Martin Luther

A Biography for the People

Dyron Daughtrity

• Publisher: Abilene Christian University Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780891124689
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Christianity

Martin Luther is a fresh retelling of one the most significant figures of the last millennium. Not written primarily for theologians, but rather for a general audience, Martin Luther traces Luther's early development, his conflicts with civic and religious authorities, his leadership of reform in Germany, and the subsequent impact of Luther's writings and beliefs as they stretched around the world.

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INTRODUCTION: “I WILL NOT RECANT ANYTHING”

MARTIN LUTHER WAS AS SURPRISED AS EVERYBODY ELSE THAT THE following words on October 31, 1517, would cause such an explosion in the Christian world, ravaging the Roman Catholic Church. Truth be told, the words here are rather boring: a professor is announcing a theological debate about penance, and how Christians should understand it. What follows are the actual words, translated into English, of the opening of the Ninety-Five Theses, along with the first two of the ninety-five:

The Ninety-Five Theses
Or
Disputation for Clarifying the Power of Indulgences

Out of love and zeal for bringing the truth to light, what is written below will be debated in Wittenberg with the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology and regularly appointed lecturer on these subjects at that place, presiding. Therefore, he requests that those who cannot be present to discuss orally with us will in their absence do so by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying, “Do penance,” wanted the entire life of the faithful to be one of penitence.

This phrase cannot be understood as referring to sacramental Penance, that is, confession and satisfaction as administered by the clergy.¹

How did these rather blasé words make such an impact? They set in motion the Protestant Reformation. They opened the floodgates to literacy. They marked the beginning of the end of the medieval world and the dawning of the modern age. They caused the biggest split in the history of Christianity. They set in motion a sequence of events that would lead to religious freedom. They blazed the trail for individualism. They set the stage for modern democracy. They spurred the rise of modern capitalism. They were a prelude to modern secularization—both of the state and of the individual.

Could it be true? Could these academic words—an invitation to a debate—have caused all of that? Scholars continue to debate these matters, but one thing is certain: Luther’s public invitation to a debate on penance represents a pivot in the history of Christianity, and, consequently, in the history of the world. Nobody doubts that Martin Luther, at that time a thirty-three-year-old German monk and professor, is one of the most significant lives in history.

Probably more biographies of Luther have been written than of any other individual in history, save Jesus Christ. Thousands upon thousands of books have been written to explain him, his theology, the Protestant Reformation, the split with the Catholic Church, and so on. The material is overwhelming. Even Luther’s own writings are too numerous to inventory. The German edition (Weimar) of his writings is now at 120 thick volumes. The American edition is currently at fifty volumes and still is expanding. Do we need one more?

Obviously, I think so. Let me explain why.

Passing on What I Received

I prepared this biography of Luther for the 500-year anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation—when Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg. However, I did not write this book simply to add to the party. No, I have other reasons.

I am making my own journey with Luther, and I felt it was time to investigate the man properly. This was my best chance, as we approached the big anniversary. Never again in my career would I be as motivated as I am at this moment. So, I decided to make my humble contribution.

I did not grow up knowing much about Luther, other than the few paragraphs written about him in my high school history book. The proper introduction came when I was taking a History of Christianity course in college. I knew I was not a Catholic, but I did not understand fully why there were Catholics and Protestants. When my professor started talking about this strange, conflicted, frustrated monk in Germany, I leaned in to listen. And I read. And read. Eventually, I decided to give my academic life to this topic. I finished my bachelor’s degree in religion and started a master’s program in history and theology. And I still had a deep thirst for more. I decided to do a PhD in church history. After that, I was offered a professorship teaching church history at a college. Now, I spend virtually every day of my working life writing church history, and no individual has impacted me more than Luther. So I want to share that piece of myself—immersed in Luther all these years—with others.

Today in my courses, I lecture more on Luther than on any other individual. He comes up time and time again. Grasping his ideas, his motives, and his self-understanding is critical to comprehending the history of Christianity. I would argue that by studying Luther we are studying our own intellectual history—why we think the way we do. Luther’s life, thought, and career shaped the modern mind in profound ways. As the great Danish theologian Sören Kierkegaard described him, he was “the master of all masters.”²

Luther’s courageous confrontation at the Diet of Worms was truly a moment for the ages, especially when he looked straight at his high-ranking accusers—those who could easily consign his body to the flames—and clearly uttered the words: “I will not recant anything.” These nobles and princes could easily have said, “Tie him up.” But something strange happened that afternoon in 1521. Luther’s defiance attracted some of those elite officials to his cause. Most people would wither when faced with life or death. But Luther was at his best at this moment. He defied them. Fine, burn me. He was willing to deal with the consequences of his unyielding convictions. They urged him to recant. They placed his books in front of him and told him the price he would pay if he openly defied the church. They gave him ample opportunity to backpedal and escape certain punishment. Luther looked right back at them and said:

“I will not recant anything.”

