15 June 2009

The Superintelligent

Luther's 1520 treatise "To the Christian Nobility" is the Reformation's central document arguing for priesthood of all believers. Here's the first sentence:

The time for silence is past, and the time to speak has come.

On the next page Luther writes:

I beg you, give my apologies to those who are moderately intelligent, for I do not know how to earn the grace and favor of the superintelligent. I have often sought to do so with the greatest pains, but from now on I neither desire nor value their favor. God help us to seek not our own glory but his alone. Amen.

--Luther's Works, 44:123-24

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