Luther's Film, Reformation's Day

On Sunday evening, a dozen of us stopped after the evening service to watch the 1953 Martin Luther film. Directed by Irving Pichell, it is a good, black and white attempt to replay the drama and theology of those early years of the Reformation, when one man made a stand against papal indulgences, eventually appearing before princes, bishops and an emperor in order to share the real gospel of Jesus Christ.

Curiously, Quebec's film censorship board never approved the film to be shown in their province’s cinemas. Each of the its members were French-speaking Roman Catholics who evidently objected to Luther’s teachings as much as their forbears back 1523. It was watched, instead, in the basements and cellars of Canadian Protestant churches, something also vaguely redolent of the early Reformation period with its sense of being an 'underground church'.

Well, we were pleased to show it in our chapel’s upper room to mark the previous day’s 509th anniversary of the Doctor’s nailing his ’95 theses’ to the Castle Church’s door. The times have changed and life is more colourful, but the battle between darkness and light continues apace.

Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. Ezekiel 22:27