Martin Luther's Impact on Christianity

Martin Luther was a 16th century monk, priest, teacher and reformer. He was born in 1483 in a town called Eisleben. Luther was a very important figure in the history of Christianity. Luther grew up in a time of renewal and new ideas throughout Europe. This gave rise to Luther’s ability to challenge the church. He made this significant impact in many areas including; Institutional impact, theological, individual, laity and liturgical impact. It is through these areas that Luther had made his greatest impacts on Christianity.

Possibly Luther’s greatest impact on Christianity was as one of the initiators of the protestant reformation, this was a direct consequence of his posting of the ’95 theses’ on the church door. This completely changed the structure of the church which became divided, instead of merely being two churches (east and west) the protestant reformation had been sparked, and with it the first churches to oppose the views held by the Catholic Church.
Martin Luther believed that the way in which the church was being run, from the pope as the highest power through to the priests and monks. He believed that the church was; corrupt in its use of power, it’s structure and the way it was governed. Luther accused the roman church of heresy that is; going against the traditional and orthodox views). This included their selling off of indulgences to the people. Martin Luther was also amongst one of the first to question the authority of the pope. He was quoted as saying “the pope may speak the truth, but it isn’t the truth because the pope speaks it.” He put it to the people that the pop’s authority was not absolute and unquestionable, and that it was still susceptible to being mislead and abused. This caused the people to consider the authority and judgement of the church, creating free thinking and allowed to laity to express opinions in regards to the church.
Luther was also a strong advocator for the rights of the laity and made accusations against the...