Word: wittenberg
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...stone-grey East German city of Wittenberg, where Martin Luther posted his 95 theses, last week banners proclaiming SOCIALISM WILL CONQUER THE WHOLE WORLD overhung the main streets. At kiosks, vendors peddled a new kind of Kewpie doll - portly and dressed in the brown robes of an Augustinian monk. In one shop window, portraits of Luther and Lenin glared at each other across the open pages of an ancient Bible. Thus was the 450th anniversary of the Reformation celebrated in the midst of a "democratic socialist" republic...
Thanks largely to the cool hostility of the East German government, Reformation Day observances at Wittenberg were less majestic than they might have been. Though East German churchmen had invited 850 Western colleagues to the ceremonies, the government granted visas to only 217. It prevented a huge "Christian witness" rally that the churches had planned, by refusing to approve the use of a suitable auditorium in nearby Leipzig. Western visitors, moreover, were not allowed to travel outside the Wittenberg area, occasioning a signed protest from several Christian delegates, among them, World Council of Churches' General Secretary Eugene Carson Blake...
...that it is now the consensus of Catholic theologians that "Luther was a profoundly spiritual thinker who was driven to revolt by worldly and incompetent Popes." In Europe, Catholic theologians will be among the handful of observers allowed by the East German government to attend Reformation Week ceremonies at Wittenberg...
...their heritage and the un-Christian follies of Romanism, Reformation Sunday is becoming an ecumenical event that looks to the future rather than the past. Across the world, this year's celebration-marking the 450th anniversary of Martin Luther's posting of his 95 theses at Wittenberg-is being shared in by Catholics as well as Protestants. For both branches of Western Christianity, the great Reformer is increasingly seen not as a symbol of past schism but as a potential focus for unity to come. "Rapprochement between Catholic and Protestant churches can come," says Lutheran Theologian...
...Godot. But where Beckett's dialogue almost expires in pauses of resignation, Stoppard's lines pant with inner panic. Delivered with comic ardor at machine-gun speed, R. and G.'s interchanges combine mental verve with spiritual desolation. It is as if the quiz kids of Wittenberg U. found themselves desperate at flunking in life. R.: What's the matter with you today? G.: When? R.: What? G.: Are you deaf? R.: Am I dead? G.: Yes or no? R.: Is there a choice? G.: Is there a God? R.: Foul! No non sequiturs, three...