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Martin Luther

By Mike Fearon (©1986 Bethany House Publishers)

At the age of 28, Martin Luther’s life seemed to be laid out tidily. Having passed rigorous testing to earn a Doctor of Theology degree, he relished teaching theology courses at Wittenberg University. He loved debating with his students, and in order to be a worthy opponent, delved deeper into studying original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible. As he did so, a breakthrough occurred. Luther, haunted all his life by a sense of inferiority and feeling like he could never be acceptable to God, finally realized that his heavenly Father was not like his earthly father. Suddenly he was freed from his self-imposed burden to work feverishly in order to be “good enough”—he knew that only faith in Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the Cross could secure his salvation.

Other breakthroughs occurred as he studied, too—he began to see that certain doctrines and practices of his Roman Catholic faith were contradictory to what the Bible taught. Most distasteful and blasphemous to him was the practice of offering “indulgences” in exchange for forgiveness of sin (or a shorter term in purgatory). On October 31, 1517, Luther boldly nailed his “95 Theses” to the door of Castle Church. This disputation challenged the teachings of the Church about penance and indulgences, as well as the infallibility of the pope—and began what we now call the Protestant Reformation.

Luther was officially excommunicated from the Catholic church in 1521, and was declared a heretic and an outlaw. While traveling home on horseback from the meetings that decided his fate, he was intercepted by masked horsemen and escorted to Wartburg Castle, which he referred to as “my Patmos.” While there, he translated the New Testament from Greek into German, and continued writing various disputations about needed reforms in the Church.

Luther secretly returned to Wittenberg in 1522, and three years later married at the age of 42. He began each day with three hours of prayer, after which time he joined his family to recite the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and one of the Psalms.

Having suffered ill health for years, Luther died at home in 1546.

This book is a fairly quick read, and would be good for students doing research papers. If you like more artistic writing, though, you might be disappointed.

PATTY KENNEDY is assistant web content editor for the national Women’s Ministries Department. She also writes book and music reviews for Pages and Tunes, a free e-newsletter provided by the national Women’s Ministries Department.

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