Аннотация: This is an "old" speech. One of my first student speeches. I found it and decided to publish it.
In 2017, Europe celebrated the 500th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous theologians in human history. He was neither burned nor killed because history needed him. His ideas not only shook Western Catholicism but also shaped Germany itself, predetermined Europe, accelerated modernity, and set in motion the course of history that propels us forward. His name was Martin Luther (1483-1546). He spoke with God, and in doing so, he opened a path for millions.
A man who challenged the papacy, monarchy, the Latin language, indulgences, the Church as an institution, and Rome as a symbol. He was not a revolutionary, as some thought. He was a repairer of the world who peeled back the wallpaper of the Catholic wall to reveal more rot beneath the paint than plaster. He did not seek to destroy the Church. He sought to save the soul-and in saving the soul, he rewrote the history of Europe.
Luther is not just a theologian. He is a starting point. He is the reformation of thought, language, and labor. He is the moment when Europe lifted its head and never lowered it again.
In this essay, we will trace how an Augustinian monk gave birth to the Germanic spirit. How Protestant ethics not only shaped Northern Europe but also propelled it ahead of all other human communities. How thought, freed from ritual, became not only conscience but also power.
I. A Brief Biography of the Reformer
Martin Luther was born in Saxony on November 10, 1483. He studied to become a lawyer, became a monk, and later a Doctor of Theology. His major works include: The 95 Theses (1517), On the Freedom of a Christian (1520), To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), and his translation of the Bible into German (1522-1534). He declared, "Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me"-and in doing so, he not only condemned the Pope but also restored the direct dialogue between man and God, without intermediaries.
In 1517, he published the 95 Theses-not as a challenge but as a call for debate. But Europe was already suffocating, searching for someone to grant it the right to breathe.
The Church responded with excommunication. The Emperor-with a trial. The people-with faith. When he was excommunicated, Luther did not repent. When put on trial, he did not recant. His major works-On the Freedom of a Christian, To the Christian Nobility, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church-became manifestos of new thought. He translated the Bible into German, giving language not only to Germans but to Germany itself. He proclaimed that every person could read Scripture for themselves-thereby eliminating intermediaries. He restored man"s personal connection with God-and gave birth to conscience as a form of social action.
Luther did not seek revolution. But he could not be stopped. Because he spoke not in the name of an idea-but in the name of faith. His strength lay in the fact that he did not seek power. This is how true epochs begin.
II. Germany Was "Born" from the Bible
Martin Luther did not merely translate the Holy Scriptures into German. He created the German language as an idea. He discarded Latin-and with it, the walls of spiritual and legal subjugation crumbled. The Word of God was no longer above the people but among them. For the first time, Germany spoke-to itself.
Without Luther, there would be no German school, no German consciousness, no German bureaucracy. One could say that German thought begins with evangelical freedom and ends with the armor of Rhine steel.
III. Protestant Ethics: The Engine Without Smoke
Had Luther limited himself to church reform, he would have been just one among many. But he gave the world not just a doctrine but an ethic. Max Weber, in his famous work The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), proved that Protestantism created a new type of person: disciplined, hardworking, responsible not to a king but to God. Previously, labor was a punishment. Now it became a path to salvation. Previously, wealth was considered dangerous. Now it was a sign of divine favor.
Luther stripped the Church of its sanctity but gave it to everyday life. Every honest shoemaker is holy if he works before God. Service became labor, and labor-service. The result was the emergence of a society where people do not bow but work; where there are no privileges but there is success; where righteousness is measured not by penance but by contribution.
Karl Marx, himself the son of a rabbi, acknowledged Protestantism as a cultural force that transformed feudalism. In Capital, he sees Protestant morality as one of the prerequisites for the new class. Engels, raised in Calvinism, emphasized: revolution begins not with class struggle but with a change in spirit.
Luther did not intend to create capitalism. But he laid its foundations. From his ethics emerged a new Europe. The North-rational, precise, Protestant. The South remained theatrical and hierarchical. Thus, they diverged-Rome and Geneva, Hellas and Israel.
IV. The French Mirror: Fear and Envy
France regarded Luther with astonishment and anxiety. One nation, one faith, one king-this was its principle. The Reformation shattered this triad. The French feared Luther would lead to anarchy. And they were right. His followers-the Huguenots-became a headache. His ideas even penetrated the Sorbonne. Michelet saw Luther as the first modernist, the stone that shattered the rotten "sacred" order.
French thought adopted Luther"s idea of freedom of conscience but not his work ethic. Thus, their Protestant experience remained a historical footnote, not a cultural foundation. Yet it was Luther who wrested Christianity from the embrace of politics and returned it to the individual. This idea laid the groundwork for the reflections of René Descartes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
V. Conclusion
Luther did not possess grandeur. He possessed something greater-authenticity. He did not invent anything new; he simply removed the excess. He did not wage war, but he destroyed an empire. He did not command, yet people followed.
Luther laid three pillars of the future: individualism, responsibility, and freedom of conscience. Through these ideas, Europe accelerated. Germany found its identity. And for the first time, man stood alone-before God, no longer a slave but a son.
Protestant ethics is not about faith. It is about how to live. This is the greatest gift Luther gave to all people. And this is what makes him not just a German, not just a monk, but a turning point in all of human history.
He did not become a saint. He became a necessity.