July 7

The assertion in the June 25 Travel article Where Luther is a name brand that Martin Luther propelled Europe from Middle-Ages darkness to Renaissance humanism, inspired the Enlightenment and ... gave birth to the modern Western world was absolutely wrong on three counts and partially wrong on a fourth.The High Middle Ages were not dark.Renaissance humanism had begun at least 150 years earlier in Italy.What inspired the Enlightenment more than anything else was the publication of Isaac Newtons Principia Mathematica in 1687. Thus, Luthers Reformation is only partially responsible for giving birth to the modern Western world.

Donald L. Ross, Bethesda

I very much enjoyed and appreciated the June 25 Travel article about Wittenberg, Germany. However, I would challenge the description of Martin Luther as an anti-Semite. True, Luther said some horrible things about Jews in his later writings, but he said even worse things about others, including the pope, Turks and peasants who rose up against their masters.For Luther, the criterion for criticism wasnt a persons race but rather if he put them in the category of enemies of the gospel. In 1523, much earlier than the essay the Travel article quoted, Luther wrote a wonderful piece called That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, a very enlightened treatise for a man of his time and one in which he glowingly praised the Jewish people.(At that time, Luther hoped that after reading his works, they would suddenly all convert. When they didnt, he turned against them and put them in the same category as the pope: enemies of the gospel, in his opinion.)

So, while Luther was a man of his time, he was no anti-Semite as we would understand the term today. Also, the global Lutheran communion has officially repudiated Luthers harsh comments about Jews in the essay that is cited in the otherwise very informative article.

James B. Vigen, Orangeburg, S.C.

The rest is here:

Setting the record straight on Martin Luther - Washington Post