Protestants: Do you agree with Martin Luther, the Protestant leader, that faith is the greatest enemy of reason?

Question

Martin Luther wrote:

“Reason is the Devil’s greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil’s appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom… Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism… She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets.”

—Martin Luther, Works, Erlangen Edition v. 16, pp. 142-148.


http://joshuasowin.com/archives/2008/02/29/martin-luther-on-the-whore-of-reason/


Picture: Plaster death mask taken of Luther's face

Answer 1

No, faith should be founded in sound reasoning, Luther is the father of the protestant denomination, and all his life he was reasoning much more than many others, but his reasoning had many flaws, some philosophers say that he is the actual cause of ww1 and 2, so you are right, he actually could be a demon

Answer 2

No. While Catholics have their denomination as a 3-legged stool with the Bible, Tradition, and Authority as the legs, Anglicans (which I am) have the Bible, Tradition, and Reason as the legs. For us, faith, and reason are very closely linked indeed.

Answer 3

Yes, false religion is called a whore because she prostitutes herself with political parties. She preaches men into battle in their useless wars and violence.

She sells herself to make money off the people with scams and lies. Religion has become the sorge of the nations.

Answer 4

I think he meant unrighteous reason. Not righteous reasoning.

Answer 5

Please note that Luther did not say faith is the enemy of reason. He said that "reason" is the enemy of faith. The devil can give you a million "reason" to not have faith. And those "reasons" will keep you from having faith.



Note that here Luther is using the word "reason" to refer to "excuses" and "arguments". This is the first definition give for the word "reason" in the dictionary. "1.an explanation, or justification for an action or event:" The devil can give us all kinds of "excuses" for not having faith.



Luther is NOT talking about "reason" in the scientific sense of."the power of the mind to think, understand, and form judgments by a process of logic". The Christian actual supports such thinking and sees it as a virtue. That is why "the word of wisdom" and "the word of knowledge" are listed two of the nine supernatural gifts that God gives to the church. That is why "wisdom" and "knowledge" are the center of the entire Bible book of Proverbs.



I agree with Luther's statement that "the devil" (and our own mind" can use excuses, arguments and "reasons" to keep us from having faith. And that those are enemies.



I do not agree with your statement that "faith" is the enemy of thinking, understanding, forming judgements, and logics. Quite the opposite. To try to come to any reasonable. logical or scientific understanding of the world within including God (and faith in him) is like trying to come to an understanding of the solar system within including the sun. You can not do it.

Answer 6

God gave us a braIn to think but it can make man arrogent to the power of God

Answer 7

SOMETIMES THAT IS TRUE...NO MATTER WHAT GOD IS KING AND WE SHOULD OBEY HIM! GOD IS JUDGE NOT U THANK GOD...THINK of your own sins and repent & pray...Otherwise no hope...

Answer 8

Context for all such quotes shows that Luther was decrying human reasoning that tried to tread down the wisdom of God - such as that of Roman Catholic reasoning that kept the masses in slavery to systems of works and giving money to the church of Rome in hopes of obtaining salvation. Luther knew that faith is what liberates people from bondage to man-made systems. Faith seems totally unreasonable to people who do not know what faith is, people who claim that faith is not 'reasonable'. The Catholic church of his day obviously despised faith alone for salvation because they reasoned that you had to do A, B and C to work your way 'up' to God's salvation. Luther despised such reasoning.



Such human reasoning is the enemy of faith. See what I did there?