In Thomas More’s, Utopia, he discusses what he believes a society should look like. Many authors have responded to More in praise or disagreement. While they agree on some topics, there are several topics on which More and Luther have very different perspectives due to their differing beliefs and core values. Martin Luther would agree and disagree with More in regards to government and individual freedom, disagree with society and human nature, and disagree with religion.
Luther would agree and also disagree with More’s vision of individual freedom and government. In Utopia, there is no room for individual freedom, citizens have some freedom until they break a law, then they would become a slave. A slave in Utopia is treated differently than
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More thinks his ideal society is the best way to run people, while Luther states in The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms that there is not a “best” form of government. Luther is not as concerned with the authority of men and more concerned about the commandments of God. Luther and More’s views of church and state do agree. Both Luther and More believe that the church and the government should be separate. In Utopia there is church, but it is not involved with any governing authority. Luther says in The Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms right hand kingdom, the church, shouldn’t be involved in government. The Left hand kingdom, the government, are the ones to punish and to have …show more content…
The way people live together in this novel is what makes More’s Utopia so different from any other society. His Utopia is structured with reason; it is peaceful with minimal conflict. The people of Utopia are not greedy. They have no need or want for luxury or excess money. All citizens must learn how to farm and work 6 hours a day. They do have the opportunity to advance somewhat in the community: “When you’ve learned one trade properly, you can, if you like, get permission to learn another- and when you’re an expert in both, you can practice whichever you prefer, unless one is more essential to the public” (More 56). All citizens have housing with the ability to grow food and have equal amounts of everything. This creates contentedness among the society they live in community with one another, taking only what one needs. For the most part everyone is on equal playing ground. The reason behind this practice seems to ensure that they all have plentiful resources and to meet their needs. The major difference between More and Luther is their views on human nature. More thinks people are good and not greedy. He takes away everything that could possibly make them greedy or anything that makes up a unique individual. Luther believes human’s nature is inherently bad and that we are only good when we read scripture and obey God’s commandments. More’s society would ideally work for Luther’s beliefs because of his
Martin Luther and his followers seized the right to read and interpret the bible in a new way, that paid the way for Reformation. Martin Luther challenged the church. He criticized the churches ideas and practices. He sought no revolution, but he tried to persuade church leaders to make reforms. Luther believed that gods free gift of forgiveness did not depend on taking sacriments or performing good deeds.
(Martin Luther, Doc. 4) In document 5 even, it says how the peasants lutheran beliefs say everyone are brothers and sister and that the rich should share with the poor, and the extremist thought of this belief could spark a tremendous revolt such as this
Agyen, I enjoyed reading your discussion post and found your take on the Reformers to be informative and well thought out. I thought Calvin was the most committed to living a biblical life but do disagree that Luther was not committed to biblical Christianity. I feel that he was committed but in ways that weren’t as bold as Calvin. Luther seemed to have less hesitation on making his ideas become reality in his time. Our text states, “Luther is flamboyant, vivid, impulsive, immensely readable, frequently exaggerating his true position or contradicting what he said elsewhere in order to put over a point forcefully”
Martin Luther, in a stroke of genius, compares his actions and fight to the apostle Paul’s: Just as the eighth-century prophets left their little villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their hometowns; and just as the Apostle Paul left his little village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to practically every hamlet and city of the Greco-Roman world, I too am compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my particular hometown. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. (King 1)
This is to clarify to the people the exact knowingness of their religion. When he went around visiting various churches he began to notice that no matter where he went most everyone had been baptized and were receiving the body and blood of Christ, yet they didn’t even know the Our Father, the Ten Commandments, or the Creed. This was very hurtful to Luther. He knew that all of these people were taking their Christian liberty for granted, and he wanted to put an end to this. It was not the peoples fault per say, but they weren’t able to get help.
Luther believed that salvation was achieved by the grace of god and not by doing the work that the church demanded. The Reformation was so much more than a religious revolution even though it started out with a religious nature, it exceeded pass religion.
Luther indicates that the government had completely failed their duties to protect the rights of minority members of
This resulted in his beheading in the Tower of London. In addition, it saw him become a main opponent of the Protestant Reformation. More’s main issues with the Reformation fell under his concern for peace and unity in the Church. He felt that Luther did not have the authority to make the claims that he did against the English Crown (which Luther did), and also showed concern that the Reformation movement would end up bringing about a lot of violence for England (which it did). As part of this conflict, the two would occasionally trade letters to each other where they would call each other names such as “pig”, “dolt”, “liar”, “ape”, “drunkard”, and “lousy little friar”; in addition to writing theological responses to one another (More on behalf of the English Crown).
Martin Luther, a German professor and monk, made a large impact on society in the fifteen hundreds. His new ideas of Christianity changed the concept of how religion was viewed and practiced in the 16th century. Within his Ninety-five Theses, he questioned the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and brought to light the corruption surrounding the church while stating how Christianity should be practiced in different ways rather than what is being taught. It is important to understand his stances on religion to explain how different groups reacted to his ideas. While some parts of Europe accepted his ideologies into practice, others reject Luther for many different reasons.
Luther’s doctrine eliminated the inequality between the clergy and the laity and people of higher and lower classes and allowed for anyone to participate in religious practices regardless of their social and economic status. This resulted in a moving away from what had been a traditional social and political structure and a moving towardsmore modern ideas that allowed everyone an equal opportunity to participate in a variety of political issues. In hindsight we see that the disagreements that rose up between people and the church left behind several benefits as European society continued to move
Although distinct, both Machiavelli and Luther delve into the entrenched systems of government in which they live and
These beliefs compare to those of transcendentalists in that both value individualism. Transcendentalists encourage others to think for themselves, which will promote peace and harmony in a community. “People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right,” (Transcendentalism). Martin Luther didn’t conform to a society that said it was okay to segregate people based on race. Instead, he spoke up for what he believed in and he did it peacefully.
Starting from the statement that Christians receive salvation through faith and the grace of God. Luther also stated, “The churches rituals did not have the ability to save souls. ”Also Luther talked about how the Church and the Pope make errors often. This had gone from a need for reforming indulgences to a whole
Luther's problem with the selling of indulgences was the fact that they were sold out of greed robbing people of their money and they were getting nothing out of it. Luther's problem with the people not being allowed to read the bible was that they needed to know what was said in the bible because back then the bible was in Latin and no one could understand it except for church officials. This also relates to the sale of indulgences because if every commoner were allowed to read the bible they would know indulgences were completely unnecessary and did absolutely nothing. Luther also thought the church had too much power which was true, they could persecute anyone because they weren’t Catholic and they had political power basically making the king's
Thomas More’s Utopia begins with a brief description from More’s perspective on what was particularly going on in England at that time under the reign of Henry VIII the “unconquered King of England” (p. 8). The main idea and main theme of the story begins when More meets Raphael, an explorer who has traveled to many different areas around the world. More and Raphael then strike up a conversation which leads Raphael to land on a very specific topic about an island he traveled to, Utopia. During their conversation, Raphael explains his views on different areas around the world including England where he believes has many faults in the way they govern their citizens.