit before God and authority over other human beings—his anxiety about his eternal destiny propelled him to be a champion for others. He discovered and proclaimed the gospel that eternal salvation does not require our own worthiness, only trust that Christ is “our worth.”

One may disagree with Luther’s theology or his assessment of pre-Reformation Christianity. Scholars recognize that there were diverse medieval traditions and diverse experiences of the 16th-century ecclesial system. But for now, I want to think about the present through Luther’s theological assessment of his age, and vice versa.