This passed October 31 marked the quincentennial of Martin Luther mailing a copy of his 95 Theses to his Bishop, Albrecht von Brandenburg. Yes, in the popular imagination he NAILED a copy of the Theses to the front door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg — but there is actually no documentation or credible account of this having happened, not even from Luther, who was an enthusiastic self-promoter. Be that as it may, the impact of his Theses is inarguable — it sundered the temporal power and spiritual authority of the Roman Catholic church and — among other things — led to the proliferation and divergent conceptual evolution of Protestant sects resulting in the ministries of blokes like Pat Robertson and Joel Osteen… among other things. There are some Thelemic theologians who would claim that echoes of Lutherian (no, NOT Luciferian!) practice found their way into some of our ceremonies. And his creation of a vernacular Bible influenced William Tynsdale who’s work on transation of the Bible into English comprises much of the content of the King James Bible (though Tynsdale was burnt at the stake for his pains) which in turn had a marked influence on a young Plymouth Brethren lad, Edward Alexander Crowley.
In you don’t have time to read all or even one of the multitude of biographies on Luther, the New Yorker ran a fascinating overview of his life and work to celebrate the initial release of the Theses which you can read here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/how-martin-luther-changed-the-world.
