Luther And Catechism

After reading Martin Luther’s Preface from The Large Catechism which was published in 1530, numerous questions arose about religion. I feel that in high school, my social studies teachers only touched upon religion lightly. I never fully understood the different religions such as Protestantism. When I first began to read this primary source, one of the very first questions I had was, what is Catechism? Is it a form of religion? I also realized that Martin Luther mentioned the word Catechism numerous times and I thought that he was a part of the Protestantism religion. Is there a difference between the two or do they have share a similar concept? Martin Luther addressed the fact that it was important for the common people to read a page or two a day from the Catechism, the Prayer Book, the New Testament, or something from the Bible. I was confused on whether or not he felt that it was more efficient to read about religion than to hear about it from pastors and preachers. He referred to the common people as “lazy-bellies” quite often. Did he consider them “lazy-bellies” because they did not read or care as much about religion as he seemed to? He stated …show more content…
This statement showed how influential religion was in everyday life back in the 1500s. Luther was basically stating that it was essential that children and even the uneducated should know the basic Christian fundamentals. I also found it peculiar how he did not mention anything dealing with women and religion. This shows how much the influence of religion has drastically changed over the years. In the 1500s, it was mandatory to know your religion thoroughly but now it seems that people just claim to be a part of a religion but do not know a lot about what is stands