Dixie Forum to discuss Martin Luther on 500th anniversary of the Reformation

Dixie Forum to discuss Martin Luther on 500th anniversary of the Reformation

Dixie State University’s weekly lecture series Dixie Forum: A Window on the World will host a discussion on priest and scholar Martin Luther. Craig Harline, a professor of early modern history at Brigham Young University, will give his lecture from noon to 12:50 p.m. on Oct. 31 in the Dunford Auditorium of the Browning Resource Center on the Dixie State campus. Admission is free, and the public is encouraged to attend. This year marks the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Castle Church, and thus, for many, marks the start of the Reformation. Harline will present on what Luther intended those 500 years ago, and the true outcome of his actions. Harline’s lecture will center on how consequences often distort the original events. He suggests that we tend to turn actors into statues and larger-than-life figures, making it hard to relate to them or to learn from them, but this Dixie Forum will offer a unique look at the “flesh-and-blood” Luther, during the early events that made him famous. Harline has published numerous books on the religious history of Europe since the Middle Ages, which have received recognition in Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books in Religion, Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year in Religion, and the Mormon History Association’s Best Memoir. His newest book was just released this month, A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation, from Oxford University Press. Dixie Forum is a weekly lecture series designed to introduce the St. George and Dixie State communities to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation. Next week, Dixie Forum will host Dr. Candice Hansen from the Planetary Science Institute as she presents The Exploration of Saturn at noon on Nov. 7 in the Dunford Auditorium. For more information about Dixie State University’s Dixie Forum series, contact Forum Coordinator John Burns at 435-879-4712 or burns@utahtech.edu or visit humanities.utahtech.edu/the-dixie-forum.