Martin Luther: Ninety-five Theses (1517) Commentary by Andrew J. Waskey, Dalton State College

Context

Martin Luther, an ordained Catholic priest with a doctorate in theology, joined the theology faculty at Wittenberg University, at the same time serving as a parish priest at Schlosskirche, or Castle Church, in Wittenberg. In the years that followed, Luther came to dispute many of the theological principles of Catholicism and concluded that the church had gone astray by becoming worldly and corrupt. At the core of his reexamination of Catholicism was the issue of how a person achieved salvation in heaven. According to church teaching, salvation could be achieved in part through good works, that is, by leading an exemplary life. This teaching was based on a theological principle called supererogation, which states that Jesus; his mother, Mary; and the church's saints had performed a great many good works—far in excess of what was needed to achieve their own salvation—and these good works were stored as treasure in heaven. An ordinary person typically died with more sin...