Martin Luther Individualism

In the age of modernity, there was a drastic shift in all aspects of society. This shift can be attributed to the new thought that arose out of the Reformation and the Enlightenment periods. With the earlier Reformation, the thought of the conforming away from extensive domain of the Roman Catholic Church emerged with the growing sense of individualism. This concept carried directly over into the next century where the Enlightenment gave new meaning to the individual, shifting even more towards individualistic thought with the the use of reason, moving away from a dependence on religion. These new developments in political, religious, and philosophical thought changed western culture, laying the foundations of today’s free individualistic society.

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Martin Luther was not sudden figure or the first to rise against the church during the Reformation, but he was one of the most noted. In the centuries prior, there had been many Protestant movements or protests against the powerful monolithic Catholic Church that held authority in Europe, but until Martin Luther little success was found. Luther had particular issues with the indulgences that the Catholic Church was selling claiming you could buy salvation. It was from here, where his counterargument to these indulgences blossomed into the political and religious philosophy of a free individual that became Lutheranism, breaking away from the Catholic Church. Martin Luther defined freedom as human condition of a Christian, and that this saving freedom or salvation was something that can only be given and fully attained through an individual faith in and through God, not through externals or good acts. This can be seen in “One thing and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ, […]” (pg 5). This human condition of freedom can first be seen in the title of one of his famed work’s title “On Christian Liberty” which

Locke defined freedom or liberty as certain rights that humans are innately born with as a condition of our being. This can be seen in “the state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom” and in “thus we are born free.” (pg 8 & 34) These rights that defined Locke’s freedom are that of life, liberty, property, health, and pursuit of happiness. (pg 9). Locke then went on to argue that as rational beings, reason being another innate condition of human nature, we are entitled to preserve and protect these unalienable rights through the use of reason by establishing a government. (pg 9) This government would ensure that one’s freedom could not impinge upon that of another’s. By using reason to secures freedoms, Locke is essentially saying look inward to yourself, using your own reason as a citizen to give the authority to the government, seen in “Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.” This gave a new power to the freedom individual, stressing not only that we are free to