Exhibiting the Reformation

This lecture will formally introduce the exhibition "Reforming the Word: Martin Luther in Context." In 1517, Martin Luther, a professor of theology and a monk, published his scathing critique of indulgences, a church practice that allowed Christians to buy off time from suffering for one’s sins in the afterlife. Issued in the provincial town of Wittenberg, this call for academic debate and reform unleashed a series of events that led to the break-up of Latin Christianity. The Reformations that followed forever altered the lives of those in early modern Europe and beyond. Highlighting University of Michigan’s Special Collections, Reforming the Word: Martin Luther in Context, commemorates this pivotal transformation in world history.