October 16, 2011

Student Blog: Bethany Kemming - Greetings from Eisenach!

Yes, I’m in Eisenach right now, (and yes, it does sound incredibly similar to Isengard! Crazy.

We are nearing the end of our Reformation Theology tour and it has been great. We went to Dresden, Berlin, Erfurt, and Wittenberg before coming to Eisenach. This tour has been informative and fun, but it has also dashed all my original thoughts about Luther. I’ll proceed to share them with everyone else — spoiler alert.

1. The original doors of All Saints Church are no longer there, thus – the doors Martin Luther supposedly posted his 95 Theses on are long gone.

2. He might not have nailed the 95 Theses to All Saints Church. There’s a good chance he didn’t, but I’m waiting for the professor to verify this one.

3. He didn’t actually say “Here I stand, I can do no other,” that was added later in a letter he wrote to a friend summarizing what happened, most likely.

4. Luther’s study at the Erfurt monastery might not be the actual one he used, nobody really knows.

5. The Lutherstube – Luther’s study – at Wartburg Castle also may not be the one he used.

But, the tiles in the “chapter room” of the Erfurt monastery are the originals, and I can say I most likely walked in his footsteps whilst walking into the room. I also walked through the cloister without talking, maintaining it as a place of silence. Don’t get me wrong, the trip has been anything but disappointing, but I was quite surprised my pre-conceived thoughts of Luther weren’t true. Alas.

On a side note, one of the best things I’ve seen on this trip was a orchestral concert at a church in Dresden. Shout out to the parents – they played “Summer” by Vivaldi and you would have loved it.

Next week I’ll be on a missions trip to Romania, prayers would be appreciated.

1 comment:

Kirsten said...

Haha I'm glad she managed to walk quietly through the cloister in the Monestary (if that is the courtyard area....I didn't...well, I half did, because I didn't see the sign at first). But, that made me kinda want to be a nun for a day or a weekend...the solitude and stillness!

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