Not quite. Luther: Biography of a Reformer is published by Concordia Publishing House (the publishing house of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod).
Posted on 02/14/2004 12:30:25 PM PST by yonif
A silly idea, perhaps, but there was also some truth in "The Life Millennium," a book that rated the top personalities and events of the past 1,000 years.
Among the people, Martin Luther ranked third behind Edison and Columbus, beating Galileo, da Vinci and Newton.
The Reformer's remarkable career is treated in the feature film "Luther" and now in two new biographies, each scholarly, yet written for swift, enjoyable reading:
•"Martin Luther: A Life" (Augsburg) by James Nestingen of Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.
•And "Martin Luther" (Viking) by Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.
Alas for the estimable Nestingen, Marty grabs notice as the elder statesman among America's religious historians. And his book joins the successful "Penguin Lives" series, which includes brief biographies of numerous religious figures alongside the likes of Lincoln, Churchill - and Elvis.
Luther was obsessed with God, Marty writes: "God present and God absent, God too near and God too far, the God of wrath and the God of love, God weak and God almighty, God real and God an illusion, God hidden and God revealed."
He was plagued by spiritual failures in an era when, Marty writes, many "believed they could be right with God through chiefly external means such as pilgrimages, rituals, visiting relics and paying for Masses." Luther finally realized that God had already forgiven him his sins through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Reformation dispute about how people are saved has faded, and in 1999 a partial accord between the Vatican and Lutheran World Federation declared:
"By grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works."
Since the 1960s, Catholicism has also imitated Protestantism's emphasis on the Bible, though it rejects "Scripture alone," Luther's slogan to define the source of truth. Luther also challenged Catholicism's ban on married clergy, but that remains intact (except in Eastern Rites).
If Luther had achieved nothing else, his German translation of the Bible would have been plenty. It virtually created the modern language and gave the people God's word in words they understood, fostering literacy and what eventually became democracy.
For 16th-century Europeans, Christian doctrine was part of life, culture and politics in a way 21st-century Westerners can scarcely fathom. Thus Luther's teaching divided Europe's churches and kingdoms. Ruinous religious warfare resulted.
Luther was uncomfortably enmeshed in politics. From 1521 onward, he lived under a death sentence from the Holy Roman Empire and survived the early years thanks only to protection from Frederick the Elector (one of the seven princes who elected the emperor).
Oddly, the two men never met, but Frederick apparently took pride in this Bible professor at his young backwater university. Odder yet, Luther's Reformation ruined the money-raising value of Frederick's 17,443 relics supposedly dating from biblical times (a twig from the Burning Bush, mother's milk from the Virgin Mary).
Though Marty is a Lutheran clergyman, there's no PR puffery in his Luther. The man's flaws are fully displayed, along with those of the late medieval Catholic Church he defied and divided.
Because he abhorred disorder, Luther sided with the rulers' slaughter that ended the anarchic Peasants' War. Also reprehensible was his secret approval of bigamy for a philandering Lutheran ally, Prince Philip of Hesse.
Worst of all were Luther's late-in-life calumnies against Jews, which were religious, not racial, but nonetheless aided Nazism centuries later.
Many of Luther's lamentable excesses, Marty believes, are explained if not excused by his conviction that the End Times were near - a warning, perhaps, for 21st-century U.S. Protestants.
Such criticisms might not have bothered Luther himself much since, Nestingen writes, he was "remarkably frank about himself" as a simple sinner who was redeemed only through God's graciousness.
There was a companion book put out by the Augsburg publishing company that had about a dozen photos from the film. It was printed in fairly large print and seemed aimed at a middle school age audience (ie, young people). I bought it, read it and donated it to my church library.
Maybe someday I'll return for a tour of the Luther-related cities that you mentioned.
Not quite. Luther: Biography of a Reformer is published by Concordia Publishing House (the publishing house of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod).
Very good book, esp. for young people. I'd recommend it highly.
True. And without him, the Anabaptists would be more numerous in Europe, and less so in the U.S.
What a spin on history! Luther's heart was heavy over the entire revolt and he worried that people blamed him and his ideas for starting it. Luther never intended for the peasants to hijack his ideas and then go on a murderous rampage. Don't we today believe that there should be good order in society, so as to ensure the safety of all?
Off topic, but, were you there during the massacre of Israeli atheletes?
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