Tag: luther

On
Jan Mailloux

Bishop Barron’s comments on Luther found ‘confusing, disturbing’

To the editor:

This letter is in response to Bishop Robert Barron’s article, “Looking at Luther with Fresh Eyes,” in your June 29, 2017 issue.

Bishop Barron’s comments, based on a book he had read on Martin Luther, were confusing and disturbing. In the article’s descriptions of Luther’s “experience of grace,” his “love affair,” and his “ecstatic experience,” the seriousness of Luther’s harmful effect on countless souls was minimized. Bishop Barron even seemed to conclude that both the criticism and the celebration of Luther’s solas could simultaneously be appropriate, thus helping to pave the way for ecumenism.

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On
Bishop Robert Barron

Looking at Luther with fresh eyes

With great profit and pleasure I’m currently reading Alec Ryrie’s new book Protestants: The Faith that Made the Modern World. Among the many texts appearing in this year of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Ryrie’s stands out for its verve, clarity, and historical sweep.

In some ways, it is an answer to Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation, though it lacks the intellectual depth and thoroughness of Gregory’s magisterial study. What has so far intrigued me most of all in Ryrie’s book is his portrait of the undisputed father of the Reformation, Martin Luther.

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On
Fr. Donald Lange

Continuing to follow Dr. King’s dream

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an American federal holiday that marks the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. It is observed on the third Monday of January, which is around Dr. King’s birthday, January 15. This year it is observed on January 18.

In his speech to Congress in September of 2015, Pope Francis lifted up four Americans who worked for social justice. They were two non-Catholics, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., and two Catholics, Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton. Crux columnist John L. Allen Jr. called them the pope’s “Fantastic Four” who stood up for the poor.

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