3,213 words
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, 1529
Today marks the fifth centenary of the Protestant Reformation. In Germany, October 31 is an annual public holiday in five states, but this year a nationwide holiday has been declared in all states to celebrate the Reformation. A search for books about Martin Luther and the Reformation on Amazon shows that a vast number of books about him have been published in recent months. It seems right to commemorate this pivotal event in the history of Germany and all of Europe, and the man responsible for it. (more…)
3,673 words
Five hundred years ago this year (2017), Martin Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the church door of Wittenberg. It was not the first time that theologians and teachers had protested against certain doctrines and dogma of the Roman Church. There had been, to take two notable examples preceding Luther, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus. (more…)
Édouard Drumont
946 words
It is a standard canard to describe critics of Jewish power, privilege, and ethnocentrism (otherwise known as “racism”) as somehow psychopathological. One term that is often used is “obsessive.” Of course, Jews tend to be far more interested in themselves than their critics are, but this self-regard is never stigmatized as “obsessive.” But still, there is no point in denying that some anti-Semites are as obsessive, monomaniacal, and self-defeating as Captain Ahab.
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Why go to Calcutta, when you can bring Calcutta home?
1,031 words
Great historical changes are often sparked by trivial events, but have deeper causes going back for generations or even centuries. The immediate trigger of the horrifying events currently unfolding in Germany is said to have been a “tweet” casually sent out August 25 by the Office for Refugees and Migrants of the German city of Nuremberg. The “tweet” merely stated that Germany was no longer applying the accepted EU rule that applications for asylum must be made from the first EU country a person enters. (more…)
Martin Luther
1,050 words
Translated by M. P.
Many authors distinguish between, on the one hand Catholicism, which is supposed to be a negative Christianity incarnated by Rome and an anti-Germanic instrument, and, on the other hand, Protestantism, which is supposed to be a positive Christianity emancipated from the Roman papacy and accepting traditional Germanic values. (more…)
