Literary Comparison Essay

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The two documents that will be discussed by comparing, analyzing and contrasting within this paper will be Ignatius of Loyola’s Rules for Thinking with the Church along side of an excerpt of Martin Luther’s writings from the Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther's Latin Works. Although there are many similarities within these documents as men of faith write them both, they are written from different perspectives of their faith. The first is written of the persuasion that one must be submissive to the Roman Catholic Church, and the other, a former Catholic reflecting upon when he, as a Catholic Monk, had an epiphany of the phrase “justice of God” looking at the scriptures writes the other.

First to be analyzed will be the similarities within the two documents. Ignatius suggests we must, “keep our minds prepared and ready to obey promptly and in all things the true spouse of Christ our Lord” and while reading Luther’s writing one can attest this is exactly the sentiment of Luther as well; to be obedient to Christ without delay. They both wanted to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word with great passion and intensity. To be contrary to this was not in the realm of their thinking. Another parallel within these passages are the things that Ignatius reveals must be praised such as religious life, virginity, continence, matrimony, obedience, chastity, fasts, abstinence, confession, and studying religion. Both men are dedicated to this list of values by virtue of their dedication to their faith. Each man of faith approaches this list with a different guiding light; Ignatius of Loyola’s guiding light is following the Roman Catholic Church and for Martin Luther, his guiding lights is focusing on the Word of God being the ...

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... Ignatius and worship at the Roman Catholic Church and others have followed Luther and worship at a Lutheran church.

Works Cited

Brecht, Martin. (tr. Wolfgang Katenz) "Luther, Martin," in Hillerbrand, Hans J. (ed.) Oxford

Encyclopedia of the Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996, 1:460.

Preface to the Complete Edition of Luther's Latin Works (1545) by Dr. Martin Luther, 1483- 1546 Translated by Bro. Andrew Thornton, OSB from the "Vorrede zu Band I der Opera Latina der Wittenberger Ausgabe. 1545" in vol. 4 of _Luthers Werke in Auswahl_, ed. Otto Clemen, 6th ed., (Berlin: de Gruyter. 1967). pp. 421-428.

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, trans. by Anthony Mottola, pp. 139– 141. Copyright ©1964 by Doubleday, a division of Bantam, Doubleday, Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Used by per-mission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

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