The Foul Words of Martin Luther
by Pastor Jarmo Tarkki, Ph.D.

February 18^th, 2008 marked the 462nd anniversary of Martin Luther’s death. My thoughts go back to my years of Luther studies. Inevitably, we must ask, what relevance, if any, do Luther’s teachings have in today’s world?

It seems to me that we are rapidly moving away from the strict doctrinal, dogmatic denominationalism, where the content of faith is expressed in propositions, in statements and claims of the right and correct Christian faith. This postmodern "emerging church" as it is commonly called, is particularly popular among many of the generation X (those who were born between 1960-1982). Non-critical, interfaith dialog is preferred over dogmatically-driven evangelism in this movement. Denominational differences are toned down and mitigated, or even completely ignored.

This view is favored by many postmodern philosophers, who maintain that religious terms are not "rigid designators", i.e., that they do not have semantically single external meanings. To put it simply, words like "God" have no one single meaning but as many meanings as there are speakers of that word. Another example would be the term "mother." When you say that term, you clearly are not thinking about my mother, but your mother, and vice versa. So what does the term "mother" mean?

Religious language is now often understood as poetry, something that attempts to describe the deepest thoughts of our minds. It is what George Lindbeck called cultural-linguistic approach to doctrines, where religion itself is like a language and its doctrines are like grammar rules. In this approach doctrines are not right or wrong, true or false, they are like rules of a game in a Wittgensteinian sense.

Luther had no clue about these kinds of representations. To the emergent church Luther is largely simply irrelevant, a historical curiosity. Unlike today’s churches, he was immersed in propositional approach; God had given us the Holy Scriptures and the Holy Spirit would guide us to interpret the texts correctly. These interpretations were then petrified into church doctrines and cemented for generations to come. The Book of Concord (1580) contains the Lutheran teachings.

The fact of the matter is that very few of the clergy and members of the ELCA have read the Book of Concord. Even those who have read it will likely not use it on regular basis. We just do not seem to care that much about doctrinal purity any more. Or do we?

I claim that we do, but that our "purity laws" have changed. There is a new orthodoxy that has replaced the old one. Even in the emergent church there is "right" and "correct" way of being a postmodern religionist.

While Luther’s significance has certainly diminished during the past five centuries, I believe that many of his insights are as meaningful today as they were in Luther’s own time. The idea that there is nothing we as humans can do to earn righteousness before God is as radical today as it was in the early 1500’s. This Luther’s insight of "grace alone" is one of the most wonderful pearls in the Lutheran tradition. What this means is that God accepts us without works, such as being born again, giving our lives to Jesus, having faith, praying, reading the Bible. For Luther it was God who works in us, not us working to save ourselves.

Another delightful and often neglected part of Martin Luther’s life and work is his feisty character. He used humor, he did not shy away from calling people names and using language that offends many readers of our time. His writings testify to this colorful nature that still makes me smile today. To say the least, Luther surely is not boring!

The Roman Catholic Church and especially the pope were unmistakably Luther’s main target. The church was then quite corrupt, papal judgments seemed unjust, and the church was excessively money hungry. Luther detested all that and insisted on renewal, or reformation of the church. That reformation process is still alive, it will never end. Perhaps we can interpret the emergent church movement as part of the continuation of Luther’s reformation.

The excerpt is from "Against the Roman Papacy an Institution of the Devil" (1545) where Luther’s venom was particularly poisonous. The Reformation was underway at this time, Luther had been excommunicated with his followers, and the Council of Trent had convened to address reformation. The specific issue in this excerpt was papal authority vis a vis civil authority. Here is a flavor of Luther’s language for you to experience firsthand (WARNING: if you are easily offended by Luther’s foul language, please do not read):

In Pope Paul’s briefs to the emperor Charles, it says further, "And you should know that it is not your prerogative to choose who shall be in the council, for that is the prerogative of our jurisdiction." Gently, clear Pauli, dear donkey, don’t dance around! Oh, dearest little ass-pope, don’t dance around—dearest, dearest little donkey, don’t do it. For the ice is very solidly frozen this year because there was no wind—you might fall and break a leg. If a fart should escape you while you were falling, the whole world would laugh at you and say, "Ugh, the devil! How the ass-pope has befouled himself!" And that would be a great crime of lese majesty⁴¹against the Holy See in Rome, which no letters of indulgence or "plentitude of power" could forgive. Oh, that would be dangerous! So consider your own great danger beforehand, Hellish Father.

Most pastors, including me, do not dare to continue the reformation by using Luther’s language. It too belongs to another era. But, alas, long live Reformation!

Many Blessings and Happy Easter to everyone.

See you at church!

41 Limen Crese maiestatis, i.e., crimen laesae maiestatis. Luther mutilates the Latin to emphasize the irony of his sentence.
Reprinted with permission. The entire article (with additional foul language) can be found on the website: . www,bethania.luterhan@verizon.net