Sunday, September 14, 2014

Heiko Oberman Says Luther Should Not Have Become a Monk?

Here's one from the Catholic Answers Forums:

Heiko Oberman states: “Luther’s reminiscences permit one to conclude that he was the very sort of person to fall into the fearful self-doubt the handbooks describe as the sickness of scrupulosity. A man with these proclivities should not have become a monk and certainly not an Observant mendicant monk, one would assume today.” Pg, 177

-snip-

Obviously Martin was not the picture of mental stability during his days in the monastery. As Reformed Biographer Heiko Oberman points out, he should not have become a monk.

Is this what Oberman says? Here's the full quote from Oberman's Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (note the sentence in bold):

“Even the earliest sources demonstrate Luther's awareness of God's holiness and His wrath against sin. Luther’s reminiscences permit one to conclude that he was the very sort of person to fall into the fearful self-doubt the handbooks describe as the sickness of scrupulosity. A man with these proclivities should not have become a monk and certainly not an Observant mendicant monk, one would assume today. But in Luther's time the contrary was the case: so unsettled a person, it was thought, should chose the safe path and enter a monastery. Luther was really able to try out the salutary and salvational methods of his time, to the point of desperation. He endeavored to observe the Augustinian rule by means of extreme self-discipline, fasting, prayer, study, and vigils. When he had done what he could to be a worthy recipient of the sacraments of penance and the Lord's Supper, God would not deny him grace" (p.178).
The sentence in bold was left out when presented via the Catholic Answers Forums. I asked for some clarification on this, but was ignored.

2 comments:

Andrew Suttles said...

If Luther, the monk, was so mentally ill, why then was he made a doctor of theology and professor at Wittenberg?

James Swan said...

The argument that I've read recently is that those who prompted Luther into higher education were in error to point him in that direction.

One particular argument I read recently is that in essence, Luther barely became a Doctor of Theology, and if it wasn't for his superiors bending the rules, he may not have ever become a Doctor of Theology.