Crossing Martin off my next party-invitation list.
“As many paces as the man takes in his dance, so many steps he takes toward Hell.”
I like to contrast Luther with John Locke who, in his thoughts on education, mentions dancing first as an essential element of a child’s formal instruction. My explication is here in Part 8 of my online Philosophy of Education course.
Have you read Eric Metaxas’ book on Luther? I’m guessing he was just embarrassed to dance. 🙂
Martin Luther was a vile, hate-filled little man even by the standards of the day. The Protestant Reformation has white-washed much of his character; if you read his original writings, you find a man who would have gleefully feasted while watching anyone who disagreed with him burn alive. That such a man is considered an important figure in our history, rather than a cockroach to be eliminated and then ignored, is among the worst crimes of Christianity.
Yes, absolutely Luther was a repugnant figure. Yet, in spite of himself, I think we owe him large for driving in the wedge that broke the chokehold of the Catholic Church over European society, triggering the long, often horrifically bloody chain of events that led to the secular liberalism of the Enlightenment (not of course to be confused with the statist faux-liberalism of today).
In my more optimistic moments I wonder if Trump will prove a similar figure in regard to the chokehold of Washington.
I looked up the documentation you provided for the quote. The documentation you gave is to a review of the book, Albion’s Seed. The author of that book (David Hackett Fischer) cites the quote via the Journal of Thomas Chalkley (1675-1741). Chalkley doesn’t cite a source, and appears to be in error in attributing the quote to Luther. Versions of the quote pre-date Luther. Further, David Hackett Fischer not only mis-cited Chalkley at this point in his book in regard to the story in which this Luther quote appears, he also engaged in a blatant poisoning of the well in regard to the character of Chalkley.
I would hold off on crossing Luther off your next party list. Luther was not a Quaker like Chalkley. Luther was not against the concept of dancing, but rather inappropriate dancing. Luther loved to have a drink, had rather colorful (and at times crude) language, had a sense of humor, could tell a story, and was otherwise beloved by family and friends with a larger-than-life personality. Of course, Luther had serious flaws as well, including his anti-Semitism, but so did the bulk of 16th Century western culture. I’m sure we could also scrutinize John Locke and find reasons to scratch him off the party list as well, for as clear of thinker Locke was, I’m sure we could find ways in which he was infected by the culture of his day, for instance, slavery.
Thanks for the follow-up research, James.