Corpus-Paul

["Paul O. Wendland" <wendlanp AT wls.wels.net>]

Dear Jack:

Regarding:
>
> In "Concerning the Jews and Their Lies", 1543,  Luther says: "venomous
> beasts, vipers, disgusting scum, canders, devils incarnate. Their private
> houses must be destroyed and devastated, they could be lodged in stables.
> Let the magistrates burn their synagogues and let whatever escapes be
> covered with sand and mud. Let them force to work, and if this avails
> nothing, we will be compelled to expel them like dogs in order
> not to expose
> ourselves to incurring divine wrath and eternal damnation from
> the Jews and
> their lies."   This one one of the founding keystones of the
> Holocaust in a
> Lutheran nation.  Even the Lutheran church apologizes for it.  What do you
> wish done? Change history?  Would that we could.
>

I do not justify this act of spleen written by a discouraged old man.
Luther, in my view, should have known better.  The idea of it being one of
the founding keystones of the Holocaust is, I believe, a thesis that is more
than a little overstated. Certainly historians recognize that questions of
etiology and influence are not as simple as they may seem to some, and
statements: "this is the direct cause of that" are generally (in historical
studies, at least) wrong.  Also, I would beg that Luther--who wrote many
things through the years--be given the same courtesy we would hope one day
might be accorded our own writings--that his writings be interpreted in the
context of all of his writings, and within the scope of his life and times.

I believe what Zeb was objecting to was this statement:

> > Many of the world's moral monsters filled with hatred (such as Osama bin
> > Laden and Martin Luther) . . .
>

I don't know that I'm the master of polite discourse.  I think it'd be fair
to say (in view of the above) that Luther had more than a few moments when
he wasn't.  I don't know that it was an age of politesse and nuanced speech.
But really, is everybody an Osama?  Is it fair to say that Luther (judged in
the context of all he spoke, and said, and stood for) is a "moral monster
filled with hatred"?

You may believe that what he wrote above gives you the right to say so.  All
I can say then is I respectfully disagree.  And that is all I will say on
this matter.

===============================
Paul O. Wendland
Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary
wendlanp AT wls.wels.net