The Making of Martin Luther by richard rex princeton, 296 pages, $27.95 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation by peter marshall oxford, 278 pages, $24.95 A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation by craig harline oxford, 312 pages, . . . . Continue Reading »
Is it important to understand Martin Luther in order to understand our current political moment? Continue Reading »
By convening a council, the Church might have averted the Reformation. Continue Reading »
The 500th anniversary of the Reformation sent me back to Luther and his debate with Erasmus. The two were among the most widely read authors in sixteenth-century Europe. In the early 1520s, they exchanged dueling treatises on free will. They raised recondite theological questions of biblical . . . . Continue Reading »
Protestantism will be purified only insofar as she is willing to contend conservatively for the faith once delivered to the saints. Continue Reading »
All Christians can be shocked by the vitriol of sixteenth-century theological disagreements, but no one should be shocked by Luther’s anger over corruption, abuse, and injustice. Continue Reading »
Both catastrophist and triumphalist narratives of the Reformation, however sophisticated and nuanced the idiom, always oversimplify. Continue Reading »
True Christian reform always involves bringing into the present something the Church has laid aside or misplaced. Continue Reading »
Next year marks the fifth centenary of one of the few precisely datable historical events that can be said to have changed the world forever. In 1517, an unknown German professor from an undistinguished new university protested against the sordid trade in religious benefits known as . . . . Continue Reading »
As the 500th anniversary of Luther's protest looms, it is useful to ask whether there is a difference between what Protestants, especially evangelicals, will be remembering and what they will actually be celebrating. Continue Reading »
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