#3: Luther and Gutenberg
During the 15th century, Europe was in the midst of religious change, which contributed to the fast adoption of printing. Equally, the printing presses contributed to the demand for religious reform.
According to Fang, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who translated the Bible into the German vernacular, which helped more people read the Bible and relate to it in their own native tongue. This was something groundbreaking, since the Bible was officially written only in Latin. Luther was also famous for nailing his grievances on the Church doors. Books and pamphlets were printed and distributed across Europe about Luther's complaints against many of the Church's immoral activities, including indulgences.
The printing press became popular during the same time, when Johannes Gutenberg introduced an easier way to imprint text and images. In http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/1999/12/08/, the author discusses the link between Gutenberg's printing press and Luther's steps towards the Protestant Reformation.
Luther was fortunate to be at "the right place at the right time" with his radical ideas and actions. In fact, his ideas on the famous "95 theses" have become the symbol of the Refomation. All this accreditation is due to the printing press which produced his ideas about the church and reform to the population. He gained support from the masses, which strengthened his ideas and fueled the Reformation.
According to the web article, the Religion Newswriters Association compiled their top 10 list for religious events of the millenium, in which Luther's 95 theses tops. The attempt at a counter reformation was the Church's establishment of the Council of Trent. This was useless since the population was already intensely caught up in the movement of religious renewal. The second event on the list is Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, which helped mass production of the Gutenberg Bible as well as the German and English translations.
This article helped to reinforce what we have already learned about the second information revolution of printing. The popularity of the Reformation and the printing press depended on each other. Martin Luther provided the ideas for the Reformation and the printing press channelled those ideas to the public.
According to Fang, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who translated the Bible into the German vernacular, which helped more people read the Bible and relate to it in their own native tongue. This was something groundbreaking, since the Bible was officially written only in Latin. Luther was also famous for nailing his grievances on the Church doors. Books and pamphlets were printed and distributed across Europe about Luther's complaints against many of the Church's immoral activities, including indulgences.
The printing press became popular during the same time, when Johannes Gutenberg introduced an easier way to imprint text and images. In http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/1999/12/08/, the author discusses the link between Gutenberg's printing press and Luther's steps towards the Protestant Reformation.
Luther was fortunate to be at "the right place at the right time" with his radical ideas and actions. In fact, his ideas on the famous "95 theses" have become the symbol of the Refomation. All this accreditation is due to the printing press which produced his ideas about the church and reform to the population. He gained support from the masses, which strengthened his ideas and fueled the Reformation.
According to the web article, the Religion Newswriters Association compiled their top 10 list for religious events of the millenium, in which Luther's 95 theses tops. The attempt at a counter reformation was the Church's establishment of the Council of Trent. This was useless since the population was already intensely caught up in the movement of religious renewal. The second event on the list is Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, which helped mass production of the Gutenberg Bible as well as the German and English translations.
This article helped to reinforce what we have already learned about the second information revolution of printing. The popularity of the Reformation and the printing press depended on each other. Martin Luther provided the ideas for the Reformation and the printing press channelled those ideas to the public.
posted by Miss Elania @ 5:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home