My professor told us that story, and my palms sweated while he lectured. I was nineteen years old, and I did not know how the story ended. Who was this person? What kind of recklessness would lead someone to commit such an act? This was the medieval world, where people were burned routinely. Opposition to authority was dealt with summarily. Life was so easily extinguished. Luther was a lone monk against an army of rulers. He represented himself. It was pitiful. The crowd of nobles looked at him intently. Who is this man, this defiant priest? How dare he oppose the dictates of the church? Bring him closer and force him into submission. Nevertheless, Luther did not blink.

“I will not recant anything.”

I could not get these words out of my head. This was a life worthy of consideration. This was courage. This was true independence. This was inner strength like none I had learned about before. Since then, I have continued reading and learning about this man, Luther. I teach about his life every semester now. While I must admit that my students are probably more familiar with the story than I was at their age, I take great delight in simply telling it with raw emotion—the way it was told to me—allowing it to penetrate their young minds as it did mine.

For the People

I wrote this book because I feel there is a need for it. It was not written for academicians. It was written for the people. I took my cues from Luther. Early in his career, Luther decided to aim his writings at the common person rather than always trying to write exclusively for clergy and professors. Luther realized something that many scholars never fully grasp: writing your ideas for the people rather than for the elite can unleash great power. So Luther decided early to write mostly in German—the language of the people around him, the people whose opinion he really cared about. This was deliberate, since the ecclesial and academic language of his day was Latin. Luther made it a point to write in the language that would be accessible to the common man and woman. And this may be what saved his neck.

When Luther traveled to Worms to appear before the officials of the Holy Roman Empire, he was treated as a hero. People felt he was somebody they could touch and talk to. When Luther translated the Bible into German, he realized, deep down, that he was winning people to his cause. If they could read the Bible for themselves, he believed, they would take his side in the debates that were sure to come. And, indeed, many of them did.

This biography of Luther is an attempt to take general readers on the thrill ride I have been on my entire career in reading Luther and discovering more about him. I try to tell the story and tell it well, with clarity and concision. The book moves rapidly through the various stages of Luther’s life, distilling the most important events without burying the narrative in the finer details of theology. Of course, I discuss theology throughout, but it is always contextualized within the man Luther, his times, the events going on in his life, and his relationships. I hope academicians will read it, but my primary purpose was to write a compelling story for the people.

Readers will likely enjoy encountering the “big ideas” coming from Luther, but there is another side of the story that this book presents as we place Luther in his socio-cultural context. He was a man utterly fixated on his salvation, but so was everyone else in his day. He truly believed that Jesus was present, actually present, in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. He expected the second coming of Christ at any moment. He believed Satan caused trouble outside his window. He cursed at the Jews. He feared the Muslims. He condemned the other Protestants who broke away from him. Tragically, he turned his back on the German peasants when they became overly zealous after reading his liberating ideas—and they paid the ultimate price for his rejection. He scoffed at the pope and openly insulted him as the antichrist. He was aware of the political dynamics of his day and knew how to play smartly in that arena. He wrote letters to his children when he traveled. Luther loved kids and realized that the future of his movement depended on them. Thus, he wrote lessons specifically for them. Lutheran kids still memorize his words.

And while Luther was a man of his age, he was also the turning point of his age. His socio-political context changed dramatically after his life had been lived. He is that interstice separating the medieval and the modern. After Luther, most things changed. Sure, people still ate and married and went to church, but changes were everywhere. Fasts were less frequent and lost their spiritual potency. Clergy married. Convents emptied. Women looked at priests as potential husbands rather than as men to whom they must bow. Churches became places where the word of God was preached in the local language. The lay people sang, not just the choir. Rome was no longer the center of the churchgoer’s religious consciousness. For much of the Christian world, things were forever changed. And Martin Luther had everything to do with that shift.

Finally, I should point out the obvious here in this introductory chapter. Many books have been written about Luther, and many more are coming onto the market now that the 2017 anniversary has arrived. Biographies by Scott Hendrix, Lyndal Roper, and Heinz Schilling are among the best. I have used the first two, but Schilling’s did not quite make it onto the market in time for me. This book is my humble attempt to add to the conversation. Hopefully, my version of Luther’s life will be one that is readable, concise, fresh, and updated to account for recent research. As a younger scholar, I hope that my version of Luther’s wonderfully rich life will usher today’s students into Luther studies as Roland Bainton and other scholars did for me in the 1990s. It is my hope that this book will whet the appetite for religious studies, theology, and history in all liberal art students so that they will explore for themselves how this one man made such a difference in the world.

Notes

¹This is the official introduction and first two theses of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses. I have used Timothy Wengert, The Ninety-Five Theses, in The Annotated Luther, vol. 1: The Roots of Reform (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), ed. by Timothy Wengert, 13–46.

²In Hans Hillerbrand, “The Legacy of Martin Luther,” in The Cambridge Companion to Martin Luther ed. Donald McKim (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 238.

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LUTHER’S WORLD

MARTIN LUTHER WAS BORN IN 1483 DURING WHAT WAS ALREADY proving to be a pivotal age. Europe was ascending onto the world stage as the premier cultural, mi...