Concerning Christian Liberty
Martin Luther 1520 CE
This short treatise and letter to Pope Leo X explain Luther's understanding of Christian faith and freedom. Luther opens with a striking contrast: a Christian is both free from everyone and a servant to everyone.
66 pages 1h 17m reading time
- One of the three great treatises Luther wrote in 1520, and one of the founding texts of the Protestant Reformation.
- Argues that a person is made right with God by faith alone, not by good works, religious rituals, or obeying church rules.
- Argues that good works still matter, but as the free result of faith: a Christian serves others out of love, not to earn salvation.
- Helped spread the idea that every believer can stand before God directly, without needing priests to act as go-betweens, a belief central to Protestant churches today.
- Shaped later Western thinking about the freedom of individual conscience, the idea that each person must answer for their own beliefs.
Written as a peace offering
Luther wrote it after a papal envoy urged peace, while a papal order threatened to expel him.
A backdated letter
Luther dated his letter to the pope weeks early, so it seemed written before he saw the papal threat.
Two versions at once
Luther wrote a Latin version for scholars and a shorter German one for ordinary readers.
The peace soon failed
Weeks later Luther publicly burned the papal order, and in early 1521 the pope expelled him from the Church.
Translated from Latin