ABSTRACT
Martin Luther was born in 1483 to parents who defined good and evil in medieval economic terms. Luther believed that goodness was not an attribute or power strengthened by God, but a value given by God. The root of sin, according to Luther, is lack of faith and the accompanying feeling of despair that one has no security or the false pride that one has secured oneself. Luther biographer Scott Hendrix writes, Luther, was a realist about the human condition. In philosophy, Luther's influence is obvious in the many Lutheran philosophers who learned to read in German schools using Luther's Bible. Generally, the Devil, according to Luther, knows that humans are weakest when they are alone and proud or anxious. Thus, a person can come to recognize the voice of the Devil in any call to individualism that suggest that she does not need nor benefit her community.
