I never said he didn't die an antisemitic. But, the ferocious views he posted in "On The Jews and Their Lies" were an aberration rather than a consistent record of his beliefs.
Anyone who knows about Luther knows he often used the most vile, explosive and even obscene language in his writings. His language was often foul and designed to provoke a fervent response.
BTW, your claim that "Luther's views were shared by a majority of his contemporaries" is more odious soft-pedaling of antisemitism.
Not at all. It is merely a statement historical fact. Antisemitism was widespread throughout Medieval and Renaissance Europe. Luther was very much a man of his time in his antisemitic views.
It is also important to note that Luther's antisemitism was strictly a religious bigotry. He raged against those Jews who refused to become Christians. He fully expected that Jews would flock to his brand of faith. When they didn't, he exploded.
Count Schlink of Moravia handed Luther a tract written by a Jew aimed at Christians which supposedly ridiculed the Christian Faith and urged them to repent of their Christian beliefs. "On the Jews and Their Lies" was Luther's violent response.
The Nazis' antisemitism was a purely racial bigotry. They despised the Jewish race and cared not a whit whether the Jew was a practicing Jew, an atheist or a converted Christian: to them a Jew was a Jew based upon racial, not religious, heritage.
Again... Luther's pamphlet on the Jews was published in 1543, only three years before Luther died. And, yes. Luther was always well disposed to Jews who CONVERTED to Christianity. As you note Luther's was a purely RELIGIOUS antisemtism, whereas the Nazis' was a RACIAL, and largely secular, antisemitism. (Nazis classified, and murdered, converts just like any other Jew.)
You needn't have pointed this out to me if you'd read my most recent reply to Race Bannon upthread, where I made exactly the same point, if in a different context.
Anyone who knows about Luther knows he often used the most vile, explosive and even obscene language in his writings. His language was often foul and designed to provoke a fervent response.
Let's not forget that Luther also urged the massacre of rebelling peasants, after first egging them on.
Luther was a man of his time, and his time was violent and intolerant. Still, we are men of our time, and we name churches after him. Odd that we do so after such a thoroughly nasty man.