Day 02 - Wittenberg / Eisleben

After breakfast and a short devotion we walked through the lovely town of Wittenberg and began our teachings on Martin Luther with stops at Luther House, St. Mary’s Church and Castle Church, where Martin Luther’s 95 Theses were nailed to the church door in order to initially start a conversation, not to create a new religion.

After lunch we traveled to Eisleben where we toured the birth house of Martin Luther, St. Andrews’s church and the house where Martin Luther died. 

Our Wittenberg discussions centered around two questions that help us understand why the reformation happened: who’s in charge? and who says? Martin Luther was the mouth of the Reformation, Philip Melanchthon was the brains of the Reformation and Lucas Cranach was the artist of the Reformation. The Reformation would not have been possible without all three working together.

Our Eiselben discussions included how art (both music and paintings) was used to teach scripture to folks who could not read, much like we still teach the ABC song to help children learn the alphabet today. We also talked about some of Martin Luther’s greatest fears: of God, of his father and of death.  During the times of Martin Luther it was believed that how you died indicated where you were going, Martin Luther is said to have died peacefully so he must have gotten it right.

While it was a little chilly today, the rain held off for us until we got back on the bus for the drive to Erfurt for our overnight.

Today we walked 9.1 miles. And to catch everyone up we walked 6 miles yesterday….