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Quote by Martin Luther

“So, you see, what kept me from rushing in with an answer to you was not the difficulty of so doing, nor pressure of other work, nor the grandeur of your eloquence, nor fear of you, but simply disgust, disinclination, and distaste--which, if I may say so, express my judgment of your Diatribe.”

Quote by Martin Luther

Book:The Bondage of the Will
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Work

The Bondage of the Will

This book delves into the philosophical debate on the extent of human free will, examining the influence of determinism and predestination on individual choice and action. more

Author

Martin Luther
Martin Luther

Martin Luther, born on November 10, 1483 and died on February 18, 1546, was a significant figure in the German Reformation. He was a monk, theologian, philosopher, and writer, known for his leading role in the Reformation. Luther challenged the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and translated the Bible into German, which had a profound impact on German culture and religion. more

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“That book of [Melancthon], to my mind, deserves not merely to live as long as books are read, but to take its place in the Church canon; whereas your book, by comparison, struck me as so worthless and poor that my heart went out to you for having defiled your lovely, brilliant flow of language with such vile stuff. I thought it outrageous to convey material of so low a quality in the trappings of such rare eloquence; it is like using gold or silver dishes to carry garden rubbish or dung.”

InsultLiterary CriticismPolemics
Book:The Bondage of the Will
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“…the importance of the study of Western esotericism goes far beyond a mere “academic interest” in some historical currents and ideas that happen to have been neglected by earlier generations. On the contrary, this domain of research should be recognized as centrally important to historians of religion and culture because it is only by virtue of excluding its basic components—as imagined in the polemical imagination—from the realm of the acceptable that Western culture as such has been able to define its very identity. If I am correct in arguing that the most essential components of that identity are at bottom polemical concepts, it follows that we cannot understand them in isolation, as if they exist in and for themselves. Instead, we need to understand the dynamics of the underlying discourse that created them; and this, in turn, requires us to try and step outside the latter and analyze it from a neutral point of view.”

PolemicsReligious History2005Western Esotericism
Book:Forbidden Knowledge: Anti-Esoteric Polemics and Academic Research
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