Sammy stein mart biography of martin luther

Lyndal Roper—professor of history at Oxford—has written a new biography of Martin Luther titled Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet.

Her goal is neither to “idolize” nor “denigrate” Luther, nor does she “wish to make him consistent.” She aims instead to understand him and the “convulsions” both he and Protestantism in general unleashed (xxx). Roper examines Luther’s relationships with family, mentors, and students; his theological and pastoral concerns; and his sociological context to give readers a fuller picture of the man and his time.

Luther’s Relationships

Roper situates Luther in the complex of personal relationships of the Reformation. Especially prominent in her story are those she deems “father figures” for Luther—including his own father; his Augustinian superior, Johannes von Staupitz; and his colleague, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt. After analyzing these relationships, Roper writes that Luther was unable to “transmit a sense of God’s fatherly care for the believer” (195). She concludes that “it is the distance, rather than the personal closeness, of God that lies at the center of Luther’s theology” (195). Yet this conclusion ignores the Reformer’s concept of the immediate, effective presence of God in his Word in all its forms, and his providential care for human beings in daily life.

Roper also treats Luther’s relationship with his mother, Margarete, and his wife, Katharina. His marriage had many features that are “chauvinist” from a modern perspective, but it was also loving, open, and in some aspects progressive (he left his possessions to her in his last will and testament despite that being against Saxon law).

Further, her treatment of Luther’s students is curiously lopsided. Roper focuses on one student with whom he had severe difficulties, Johann Agricola. Though she doesn’t ignore the theologic

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Citation preview

M A RT I N LU T H E R

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ii

MARTIN

LUTHER



V I S I O N A RY R E F O R M E R

SCOTT H. HENDRIX

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON iii

Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Oliver Baty Cunningham of the Class of 1917, Yale College. Copyright © 2015 Yale University All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: U.S. Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected] www.yalebooks.co.uk Typeset in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by Gomer Press Ltd, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hendrix, Scott H. Martin Luther: the man and his vision/c Scott H. Hendrix. pages cm ISBN 978-0-300-16669-9 (cl: alk. paper) 1.  Luther, Martin, 1483–1546. 2.  Reformation—Germany—Biography. I.  Title. BR325.H37 2015 284.1092—dc23 [B]                                                     2015017636 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 iv

FOR AMELIA, ZOE, and M AYA

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. . . . Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of a man—the biography of the man himself cannot be written. — Mark Twain 1906

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CONTENTS

Preface ix People xvi Maps xxii Part One: Pathways to Reform /– 1 My Homeland 3 2 All That I Am and Have 16 3 Holy from Head to Toe 27 4 Not One of Those 41 5 Quiet No Longer 55 6 The Best Theologians 68 7 The Sails of My Heart 83 8 Subject