Luther on Leadership

Leadership Insights from the Great Reformer

Cook

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781532635274
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

As a leader, Martin Luther shook the world. Yet, oddly enough, while a great deal has been written about his life, theology, and legacy, few authors have taken the time to examine his leadership characteristics. Luther on Leadership fills this gap by examining his life in light of modern leadership theories.This book looks at Luther's life from a variety of angles to show why he was such an effective leader. With chapters focusing on Luther as a change agent, transformational leader, adaptive leader, and more, this work will help the reader understand why Luther transformed the landscape of Europe. Examining not only his theological contributions, but also his contributions in fields such as law, politics, economics, and education, Luther on Leadership aims to give a holistic picture of Luther as a leader in many areas of society.

Section 1

The Legacy of Martin Luther and the Reformation

1

Luther’s Life and Theology

Dr. Brent A. Thomason

Though some have undertaken the task of dissecting Luther’s theology from his life experiences, and vice versa, this chapter’s goal is to recount the life and experiences which bore out the convictions of a man who could do no other than to stand unwaveringly on certain theological precepts. The current presentation of Martin Luther is not intended to be exhaustive—superior volumes have been dedicated to that purpose. However, select episodes from Martin’s life have been recounted here insofar as the author believes these life experiences shaped Luther’s personal and theological convictions, which in turn are scrutinized in the following chapters as these convictions came to bear on Luther’s leadership contributions.

The Reformer’s Foundational Years

Martin Luther was born the second son to Hans and Margaretta Luder on November 10, 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. He was baptized in the local church the next day and given the name “Martin” after the celebration of the Feast of St. Martin on November 11, 1483. Hans was a peasant and did not fare well in Eisleben. Uprooting the Luder family, Hans moved to Mansfield where he found work in the copper mines. Within seven years, the Luder family prospered, relatively speaking, in that Hans owned his own copper mining business.1

Martin grew up in a very strict and disciplined home, though not very different from other young boys of his time. Disciplining young Luther flowed from the strict expectations by which Hans and Margaretta held themselves. Though contemporaries with Copernicus, Christopher Columbus, and Michelangelo, the explorations and advancements brought about by the Renaissance era were immaterial to the peasant-living of the Luder family. The discipline of the family ensured a practical approach to eking out a livelihood for the young Luther. With infant mortality rates soaring to 60 percent, and adulthood facing the treacherous life of revolts and feuds with landlords, not to mention the Plague, syphilis and “English Sweats” which ravaged the European continent, it was imperative that Martin find passage out of the hostility and frailty of peasant life. Thus, Hans decided to send Martin on an educational journey.

At the age of five, Martin attended Latin School in Mansfield. Over the course of eight years, he learned Latin, music, and a few catechisms. The school was brutish and Martin learned primarily from coercion rather than the joy of accruing knowledge. Caning was a common disciplinary method for young boys like Martin who had not learned their Latin grammar tables. At age thirteen, Martin was sent away to Magdeburg where he exercised his music skills through caroling in the streets among young boys—a common practice to acquire food and drink. The following year, in 1498, Martin was sent to school in Eisenach where his street caroling found the favor of a wealthy woman who provided him the amenities of a comfortable life. The three years spent at Eisenach were transformational for Luther. His Latin skills excelled, learning to give oration in Latin and read the ancients in the same.2 His skill found the eye of the school’s headmaster John Trebonius who recommended to Hans that Martin be sent away to the University of Erfurt at seventeen years old. Up to this point, Martin experienced a normal education and did not stand out among his peers insofar as boys attended school. What would have been unusual about his upbringing was that his modest home roots afforded him such an opportunity to attend university instead of taking over the family business.

These foundational years instilled in Luther the strong sense of discipline and perfection in his work ethic. Luther’s strict upbringing found expression in the way he agonized over each choice of word translated from the Bible’s original languages to the vernacular German. Luther at times spent up to a month contemplating the most fitting translation of one word, taking pains even to visit a butcher shop to better translate the priestly sacrificial processes.3 Though far superior in their grasp of the language, the team of Hebrew scholars Luther commissioned for the translation of the Old Testament had to pass every word through the scrutiny of Luther’s litmus test.4 His disciplined childhood even found an outlet of expression in the thoroughness of his confessions as a young monk. Luther daily cross-examined his heart with such vigor, recounting even the minutest sin to his Augustinian order, that Johann von Staupitz once remarked, “You want to be without sin, but you don’t have any real sins anyway . . . the murder of one’s parents, public vices, blasphemy, adultery, and the like. These are sins. . . . You must not inflate your halting, artificial sins out of proportion!”5 Years of cultivating a disciplined life in his primary years bore the quality traits which shaped the rigorous leader Luther was bound to become.

The Reformer’s Transformational Years

At university, Luther proved to be a model student, standing head and shoulders above his peers.6 Luther so excelled in the late medieval education of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) that he earned the nickname “The Philosopher” among his peers. He devoured the curriculum at a neck-breaking speed, completing his bachelor of arts and master of arts in the shortest time possible—two years for the former and three years for the latter. At that time, Hans made the farsighted decision to provide for his family by sending Master Martin to law school. If Martin succeeded, the Luder family estate would be secure. Hans even purchased the very costly, central law text of the time for Martin—the Corpus Juris Civilis. But Luther’s law career was not meant to be.

One month into law school, the twenty-one-year-old took a leave of absence from the faculty of law and visited his parents in the summer of 1505. As Luther returned to the university, he was caught in a thunderstorm near Stotternheim, just north of Erfurt. Flashes of lightning around him struck Luther to the ground. Immediately he cried out to the patron saint of miners, “Help me St. Anne! I will become a monk!” Upon hearing word of the monastic vow, Hans was furious, primarily because his investment in Martin for the future security of the Luder estate was now in jeopardy. After some deliberation, and much to his chagrin, Hans conceded to the wishes of young Luther, and Luther became a monk.

Luther demonstrated his willingness to pay the price of his convictions when, upon entering the monastery, he dispossessed himself of his beloved lute, though by this time he was a proficient musician, his costly Corpus Juris Civilis, and other material goods. Though Luther himself later regretted making the vow to St. Anne, he became an excellent monk: “If ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Introduction
• Section 1: The Legacy of Martin Luther and the Reformation
• Section 2: Assessing Martin Luther’s Leadership
• Epilogue
• Bibliography