To be honest, before I watched the documentary, Martin Luther: A Reluctant Revolutionary, I never really knew much about who Martin Luther was or what he accomplished during his lifetime.  After watching this documentary I believe I have a better understanding of who Martin Luther was as a man and what he accomplished for the German nation as a religious and cultural revolutionary man.

The biggest thing that made Luther be viewed as a revolutionary man was his 95 theses nailed to the church door and his defiance against the Pope and the way that religion was run in the Holy Roman Empire (which Germany was a part of during Luther’s time).

Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the church. 

 He was attacking one of the biggest and most influential powers in the empire. He believed that the Pope was abusing his power over the people. For example the Pope would have many people working for him and be paraded around in the most marvelous of ways. Luther believed that this is where majority of the German people’s money was being spent towards, for the own personal gain of the Pope.  During this time, as what I can tell from the documentary, some people were questioning the church but no one wanted to speak out or if they did they were executed or excommunicated from the church. Luther however changed that for he was the first one to do so and actually live to tell the tale. The 95 thesis nailed to the church door was just one of his early acts of defiance against the church and a personal attack at the Pope He tried returning religion and its power to the people and make it more democratic type then a sole leader of the church.  It was as if he was stealing the religion from the Pope and returning it to the people, almost like a religious Robin Hood.

Besides being a revolutionary man in religion, he was also a cultural revolutionary. The believed date of the first printing press is around 1439 and created by a man named Johannes Gutenberg. So the printing press has been around long before Luther pegged his 95 theses to the door of the church. However he used the printing press as a tool to help further spread his ideas and views. Luther used the press to publish his writings to be shared among the political powers in the realm as well as the common folks. It was a way for everyone to be united and understand what was occurring during the time and learn the cause that Luther was fighting against. It was the early start of using the press as a way to argue. 

The printing press was a tool Luther used to print his ideas. 

Besides the press he also translated the Bible from Latin into German. This was a great change because it was an early start to creating a common language in Germany. It also was a way that the common folks can have their own copy of the Bible and to actually understand the text and learn from it as well instead of solely relying on the Pope for translation.

The Bible that Luther wrote after translating it into German.

Martin Luther was more than a man who nailed a piece of paper to a church door, he was a man who saw religion being corrupted and wanted to return it to the people and he used modern technology of the printing press and the translation of the Bible as one of the ways to help him accomplish his goals.

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