Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of His willingness.
Martin LutherRead
Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the failure of society and medicine to understand the spiritual or moral dimensions behind human ailments.
Martin Luther argues that physical and mental disabilities are manifestations of deeper spiritual issues caused by devils or evil influences. Rather than attributing these infirmities solely to natural causes and treating them as mere medical conditions, he suggests that true healing requires acknowledging the spiritual context, implying that ignorance prevails among those who fail to see these connections.
Themes
SpiritualityHealingIgnoranceAilmentsPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a lecture about the intersection of spirituality and mental health.
More from Martin Luther
All quotes →Now if I believe in God's Son and remember that He became man, all creatures will appear a hundred times more beautiful to me than before. Then I will properly appreciate the sun, the moon, the stars, trees, apples, as I reflect that he is Lord over all things. ...God writes the Gospel, not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.
Martin LutherRead
It is the part of a Christian to take care of his own body for the very purpose that, by its soundness and wellbeing, he may be enabled to labour, and to acquire and preserve property, for the aid of those who are in want, that thus the stronger member may serve the weaker member, and we may be children of God, and busy for one another, bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfiling the law of Christ.
Martin LutherRead
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but more frequently than not struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God.
Martin LutherRead
We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands.
Martin LutherRead
In a mouse we admire God's creation and craft work. The same may be said about flies.
Martin LutherRead
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A little while, a moment of rest upon the wind, and another woman shall bear me.
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