So, using my definition maybe Satan did exist for Luther. There is no doubt about that...
The psychiatric definition of delusion would run something like this: A false belief or idea that persists over time, without rational basis, and which is not capable of eradication by ordinary measures. Psychiatrists consider delusion (by their definition) to be within an individual, and the very definition defines itself, in part, by the (incidental) control group of others that exhibit normalcy. One is delusional in reference to the normative beliefs of others. In common usage, delusion is understood in a much less formal way (The Madness of Crowds), and shares some common elements with illusion. As a diagnostic issue, however, it is applied to individual experience, and it is chiefly recognized by its belief in a reality that is not accepted as real by the rational (and controlling) majority.
I ought to have made it clear that I was approaching the topic from the standpoint of mental illness. It seems I did not.
It seems to me that Luther's relationship with God, the devil, the Jews, the Turks, etc., is a metaphor for his relationship with his Father. As a defenceless child, Luther suffered the wrath and violence of a dominating and abusive father--an Old Testament type of father from the Fatherland. As an adult he became an intermittent drunkard in perpetual rebellion against authority, and against all those that made him feel diminished and insignificant. In reading his diatribe against the Jews, one can feel the venom dripping from every line...and the pervasive sense of powerlessness. His need for a loving father was insubstantial when compared to the reality of Satan tormenting him through the countless nights. Satan even took material form and had to be physically fought off by Luther.
Two obsessions of thought stride mercilessly through Luther's life: The wretched, miserable, evil, degraded, and sinful Nature of his Being, and the evil of reason, which was the whore that stood between Luther and his pitiful need for absolute subjection before God.
One needed to be unthinking; One needed to fully feel and accept one's evil; One must not fight back; One must endure God's righteous anger and punishment; One must prostrate oneself, beaten and bleeding, before God, and God would (perhaps) take pity and show mercy on his bad bad children. Unlike Jacob, who challenged and confronted God, Luther knew from past experience that God could not be confronted, but must be appeased. Luther was terrified of this God, just as he was terrified of the God that beat him to the ground in his youth.
His life was a tragic tale: A sensitive and intelligent man, forced to deny his own mind, in order not to be forced to deny the necessity of being beaten into submission by his earthly god--and in order, regardless of this abuse, to forgive him and to love him.
One is reminded of the bizarre relationship that certain pimps establish to control their victims through random beatings. They alternate these beatings with irrational and unpredictable behaviour, and demonstrations of love: "Oh, Baby, did I hurt you? I don't know what came over me. There now, here is some money. You go shopping now. Buy yourself something pretty--something nice. You be back here by 3 o'clock sharp, now, ya hear??" In time, the victim becomes completely subservient and obeys every word and gesture without question. This rule of terror is made more terrible by the love and consideration that flits menacingly and randomly through the process.
This torture exists in the animal kingdom in the cougar family. A cougar will love its victim up after catching it. If unhurried, the cougar licks and loves his meal like a doting father or mother, while the terrified creature awaits death.
Luther spent his life under the paws of the cougar. He fought the devil, he fought the Catholic Church, he fought the Jews, and he fought the flesh. He fought everyone. He fought and he fought, and he fought. But the sweet breath of the cougar was always in his nostrils, and those dark and baleful eyes were always fixed on his...beneath the soft but unrelenting paws. |
