{"id":24416,"date":"2010-11-07T18:38:29","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T18:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion\/?p=24416"},"modified":"2010-11-07T18:38:29","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T18:38:29","slug":"walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/2010\/11\/07\/walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor Hans Wiersma retraces Martin Luther’s pilgrimage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wiersma-walk\"<\/a>by Betsey Norgard<\/p>\n

Scholars of the Reformation gain deep knowledge by studying the writings of Martin Luther, but for Hans Wiersma it also became experiential when he spent four days walking in the footsteps of Luther\u2019s pilgrimage to Rome 500 years ago.<\/p>\n

Just before fall semester classes began, Wiersma joined the project \u201cHere I Walk,\u201d led by Andrew and Sarah Wilson, two Lutheran ecumenical scholars, who retraced the entire 1,085-mile route walked by Luther from the monastery in Erfurt, Germany, to Rome. Wiersma walked with the Wilsons for 66 miles, from Erfurt to Coburg.<\/p>\n

Wiersma had met Andrew Wilson at a conference, and what resulted for Wiersma was a fortunate convergence of his disciplinary interest in Reformation studies, his research focus on the early Luther and the Augustinian monks who followed him, and Wiersma\u2019s undergraduate background and continued interest in documentary filmmaking.<\/p>\n

The modern pilgrims followed the old pilgrim routes, sometimes spotting stone route markers from the 16th century. They followed the traditional rules of pilgrimage\u2014prayers, scripture reading, chores, and conversation. \u201cIt gave me a sense of how 16th-century monks traveled,\u201d Wiersma says, \u201cand what it felt like.\u201d He enjoyed the absence of modern distractions. As it was for the early monks, lodging could be found each night, with bigger towns conveniently spaced a day\u2019s walk apart.<\/p>\n

What Wiersma brought back was an \u201cappreciation of how much Europe is built on its past. It\u2019s still easy to connect with Europe of 500 years ago in the old church buildings, pilgrim paths, and road markers.\u201d He says that while he went there as a Lutheran pastor, part of a Lutheran Church with all its modern trappings, he came back with a much better understanding of the formation of the early Lutheran movement. \u201cThose monks started reading the Bible in a new way that differed from the institutional church\u2019s way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Wiersma\u2019s \u201cHere I Walk\u201d experience caused him to reflect upon Luther\u2019s own experience. Luther\u2019s 1510 pilgrimage brought him to Rome, where he was scandalized by the conduct of clergy and the religious commercialism. Wiersma understood that Luther\u2019s long journey back to Germany would have given the monk a long time to think over and talk about what he witnessed in Rome. Seven years later, he posted the 95 Theses, igniting the Reformation.<\/p>\n

From the Fall 2010 Augsburg Now<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Betsey Norgard Scholars of the Reformation gain deep knowledge by studying the writings of Martin Luther, but for Hans Wiersma it also became experiential when he spent four days walking in the footsteps of Luther\u2019s pilgrimage to Rome 500 years ago. Just before fall semester classes began, Wiersma joined the project \u201cHere I Walk,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/religion-and-philosophy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}