Our fixation with heroes can prevent us from truly understanding pivotal social figures, whether it’s 16th-century Reformation giant Martin Luther or even 21st-century U.S. President Donald Trump, says a visiting American academic.
“We love heroes and we love a story about one man, changing the system,” said Deanna Thompson in an interview from St. Paul, Minnesota, where she is a professor of religion at Hamline University in St. Paul and a Luther scholar.
Thompson, who is speaking today at the University of Victoria as part of a lecture series, said many other people and widespread social forces and developments are always at play during momentous shifts in society.
“Now, I wouldn’t say Martin Luther is not an interesting subject and really important or even that Donald Trump is not important,” she said. “But there are always these other stories that aren’t being told.
“If we can tell the story from those perspectives, we may discover new stories and new resources to help us understand the past and the present.”
So for Trump, perhaps don’t start the story with his inauguration, she said. Instead, begin the day after with the National Women’s March on Washington, which drew bigger crowds and attracted supporters in cities around the world.
Thompson is the first speaker in a series of lectures from four visiting scholars on the topic of Crisis, Conscience, Community, the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
The lectures are hosted by the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria and funded with assistance from the Anglican Diocese of B.C.
The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation, refers to the tumultuous political, intellectual and social time when the Rome-based Catholic Church came under attack for corruption and its inability to change.
The start of the Reformation is most often cited as 1517. That year, German monk and church critic Martin Luther (1483-1546) wrote and published his criticisms in 95 theses.
Luther, unable to get a fair hearing for his work from senior clergy, nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
Thompson said that instead of looking at Luther as a singular intellectual force, look at his writings alongside the development of the printing press.
Thompson notes that without the printing press, it’s unlikely, Luther would have gone from an anonymous monk to the best-known writer in Europe in the space of about 10 years.
Likewise, Luther might have been an early advocate of reading the Bible in spoken languages, such as German and English, instead of Latin. But without the printing press, his advocacy would likely have been moot.
Thompson said Luther’s ideas, with the help of the printing press, were picked up and given new focus and direction by others.
For example, a favourite historical figure of Thompson’s is Argula von Grumbach (1492-1554), a Bavarian noblewoman who became involved in the Reformation.
Von Grumbach wrote defences of Luther and other Reformists. But many men at the time were squeamish about this outspoken woman.
Thompson suspects even Luther was becoming fearful of the forces unleashed in the Reformation. Around the same time, for some unknown reason, von Grumbach stopped writing.
“Luther and his male reformers weren’t very excited about how outspoken this woman was,” Thompson said. “They didn’t believe it was how women should act.”
Even now, Thompson said she often finds inspiring new ways Luther is casting influence beyond his image as a singular, historical giant.
She was recently in modern Wittenberg, where Luther is said to have nailed up his 95 theses. She encountered Luther beer, Luther fridge magnets and all sorts of Luther trinkets and books for sale.
But she also found the Lutheran church chronicling, publishing and celebrating the work of Luther-inspired reformers in places such as Asia and Africa. And these reformers are still doing it right into the 21st century.
“It was fascinating for me how in Wittenberg itself, they didn’t seem so fixated on Luther,” Thompson said.
“They were also interested in telling global, multi-racial stories of reform.
“There are a lot of ways to study Martin Luther besides looking at him as this amazing man who arrived on the scene and suddenly made everything better.”
Thompson speaks today at 5 p.m. at the David Turpin Building, room A120.
To learn more about the other lectures on Martin Luther and the Reformation, go to UVic’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society website at uvic.ca/csrs and click on John Albert Hall Lecture Series.
