Martin Luther and Technical Communication
I watched an interesting biography about Martin Luther on Netflix while ironing some laundry the other evening. Luther initiated the Reformation of the Catholic Church in the 1500s largely as a reaction against the practice of indulgences (buying forgiveness of sin) that priests carried out. Luther starts his criticism by posting, on a Church door, 95 theses arguing that forgiveness and salvation are free gifts not requiring financial payment.
The Pope declares Luther a heretic and eventually excommunicates him. But Luther avoids death by burning because of the popularity of his writings. Whereas previously the Pope might have singled out and quashed a heretic with relatively little visibility, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press enables Luther’s writings to be quickly disseminated, such that he becomes one of the most popular authors in Europe. Many of his writings are accompanied by visual woodcuts depicting the ideas he puts forth.
Luther eventually gains an audience with Charles V, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. After Luther defends himself, claiming that he has only done according to his conscience and could not disregard it, the council deciding his verdict can’t achieve unanimity to determine a fate for Luther. Luther returns home, but in the process is snatched away to a secluded castle where he translates the scriptures into common German.
As he translates the Greek Bible into vernacular German, he immerses himself among common people to get the language right. Wikipedia expands on this point: “To help him in translating Luther would make forays into the nearby towns and markets to listen to people speak. He wanted to ensure their comprehension by a translation closest to their contemporary language usage” (Luther Bible).
I find several things fascinating about Martin Luther, which all have some application to technical communication:
- He stood up for what he believed in, rejecting an oppressive institution that had the power to extinguish him.
- He began his writings with a quick reference guide (95 theses) rather than a comprehensive magnus opus.
- He accompanied his writing with visual woodcuts to reinforce his message.
- He was an eloquent and gifted writer, at times expressing his ideas in frank, unmistakable language.
- He took pains to translate the Bible into a vernacular, accessible language that common people could understand.
- He ventured among his users to better understand their terminology, idioms, and manner of speech.
- He did much of his translation in seclusion, sequestered away from others.
- He leveraged mass printing to disseminate his ideas, which led to a following that fueled the Reformation.
The parallels between the printing press and the Internet are virtually the same. The printing press enabled the Reformation to spread quickly and widely. It decentralized authority by allowing the masses to have copies of the Bible and other books in their own language rather than relying on priests to read and interpret Latin or Greek texts. Likewise, the Internet decentralizes authority and allows anyone with persuasive writing skills to gain an audience and following. The Internet allows you to quickly disseminate your ideas to a wide group of people in a short time period.
Despite some similarities between Luther and the modern-day technical communicator, at least one major, fundamental difference separates the two: motivation. Luther believed so fervently in his cause that it became his personal mission. He was willing to suffer anything because he believed so strongly in it. Technical communicators, however, mostly have a day job that ends at 5 p.m. We are hardly willing to exert the kind of effort that would ignite a reformation. And yet, if we did believe strongly in something, the same tools are available to us to do what Luther did.
![From Overlooked to Center Stage [8]](http://idratherbewriting.com/wp-content/plugins/related-posts/static/thumbs/9.jpg)
I’m not sure that writing documentation about software has the same importance as writing documentation about one’s eternal salvation.
Then again, sometime in the mid-1990s I was asked to load a copy of Lotus 123 onto more than one computer when the company only had one license. I refused. When I returned home that night, the agency that had sent me called to say my services were no longer needed on that assignment. What could I say? I took my stand for not stealing software; I could do no other.
Maybe I should practice writing hymns?
Tough situation. I’ve noticed, oddly, that even some of my church-going friends pirate media without conscience.
I guess it boils down to this: Luther wanted to deliver the truth to ordinary people so that their lives would be better. That’s what we do as technical writers. While I’m loath to compare myself to this great man of faith, I guess in this one particular thing the comparison is apt.
I like the part about how he was “snatched away” to do his translation in a secluded castle. That’s just like when I slip out to the Starbucks around the corner to do some heads-down work without being interrupted.
Insightful as always. Yes, we’re often snatched away as well to do other projects. And our goal is to bring understanding to the end user. This is one reason I like tech comm more than marketing.
I can think of several times I wanted to nail a screed to the door of the corporate cathedral.
Great comment. Made me laugh. Yes, I think this parallel is the best fit.
The points about the writing parallels are good, but the opening is awful and and either disingenuous or misinformed. Luther did not initiate a Reformation *against* the Catholic Church, but rather of and within it. His aim was to change the institution that he was part of, and he remained a Roman Catholic while doing so. Simply look at the event now pointed to as the initiation – the posting of the 95 Theses. Theses in that context were “topics for discussion at an upcoming forum on campus”, which is about as friendly and polite as it gets, and hardly some sort of declaration of rebellion. It was the pope who decided to make it antagonistic rather than a discussion.
Good points. I updated the post to soften the word rebellion and to note that the reformation took place within the Catholic church rather than against it. I’m not an expert on Luther, but in some of his other writings, he comes down hard on the Pope, depicting him as the devil in one woodcut (if I remember correctly).
Whether it was against the Church or within the Church has a lot to do with your understanding of the universal nature of the Church.
I understood this article to be more about comparing Luther’s methodology to a technical communicator’s methodology. I also understood this to be a bit of an oversimplification. For example, anyone who has ever read the Ninety-Five Thesis knows they really weren’t meant to be a QRG, although today we can use them for this purpose. They were Luther’s questions that he was striving to answer.
That being said, the Reformation did not begin with the posting of the Ninety-Five Thesis. Luther said it began when he was “in cloaca.” What does that phrase mean? http://piercework.typepad.com/just_jen/2009/03/martin-luthers-bowels.html
Good points and excellant corelation.
My 2 cents:
Luther also found difficult to get his points accepted by the Pope as Technical communicators suffer with project managers.
Re. Charles V, the emperor of Rome
Please be so kind as to modify “Charles V, the emperor of Rome” in something like “Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor”.
Some 13 centuries lay between Caesar (Emperor of Rome) and Charles V. emperor of the:
“Sacrum Romanum Imperium Nationis Germanicæ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_V,_Holy_Roman_Emperor
i.e. “King of the Romans” or “Holy Roman Emperor”.
Charles V was born in Ghent (nowadays: Belgium) and had little to do with Rome.
He spoke German, Dutch and Spanish, but little Italian.
Thanks a lot!
Thanks for the note. I did update the reference as you suggested. I also see that Wikipedia lists it similar to this as well — so I used “ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.” Sorry for the confusion.
Great post Tom. As a student of the Reformation(s) (there were actually four different reformations not one), I learned that Luther’s “reformation” would not have been possible had he not had some powerful state backers. Likewise, unless tech writers have in their organization some powerful backers of their requested changes, not much happens.
“Luther believed so fervently in his cause that it became his personal mission. He was willing to suffer anything because he believed so strongly in it. Technical communicators, however, mostly have a day job that ends at 5 p.m.”
True. However, Luther also believed that no legitimate vocation could be purely “secular” – it’s all God’s work, whether it’s preaching the gospel, writing documents, or scrubbing floors. So entering into our work with that perspective does bring a heightened motivation to do all things with all our energies.
May the fruit of our work be worth it!
Yes, even I do the same. Whenever I am working on an important section, especially descriptive or narrative information, I sit in a quite conference room, rather than in my cubicle where there are a lot of distractions….