Martin Luther's Controversial Messages

Christians and Jews have a long history of quarrel that today has yet to be fully resolved. Martin Luther was merely a part of the ongoing quarrel between the two religious affiliations. Considering Luther was such a huge figure in the reformation, his words more than many, have carried on with great attention to this day. Luther’s messages have been well preserved. To this day along with his good messages the controversial messages prevail as well. One topic among Luther’s controversial messages is that of the Jews. It is no secret that Luther had very strong opinions on the Jews although they are not readily discussed. Examining Luther’s text on the Jews, a continuance of resistance to the “other” parallels with the anti-sematic attitudes …show more content…
In many ways Luther empathizes with them in condemning the Papist for their way of works and not by faith. Luther says, “(the Papist) -have hitherto so treated the Jews that anyone who wished to be a good Christian would almost have had to become a Jew”(p. 200). He see that the way in which the Popes and bishops are running things in contradiction to himself that their would be no reason to want to become a Christian and therefore says, “If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian“(p. 200). In the aspect of not seeing religion the same way as the Papist Luther is identifies a commonality with the Jews who are not greatly susceptible to the Roman Catholic …show more content…
In the later years of Martin Luther, he saw converting the Jews as a lost cause and began preaching and spewing words of hate towards them. Among other things he called them children of the devil. Some of Luther’s reasons for writing this treatise were simply that he had had more time to become “acquainted” with the Jews and form his own personal opinions that weren’t necessarily rooted in scripture and educational text. This is evident when he says, “But since I learned that those miserable and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is, the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews and who warned the Christians to be on their guard against them” (p. 2-3). He clearly says that he has learned more about the Jews and wishes to join the movement of those who are already Anti-Semitic in Europe. As McNutt says in Currents In Theology And