Half a millennium after Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to a church door in Germany, we are all still affected by his revolt, and the ideas it spawned.
The Man Who Changed the World
October 27, 2017
You may already know about Martin Luther, the revolutionary monk. But how much do you know about Martin Luther, the man? We talk with author Eric Metaxas about Luther's intense personal life, and how his criticism of the Catholic Church laid the ground for lofty concepts like conscience and democracy.
What would Luther think of our world today? The truth is, many of the concepts born of the Reformation-- concepts like pluralism and the separation of church and state-- were far from what Martin Luther had in mind. Brad Gregory paints a picture of the tense time in which Luther lived, how his rebellion played out, and how we can still feel the effects of the Reformation today.
Brad Gregory, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and author of "Rebel in the Ranks: Martin Luther, the Reformation, and the Conflicts That Continue to Shape Our World Today"
Catholics and Protestants: A Narrowing Divide
October 27, 2017
After 500 years of arguing, killing, and throwing each other out of windows, it looks like Catholics and Protestants are more united than divided on the theological issues that originally forced them apart. We talk to Greg Smith from the Pew Research Center on new data that show the diminished salience of issues that were so contentious in Luther's day. Plus, our own Maureen Fiedler shares her personal experience of seeing the divide between Catholics and Protestants shrink in her lifetime.
