Reformation Writings of Martin Luther

Volume I - The Basis of the Protestant Reformation

By Martin Luther

2001

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A two-volume translation of the major texts produced by Luther in the critical years of the Reformation. Volume The Basis of the Protestant Reformation The four years from the Wittenberg disputation of 1517 to the Diet of Worms in 1521 provide one of the most dramatic stories in human history. In those years a young theological tutor emerged from obscurity to disrupt Western Christendom and to refashion a large part of it. They were years of prodigious activity for Luther himself, and there can be no true understanding of the Reformation apart from the writings, some long, some quite short, which came from his pen during those years. Lee-Woolf has done great service to the study of Luther by translating the most significant of these writings. Introductions and explanatory notes make clear their historical context. The student will find them invaluable. Lee-Woolf's lively and virile translation makes the authentic Luther step out of the pages, and brings the reader close to great events which are still formative in the life of the Church and the world. Volume The Spirit of the Protestant Reformation In this second volume of the Reformation Writings of Martin Luther there are two focal points of interest - the dramatic event at Worms, 1521, as seen in contemporary accounts as well as mirrored in Luther's own writings, and Luther the pastor, at pains to build up simple folk in the Christian faith and life. Luther's immense Biblical understanding as shown in his Prefaces to the Psalms and the New Testament, and his exposition of the Church's worship contained in the Preface to the Lord's Supper and Order of Service, provide a luminous insight into Luther's mind and purpose. The volume is very aptly sub-titled The Spirit of the Reformation. As before, Lee-Woolf's translation brings to life the writer, his thoughts, and his times.

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Author

Martin Luther

Author · 102 books

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization. Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood. According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church. Luther's confrontation with Charles V at the Diet of Worms over freedom of conscience in 1521 and his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an outlaw of the state as he had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the perceived unity of the medieval Church with the secular rulers of western Europe, the widespread acceptance of Luther's doctrines and popular vindication of his thinking on individual liberties were both phenomenal and unprecedented. His translation of the Bible into the vernacular, making it more accessible to ordinary people, had a tremendous political impact on the church and on German culture. It furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation of the English King James Bible. His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism. Much scholarly debate has concentrated on Luther's writings about the Jews. His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis in 1933–45. As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial.