Luther:Letters of Spiritual Council

Luther:Letters of Spiritual Council

Healing during the Early Modern period was very often the property of the church and of faith. Pilgrims would go on long journeys to the resting places of saints and other holy figures, in order to find any form of healing they could (Wiesner-Hanks 166). While Luther may have been vehemently against many Catholic practices, such as indulgences and other authoritarian actions of the pope, one letter found in this collection, written to the wife of an afflicted acquaintance shows that even through the reformation, faith still held a powerful sway over healing. Luther writes “These signs shall follow them that believe; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Luther 52) While he does show a change from previous doctrine, by allowing modern believers to enact healing, clearly, he is still of the opinion that faith can be responsible for healing. Another notable statement from Luther during this letter is that while faith is the answer he turns to, it is not his first response to hearing of this affliction. First, he suggests they turn to physicians, and that if “the physicians are at a loss…. It must, rather, be an affliction that comes from the devil.” (Luther 52) Luther’s writing in this letter also demonstrate the fatalistic nature of healing in the Renaissance period, this letter ends saying “In so far as we are able, we shall at the same time unite our… prayers and petitions to the Lord with yours,” even with the hope of a worldly cure, Luther and his contemporaries still believed healing to come from a heavenly figure, only possible with God’s intercession.

Martin Luther

http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/07931/diglit_schroeckh1778.html?q=Martin+Luther

1483-1546

Jack Williams

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