Luther Complete

On July 16, 1505, Martin Luther, then a student at the University of Erfurt, invited his friends and acquaintances to a farewell supper. He wished to see them about him for the last time before his approaching retirement to the cloister. “The bright, cheerful young fellow,” as his later pupil, Mathesius, calls him, was a favourite in his own circle. Those assembled to bid him farewell, amongst whom were also “honest, virtuous maidens and women,” were doubtless somewhat taken aback at their friend’s sudden determination to leave the world; but Luther was outwardly “beyond measure cheerful” and showed himself so light of heart that he played the lute while the wine-cup circled round. On the following morning—it was the feast of St. Alexius, as Luther remembered when an old man—some of his fellow-students accompanied him to the gate of the Augustinian monastery and then, with tears in their eyes, saw the doors close upon him. The Prior, who was already apprised of the matter, greeted the timid new-comer, embraced him, and then, in accordance with the Rule, confided him to the Master of Novices to be initiated into the customs of the community. In the quiet monastic cell and amid the strange new surroundings the student was probably able little by little to master the excitement which, though hidden from outsiders, raged within his breast; for the determination to become a monk had been arrived at under strange, soul-stirring circumstances. He was on his way back to Erfurt, after a visit to his parents’ house, when, near Stotternheim, he was overtaken by a thunderstorm, and as a flash of lightning close beside him threatened him “like a heavenly vision,” he made the sudden vow: “Save me, dear St. Anne, and I will become a monk.” He appears also at that very time to have been reduced to a state of great grief and alarm by the sudden death of a dear comrade, also a student, who had been stabbed, either in a quarrel or in a duel. Thus the thoughts which had perhaps for long been attracting his serious temperament towards the cloister ripened with overwhelming rapidity. Could we but take a much later assertion of his as correct, the reason of his resolve was to be found in a certain vexation with himself: because he “despaired” of himself, he once says, therefore did he retire into the monastery.

David Pawson provides pointers for the reforms needed in the twenty-first century. He writes: "In countries where the church is in decline, what are we going to pray for and what are we going to do about this? I find that Christians fall into two camps: those who are waiting for God to do something and those who believe God is waiting for us to do things.... "Luther was not comfortable with the whole Bible; that was one of the roots of his inconsistency. The second failure, which came from that, was his failure to apply scripture to every part of the Christian life and the church life of his day. There were areas that he did not touch. I believe that God is calling us now ... to complete that Reformation and take the whole scripture and apply it to the whole Christian life, the whole of our preaching and the whole of our church structure."

Martin Luther's most comprehensive work on justification by faith, his commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is translated and edited from the Latin into a lively style, paralleling his spoken lectures. Combined with the passion and faith expressed in these lectures, the biblical foundation for the crucial doctrine of justification is underscored and expressed to a new audience. The commentary is also a historical document, a recording of a professor in a classroom in 1531 from July to December of that year, which expresses the Reformer's commitment to the good news of Jesus' death in the sinner's place, challenging the reader/hearer to compare St. Paul's theology with what he/she hears in the church today.

Recent studies have increasingly downplayed, and in a few cases even wholly denied, the influence of Martin Luther's theology of Law and Gospel on early English evangelicals such as William Tyndale. The impact of a late medieval Augustinian renaissance, Erasmian Humanism, the Reformed tradition, and Lollardy have all but eclipsed the more central role once attributed to Luther. Whiting reexamines these claims with a thorough reevaluation of Luther's theology of Law and Gospel in its historical context spanning twenty-five years, something entirely lacking in all previous studies. Based on extensive research in the primary sources, with acute attention to the larger historical narrative and in dialogue with secondary scholarship, Whiting argues that scholars have often oversimplified Luther's theology of Law and Gospel and have thus wrongly diminished his very significant, even principal, influence upon first-generation evangelicals William Tyndale, John Frith, and Robert Barnes during the English Reformation of the 1520s and 30s.

A new 2023 systematic of Luther's works across 7 volumes. This volume contains new translations of the following major works: 1. Von der babylonischen Gefangenschaft der Kirche / Prelude to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) 2. An den Christlichen Adel deutscher Nation von des Christlichen standes besserung/ To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) 3. Das Magnificat, verdeutscht und ausgelegt / The Magnificat, Germanized and Interpreted (1521) 4. Eyn trew vormanung Martini Luther tzu allen Christen, sich tzu vorhuten fur auffruhr unnd emporung / A Faithful Preamble by Martin Luther to All Christians to Prepare for Revolt and Rise (1522) 5. Von weltlicher Obrigkeit und Wieweit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei/ On Secular Authority: To What Extent It Must Be Obeyed (1523) 6. Daß Jesus Christus ein geborner Jüde sei/ That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew (1523) 7. Daß eine christliche Versammlung oder Gemeinde Recht und Macht habe / That a Christian assembly or congregation has right and power (1523) 8. An die Burgermeister und Ratherrn allerlei Städte in deutschen Landen/ To the Mayors and Town Councillors of all the Towns in the German Lands (1524) 9. Wider die räuberischen und mörderischen Rotten der Bauern/ Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants (1525) 10. Über den Bauernkrieg/ On the German Peasant's war (1526) 11. Briefe an Landgraf Philipp von Hessen/ Letters to Landgrave Philipp of Hesse (1530-31) 12. Artikel wider die ganze Satans-Schule und alle Pforten der Hölle / Articles against the whole school of Satan and all the gates of hell (1530) 13. An den Juden Jesel, v. 5. November 1537 / A letter to the Jew Jesel 14. A Letter to his wife of Feb 7th, 1546 / An seine Frau, aus Eisleben vom 7. Februar 1546. (1546) This is volume IV of "The Essential Luther" from NLP. This series lays out Luther's complete major writings along with the original German or Latin text in the back of the book for quick reference. These are the only Bilingual editions of Luther's works ever printed. These manuscripts have been meticulously translated into English from the Original Fraktur manuscript. The German texts have been transcribed into the modern German text. This series is intended to introduce Luther's works systematically and includes all of Luther's writings including minor and obscure texts in 7 editions. Some of these sermons and letters have had no modern English translation until now. Volume I. Luther Contra Mundum: The Ninety-five Theses and other Major Treaties Volume II. Luther & Scripture: Writings on Hermeneutics, Exegesis and Patristics Volume III. Luther on Divine Sovereignty & Human will: Conversations with Erasmus Volume IV. Luther & the State: Writings on Secularism Volume V. Luther's Creeds: Catechisms & Confessions Volume VI. Luther's Table Talk Volume VII. Luther's Sermons and Letters

Brecht provides a comprehensive study of the consolidation of the Reformation in the middle period of Luther's active life. He treats both Luther's personal life and the development of Lutheran doctrine and practice exhaustively. The reader is left with great admiration for Luther's talents as a theologian, translator, and church builder.

The place and significance of Martin Luther in the long history of Christian anti-Jewish polemic has been and continues to be a contested issue. The literature on the subject is substantial and diverse. While efforts to exonerate Luther as "merely" a man of his times who "merely" perpetuated what he had received from his cultural and theological tradition have rightly been jettisoned, there still persists even among the educated public the perception that the truly problematic aspects of Luther's anti-Jewish attitudes are confined to the final stages of his career. It is true that Luther's anti-Jewish rhetoric intensified toward the end of his life, but reading Luther with a careful eye toward "the Jewish question," it becomes clear that Luther's theological presuppositions toward Judaism and the Jewish people are a central, core component of his thought throughout his career, not just at the end. It follows then that it is impossible to understand the heart and building blocks of Luther's theology (justification, faith, liberation, salvation, grace) without acknowledging the crucial role of "the Jews" in his fundamental thinking. Luther was constrained by ideas, images, and superstitions regarding the Jews and Judaism that he inherited from medieval Christian tradition. But the engine in the development of Luther's theological thought as it relates to the Jews is his biblical hermeneutics. Just as "the Jewish question" is a central, core component of his thought, so biblical interpretation (and especially Old Testament interpretation) is the primary arena in which fundamental claims about the Jews and Judaism are formulated and developed.