Luther's Influence On Christianity

Martin Luther is considered one of the most influential figures in the history of Christianity. He affected many different parts of life in Europe, especially the religion and the politics. His views are no longer considered radical but were very much so in the 16th century. Born in 1483, and died in 1546, Martin Luther lived a long life for the time period and was very influential during the time when he was alive. In many ways, the Reformation caused a chain reaction that sparked many other changes throughout Europe. During the Reformation, Luther had lots of people that supported him, but lots were against him as well and some even wanted him to be executed. While he may have had many people against him, Luther stayed true to his word and …show more content…
Another reason that the Reformation was a big part of change in Europe was because of all of the new revolutions it sparked and all of the new religions that were created from it that are still around today. Martin Luther affected the religion of Europe by starting the reformation, which caused the German Princes to break away from the Catholic Church. When Martin Luther created the 95 theses, he started many different and big changes throughout Europe. Even though he created the 95 theses of what the Church needed to fix, Luther did not want to break away from the Church. He had intended for it to cause debate and have the church make some reforms. “By 1518, many scholars believe that Luther had reached a new understanding of the Christian Salvation.” It eventually turned him into a heretic to the church and he was excommunicated. Luther’s two main points were that the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deeds. He said …show more content…
These followers became very inspired by Luther’s teachings and it resulted in the creation of new religions. Not only did the people he inspire create new religions, but some joined forces and started revolutions against their countries, empires, or churches. One of the biggest revolutions was the Peasants’ war. Through his teachings, Luther inspired many peasants in Germany. Lots of these peasants had rough living conditions and did not make much money though their jobs. Some peasants took it to the extreme and started to revolt against the Holy Roman Empire. This revolt in Germany was named the Peasants’ War. Though it started out in Germany, the Peasants’ War soon spread throughout Europe. Soon, almost all of Northern Europe was at war with the Peasants. With most of Northern Europe battling the Peasants, casualties were very high with about 100,000 known casualties. Some of these casualties were coming as a result of the executions that the church officials were completing. When this happened, Luther supported it because he still wanted to be a member of the church. This caused many of the peasants fighting in the war to be angered with Luther because they believed that they were fighting with him against the church and the Holy Roman Empire. When some of the peasants heard about this, they decided that they were going to make their own section of Christianity