Martin Luther the Monk Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Martin Luther the Monk - Essay Example Martin Luther is one of the most famous Christian religious preachers in the history. He was born at Eislenben in the year 1483. In Mansfeld, Martin Luther’s father, Han’s Luther served as a leaseholder of the smelters and several copper mines. Hans Luther worked very hard to earn his family a good standard of living and he wanted Martin Luther to become a lawyer by profession. In order to accomplish this, he first sent Martin Luther to the Mansfeld based Latin schools. After that, Martin Luther gained education in Madgeburg in the year 1497 followed by Eisenach in 1498. By the year 1501, Martin Luther had turned seventeen years old. That was when he joined the University of Erfurt which was more of a whorehouse and a beerhouse than a university. In 1505, Martin Luther gained the postgraduate degree. Contrary to his father’s dream of seeing Martin Luther as a lawyer, Martin wanted to study the Scriptures. In order to achieve that, Martin Luther went to the August inian canons, where he spent about three years. He was proclaimed to be a priest in the year 1507. Martin Luther offered lectures on the Scriptures and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. Over a very short period of time, Martin Luther became a very influential and inspiring preacher. Martin Luther commenced the exploration of evangelical perfection and tried to comply with the Augustinian order’s rule, but it did not take him long to realize that there were a lot of doubts and uncertainties in it. Theological problems enhanced his spiritual complexities which particularly included the message of grace and the ambiguities in nature of indulgences. â€Å"Luther had entered on the search for evangelical perfection with serious zeal and sought exactly to fulfill the rule of the Augustinian order, but he soon found himself struggling against uncertainties and doubts† (â€Å"Martin Luther†). Subjects included in the course of biblical exegesis that he taught at the University of Wittenberg included Romans, Psalms and Galatians. Martin Luther served as the professor at this university between 1513 and 1518. His courses of lectures speak of his mind’s maturity and richness. He was appointed as the preacher in the Parish Church in 1514. The pul pit of this church was essentially a locus of the preaching ministry. Martin Luther preached the Scriptures to the common people and made every possible effort to make them analyze their personal lives in context of the religious Scriptures. During this, Martin Luther noticed many things that were inappropriate with his Church as well as with the whole world. â€Å"[T]he Roman Church has always maintained the true faith, and that it is necessary for all Christians to be in unity of faith with her† (Luther cited in Pastor). Therefore, on 31 October 1517, Martin Luther collected Ninety-Five Theses to elicit the truth and attached them to the All Saints’ Church’s door in Wittenberg. This date is known as the All Saints’ Day’s eve. â€Å"Martin Luther, Doctor, of the Order of Monks at Wittenberg, desire to testify publicly that certain propositions against pontifical indulgences, as they call them, have been put forth by me† (Machiavelli and Mor e 273). Although those theses tended to criticize the papal policy, yet they never refuted the papal prerogative. They also did not challenge the doctrine of purgatory much. However, those theses emphasized upon the intrinsic spirituality of the Christian faith. Martin Luther attempted to forward the copies of those theses to his own bishop as well as the Archbishop of Mainz, but the process was interrupted by the intervention of the printing press. In spite of the effort of the printing press to hinder the process, numerous copies of the theses got spread which made an otherwise local issue an issue of huge significance and controversy to be discussed among expanding circles. One of the most

Whether the rise of China is a threat to Asian stability Essay

Whether the rise of China is a threat to Asian stability - Essay Example command of indicators that not only include measurable wealth (GDP) and military spending, but a host of factors that basically defines a state’s reflective position beyond its borders. That the Asia-Pacific is undergoing tectonic shifts in terms of the elements of hard power in now a forgone conclusion; China overtook Japan in 2010 to become Asia’s largest economy, only second to the United States globally in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), and in the process, taking advantage of the latters’ woes in the wake of a deadly financial crisis to extend its influence in the neighboring nations’ growth momentum. The increasing influence of China in this region, not to mention its strategic positioning as a major international actor, coupled with its gradual move towards greater power status, a puzzle widely theorized as the â€Å"China Threat† with uncertain predictions, none of which has ever materialized, forms the basis of response herein. All nations pursue their interests of security and prosperity within a context of political diplomacy that ropes in economic, and, if need be, military forces as directed by a history that underpins national ethos and the existing relationships with states in question (Lemke, Douglas, and Suzanne Warner 237). In the mix between the national ethos and political history are the personalities of leaders in power and their respective abilities to further the two elements to certain commensurate heights. As the adage goes, nations only have permanent interests. Accordingly, friendly nations may turn hostile to a neighbor with weird interests, bringing together former enemies to secure a common interest; a grim picture captured in literary analysis in the context of an increasingly influential China in the Asian power politics during the past quarter century (Kaplan 3). Indeed as expected, the collapse of the Soviet Empire, marking the end of the cold war, heralded an era of fractured glo bal power structure, hitherto