Thursday, December 6, 2007

Letters Not Good for Debating

From a letter by Martin Luther to Philip Melanchthon, September 9, 1521, in discussing the problem of monastic vows:

It is not good to debate in a letter. While one writes quite verbosely about something the other person already knows only too well, one omits what the other person is most interested in…

Luther's Works, Letters I, Vol. 48, edited by J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann, Fortress Press, letter # 95.

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