By Bayo Ogunmupe
The year 2017 will mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation,
the Christian reform movement when Martin Luther nailed his theses on a church
door in Wittenberg , Germany . This Luther decade provides for celebration and
reflection.
*Martin Luther |
Yet at the moment, it
looks all this is gradually changing. Luther, who has always lived on the
hearts of Protestants, is being brought closer to other inhabitants of the town
and its surroundings. Not least because so many tourists, especially from
abroad and overseas go there in search of Martin Luther’s trail. After all, the
Luther monuments in Saxony-Anhult have been under UNESCO protection as part of
the world heritage since 1996. Luther tourism is certainly an economic factor,
not only in Wittenberg , but also in Wittenberg ’s sister,
Eisleben, in Mansfelder district, where Luther was born and also died.
It was at Eisleben that
the person the Roman Church outlawed as Junker Jorg lived in hiding, and in
1521 and 1522, worked on his German translation of the Bible. This was a
momentous act, of which there can be no doubt. For many people, the Book of
Books is as topical as ever. Sadly in Eastern Germany ,
during more than 40 years of communist rule, the citizens had their faith
driven out of them. Indeed, to a degree the communists succeeded in something
that the Christian churches of all denominations unanimously lament.
So the imminent jubilee
of the Reformation is coming just at the right time. For this jubilee, the
Evangelical church in Germany
has instituted a position for a prelate, which was filled by the theologian,
Stephen Dorgerloh. The Luther Decade refers to the period up to 2017 the year
that will mark the 500th anniversary of Luther’s legendary nailing of his
theses to the door of Wittenberg
Church .
In those 95 theses,
Luther denounced the Roman Catholic Church’s sale of indulgences. He criticised
the conditions that prevailed at the time with pertinent references to the
Bible.
The posting of the
theses took place on October 31, 1517. Therefore the October 31 is Reformation
Day, which is a public holiday in the Protestant central German states of
Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia .