Attention is given to major writings, relative importance, genre, and historical context. Guides reader through significant issues in Luther's theology and discusses contributions.

Few figures in history have defined their time as dramatically as Martin Luther. And few books have captured the spirit of such a figure as truly as this robust and eloquent life of Luther. A highly regarded historian and biographer and a gifted novelist and playwright, Richard Marius gives us a dazzling portrait of the German reformer--his inner compulsions, his struggle with himself and his God, the gestation of his theology, his relations with contemporaries, and his responses to opponents. Focusing in particular on the productive years 1516-1525, Marius' detailed account of Luther's writings yields a rich picture of the development of Luther's thought on the great questions that came to define the Reformation. Marius follows Luther from his birth in Saxony in 1483, during the reign of Frederick III, through his schooling in Erfurt, his flight to an Augustinian monastery and ordination to the outbreak of his revolt against Rome in 1517, the Wittenberg years, his progress to Worms, his exile in the Wartburg, and his triumphant return to Wittenberg. Throughout, Marius pauses to acquaint us with pertinent issues: the question of authority in the church, the theology of penance, the timing of Luther's Reformation breakthrough, the German peasantry in 1525, Muntzer's revolutionaries, the whys and hows of Luther's attack on Erasmus. In this personal, occasionally irreverent, always humane reconstruction, Luther emerges as a skeptic who hated skepticism and whose titanic wrestling with the dilemma of the desire for faith and the omnipresence of doubt and fear became an augury for the development of the modern religious consciousness of the West. In all of this, he also represents tragedy, with the goodness of his works overmatched by their calamitous effects on religion and society.

Famous for setting in motion the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther is often lifted high as a hero or condemned as a rebel. But underneath it all, he was a man of flesh and blood, with a deep longing to live for God. This biography by respected Reformation scholar Herman Selderhuis captures Luther in his original context and follows him on his spiritual journey, from childhood through the Reformation to his influential later years. Combining Luther's own words with engaging narrative designed to draw the reader into Luther's world, this spiritual biography brings to life the complex and dynamic personality that forever changed the history of the church.

A concise, critical study of Martin Luther and his impact on the modern world. The book covers Luther’s life, work as a reformer, theological development, and long-term influence. The book is extensively based on the writings of Martin Luther and draws connections between his life and teachings and the modern day world. Intended for use by students, the book assumes no initial familiarity with Luther and would be ideal for any interested person who wants to get to know Martin Luther; one of the key figures in European history.

A guide to the life of Martin Luther, the Catholic monk who started the Prostestant Reformation.

Martin Luther was so angered by the sale of indulgences (pardons for sins granted by the Pope) that, in 1517, he nailed ninety-five arguments for reform of the Roman Catholic Church to the doors of the church and the castle at Wittenberg. This act began one of the most momentous periods of change in history: the Reformation. So much has been written on Luther that anyone with no prior knowledge wishing to find out about him is bound to be confronted with the question 'where do I start?'. This book is an introduction, succinct and readable, but historially sound. It covers or summarises Luther's major works and the main events of his life. It invites the reader to meet him at his study desk, in the lecture hall, in the pulpit and at the dinner table. Because it is based on Luther's own writings, the reader can be sure that this is the real Luther, the genuine article, not an account influenced by the author's own views or bias.