I’m going to look at the concept of faith as it is laid out in Luther’s letter to Pope Leo x in Freedom of a Christian. During the time of Luther the Roman Catholic Church was the law of the land when it came to how to worship, and what god himself expected of his people. This is how it had been since the time of Jesus, but Luther had a radically different way of viewing or relationship with god. His ideals would get him banished from his monkhood, and ultimately lead to him changing our view of god forever. His new way of viewing that relationship would lead to the Lutheran denomination of Christianity. During the early 1500s the roman catholic church was not only the law of the land but also maintained a facade that they were your way into gods good graces. Your faith and good works alone …show more content…
On top of all of tis the church also required a tithe (10% of your annual income) be given to the church, and you had to work a set number of days on church land meaning you couldn’t tend to your own. They also would remind that god was an omnipresent being and would know if you were cheating him. They portray god as a vengeful being, so most would do everything they could to please him. This resulted in the faith these people had for their religion being out of fear instead of love. For the Lutheran tradition, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the material principle upon which all other teachings rest. Luther preached of a loving god. One who did not require that you buy his love but rather his love was eternal. His teaching of agape was a vastly different view of god than what had been set forth by the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church quickly recognized him once he started preaching his views and was put on trial for acts against the church. He was excommunicated and his works were burned, as the church feared his radical ideas on faith would gain traction with the masses. They were correct in thinking