Essay Prompt: Imagine a dialogue between the 16th-century German Protestant reformer Martin Luther and the 20th-century civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., on the issue: Under what circumstances does an oppressed group have the legitimate right to resist oppression? And what is the legitimate way to resist oppression? Imagine that Luther has read King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and that King has read both the anonymous pamphlet The Twelve Articles of the Peasants and Luther’s response to the peasants, An Admonition to Peace.
What do you think Martin Luther, author of Admonition to Peace (1525), would have to say to Martin Luther King, Jr., about the latter’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)? Where might Martin Luther agree with Martin Luther King, Jr.? Where might Luther disagree with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s approach to nonviolent direct action in the struggle for Civil Rights, as it is discussed in the “Letter from Birmingham Jail”?
What do you think Martin Luther King, Jr., would have to say to Martin Luther about the latter’s response to the anonymous pamphlet, The Twelve Articles of the Peasants? Would King agree with the peasants’ arguments expressing their rights to resist oppression? What conditions might King put on the way the peasants should resist oppression? Are these the same conditions that Luther imposes, or do they disagree?
Be sure to address what you think both Luther and King mean by freedom. This is a crucial concept for both writers (Luther and King)—as well as for the anonymous author of The Twelve Articles of the Peasants. Luther seems to think there are different kinds of freedom, and in Admonition to Peace Luther argues that the peasants have confused these different kinds of freedom. [Hint: Pay close attention to what Luther calls “Christian freedom,” as opposed to other types of freedom. Is King’s idea of freedom closer to the meaning of the anonymous author of The Twelve Articles of the Peasants or to that of Martin Luther in his Admonition to Peace?]
A) have an arguable thesis; and B) provide detailed textual evidence from all 3 documents: 1) the anonymous Twelve Articles of the Peasants, 2) Martin Luther’s An Admonition to Peace, and 3) Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”