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Is it just wishful thinking
or are we perhaps gearing up to bid farewell to post-modernity?
Something odd is going on. Post-modernity’s motto
seems to be “Here I stand—and here, and
here, and here.” Suddenly, we note in the United
States a renewed interest in the clarity of Martin
Luther, whose most famous words (apocryphal or not)
were: “Here I stand. God help me. Amen.”
It’s not that people
with a sense of history had ever underestimated the
16th-century father of the Reformation. Three years
ago, Life magazine and A&E ranked him third
on their lists of the past millennium's top 100 people,
although 78 percent of all Americans have no idea
who he was, according to opinion polls; more often
than not they confuse him with Martin Luther King,
the slain civil rights leader.
Now, Luther seems to be
popping up everywhere in the United States. Two denominational
publishing houses—Augsburg-Fortress in Minneapolis
and Concordia St. Louis—have just come out with
new biographies of the Reformer. A Luther comic book
for children is about to appear. In July, public television,
prompted by no particular event such as an anniversary,
broadcast a two-hour special on Luther. And on Sept.
26 a marvelously fast feature film, which is both
theologically sound and entertaining, will open in
300 theaters in the U.S.
Its title is, simply, Luther.
It is the first full-length
film on Luther in more than half a century. Packed
with action, whimsy and yet Gospel-centered, it avoids
stereotypes. Don’t expect to hear Luther’s
great anthem, “A Mighty Fortress is our God”;
this work, directed by Eric Zill, is not about Luther,
the musician.
Neither should you expect
a lengthy discussion on Luther’s theologically
motivated anti-Jewish outbursts late in life, outbursts
that gave him such a bad press after World War II.
This film is about a period in Luther’s life
when he was young and immensely dynamic, and when
he was one of the first theologians to stress Christianity’s
debt to Judaism, reminding his co-religionists in
a powerful text “That Jesus Christ was born a
Jew.”
Don’t even expect lengthy
discourses about Luther and his magnificent wife,
Katherine von Bora, who would actually make a superb
topic for a separate movie. Yes, you will see how
she and several other sisters flee from their cloister,
hiding in herring barrels. There is a subtle love
scene between Katherine, played enchantingly by English
actress Claire Fox, and the Reformer, a former Augustinian
monk.
You will see nothing of
Luther’s family life, which set the pattern for
the Protestant parsonage that for centuries had an
immense impact on the cultures of Germany, Scandinavia,
Britain and North America. Again, this is not what
this film is all about. “There simply wasn’t
enough time for all this,” said Dennis A. Clauss,
corporate projects leader of Thrivent Financial for
Lutherans, the movie’s sponsor.
Its focus is much more daring.
In a period of moral and religious relativism, where
man cooks up his own ever-changing “truths”
according to his own whims, the weather and impressions
gained from the latest television talk shows, this
film is totally anti-cyclical. It centers on mankind’s
most pressing question, which triggered Luther’s
Reformation: “How do I find a merciful God?”
This is a time when the
words from the Mighty Fortress’ third stanza
ring remarkably topical: “Though hordes of devils
fill the land, all threat’ning to devour us.”
In this environment some of us are aching to hear
someone say: "Unless I am convicted by Scripture
and plain reason… my conscience is captive to
the Word of God: I cannot and I will not recant anything,
for to go against conscience is neither right nor
safe. God help me. Amen.”
“Here I stand”—these
words spoken by Luther in 1521 before the Imperial
Diet of Worms will give you goose bumps, especially
when you know how close he was to a fiery death at
the stake. It is one of the two most gripping scenes
in this film where British actor Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare
in Love) portrays the Reformer superbly—his
faith, his drive, and his humor. The fact that this
particular scene is shown with meticulous historical
accuracy in every detail enhances the movie’s
significance. The second spellbinder comes toward
the end in a depiction of the Augsburg Diet of 1530,
where the Protestant princes step forward, one by
one, bowing their heads to emperor Charles V, and
declaring themselves willing to be decapitated for
the sake of the Gospel. O, that in these decadent
days when the filthiest fingers fumble with Scripture,
we would hear statements like the one spoken by the
prince-elector of Brandenburg: “Before I let
anyone take as of them (his subjects) the Word of
God and ask me to deny my belief, I will kneel and
let them strike off my head.”
When I previewed this film,
I was reminded of the 1966 classic, “A Man for
All Seasons,” about another towering Reformation-era
figure, Sir Thomas More, the Catholic martyr. It takes
a genius to weave together commanding faith statements,
hilarity, human interest and great cinematography
without slipping into bad taste. Eric Zill accomplished
that.
You walk with Luther into
Rome and observe whoring monks. You nod laughingly
as he says, “In Rome, you can buy sex and salvation.”
You are in the middle of a papal boar hunt, where
the pontiff slays a wild pig. You stand in the crowd
as Johannes Tetzel, the brilliant Dominican monk,
hawks indulgences, prompting the Reformation. And
you laugh with Professor Luther’s students as
he ridicules the folly of collecting relics: “Eighteen
of the 12 apostles are buried in Spain alone.”
You smile at the immensely
mature whimsy with which Sir Peter Ustinov portrays
the elector-prince Frederick the Wise of Saxony, Luther’s
protector, and you recoil at the carnage of the 1525
Peasants’ War, which was triggered by the Protestant
Reformation. With Luther, you are aghast at its price
in human lives—50,000–100,000.
This film hits America and—a
month later—Europe at a perfect time, when the
dual craze of political correctness and godlessness
(which does not allow for towering giants such as
Luther) is arguably reaching its peak. In this climate,
it is gratifying to hear Joseph Fiennes’ profession
of his belief.
He readily admits, “Soccer
is my church.” But then he will tell interviewers
that acting Luther made him ponder his own faith more
deeply: “You can't get away from it if you embrace
this man.”
©2003 Uwe Simon Netto. Used
by permission.
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