April 26, 2014
The arrival of the year 2000 has provided much of humanity with cause for reflection on the last millennium. Scientific, social, and political revolutions during the last 1,000 years have left an indelible mark on the world that exists today.
Perhaps one of the best ways to examine the sprawling history of the second millennium is to consider the most influential people who shaped it. As American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”
But how does one go about selecting from 1,000 years of history a representative group of the most influential people? Which individuals most fully represented the triumphs of humanity and shaped the outcome of the millennium?
Five criteria were used to make the selections. The first one—whose contributions had a lasting influence on history?—carried the most weight. The second criterion was the effect on the sum total of wisdom and beauty in the world. This allowed the consideration of artistic contributions, such as a Beethoven sonata, a Michelangelo fresco, or a Shakespearean sonnet, that may not have directly altered the history books but without which world culture would not be as rich as it is.
The next criterion was influence on contemporaries. How much did each individual affect the world during his or her own time? This standard allowed consideration of more modern figures, whose lasting contribution to the world is more difficult to gauge at this juncture in history.
Another point of evaluation was singularity of contribution. If a single person had invented the automobile or the Internet, that genius might have been considered for our roster. But so many of the innovations and inventions that made their mark on history were the result of collaborative efforts. The criterion of singularity of contribution recognized those people whose singular brilliance charted entirely new territory.
The fifth and final criterion was charisma. This attribute brought to the selection process great leaders who may not have been intellectual giants noted for path breaking new discoveries, but who nevertheless exerted great influence by virtue of their ability to inspire other people to act.
Using these five criteria, the people whose contributions most changed the world in ten different categories were selected. The ten are Johannes Gutenberg, inventor; Christopher Columbus, explorer; Michelangelo, artist; Martin Luther, religious leader; William Shakespeare, writer; Galileo Galilei, scientist; George Washington, statesman; Ludwig van Beethoven, music composer; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, activist; and Mohandas Gandhi, peacemaker.
These ten people who helped shape the second millennium were in one way or another radicals, risk takers, or controversial figures. All possessed the courage of their convictions and believed, often against considerable opposition, that they were in the right. Whether influential as religious reformer, free-thinking scientist, defender of democracy, women’s activist, or in another role, these ten people changed the millennium and made history because they refused to accept the limits and conventional thinking of their eras. The world today is so much the richer for it.
Martin Luther was a German preacher who trusted the Bible and quarreled with the pope. His search for religious truth led to the creation of a new branch of Christianity called Protestantism. Protestants do not accept the authority of the pope, the person who heads the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483. At the age of 21, he joined a monastery, and at 23, he became a Roman Catholic priest. From 1512 until his death, he was professor of theology (religion) at the University of Wittenberg in Germany.
Luther lived at a time when many people were criticizing the Roman Catholic Church. They said its leaders were corrupt and lazy. They complained that its priests did not teach people the true message of Jesus Christ. Luther shared these criticisms. His Bible studies also led him to challenge key Catholic ideas. In particular, he believed that people could only be saved from sin by faith in God and trust in God’s grace (love and mercy). He did not believe Catholic preachers, who said that good works and rich gifts to the church were also necessary. He was outraged when preachers offered to sell God’s forgiveness to raise money to build a cathedral. In 1517, Luther nailed a list of 95 complaints to a church door in Wittenberg.
Catholic leaders could not ignore Luther’s protest. In 1521, the pope excommunicated Luther—that is, he banned Luther from taking part in Catholic worship. The princes who ruled Germany tried to make Luther apologize. But Luther refused. He told them rulers should not interfere in religion. Luther spent the rest of his life teaching and writing. He met scholars and priests who came to Wittenberg to discuss religious reforms. He translated the Bible into German, so that ordinary people could study it. His text was so widely read that it helped shape a new version of the German language.
In the summer of 1505, however, Luther suddenly abandoned his studies, sold his books, and entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. The decision surprised his friends and appalled his father. Later in life, Luther explained it by recalling several brushes with death that had occurred at the time, making him aware of the fleeting character of life
Although still uncertain of God’s love and his own salvation, Luther was active as a preacher, teacher, and administrator. Sometime during his study of the New Testament in preparation for his lectures, he came to believe that Christians are saved not through their own efforts but by the gift of God’s grace, which they accept in faith
Luther became a public and controversial figure when he published (October 31, 1517) his Ninety-five Theses, Latin propositions opposing the manner in which indulgences (release from the temporal penalties for sin through the payment of money) were being sold in order to raise money for the building of Saint Peter’s in Rome. Although it is generally believed that Luther nailed these theses to the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, some scholars have questioned this story, which does not occur in any of his own writings.
By 1537 Luther’s health had begun to deteriorate, and he felt burdened by the resurgence of the papacy and by what he perceived as an attempt by Jews to take advantage of the confusion among Christians and reopen the question of Jesus’ messiah ship. Apprehensive about his own responsibility for this situation, he wrote a violent polemic against the Jews, as well as polemics against the papacy and the radical wing of the reformers, the Anabaptists.
In the winter of 1546, Luther was asked to settle a controversy between two young counts who ruled the area of Mansfeld, where he had been born. Old and sick, he went there, resolved the conflict, and died on February 18, 1546, in Eisleben but his ideas remained powerful. His followers founded Lutheranism, the first form of Protestantism. Lutherans worshiped simply and trusted in God’s grace. Lutheranism spread from Germany to many parts of Europe, and then to most parts of the world.
Source :
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