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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > General
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2017 SHORTLISTED FOR THE
ELIZABETH LONGFORD PRIZE 2017 'A magnificent study of one of
history's most compelling and divisive figures' Richard J. Evans
When Martin Luther nailed a sheet of paper to the church door of a
small university town in 1517, he set off a process that changed
the Western world for ever. Within a few years Luther's ideas had
spread like wildfire. His attempts to reform Christianity by
returning it to its biblical roots split the Western Church,
divided Europe and polarised people's beliefs, leading to religious
persecution, social unrest and war; and in the long run his ideas
would help break the grip of religion on every sphere of life. Yet
Luther was a deeply flawed human being: a fervent believer
tormented by spiritual doubts; a prolific writer whose translation
of the Bible would shape the German language yet whose attacks on
his opponents were vicious and foul-mouthed; a married ex-monk who
liberated human sexuality from the stigma of sin but who insisted
that women should know their place; a religious fundamentalist,
Jew-hater and political reactionary who called 'for the private and
public murder of the peasants' who had risen against their lords in
response to his teaching. And perhaps surprisingly, the man who
helped create in the modern world was not modern himself: for him
the devil was not a figure of speech but a real, physical presence.
As an acclaimed historian, Lyndal Roper explains how Luther's
impact can only be understood against the background of the times.
As a brilliant biographer, she gives us the flesh-and-blood figure.
She reveals the often contradictory psychological forces that drove
Luther forward and the dynamics they unleashed, which turned a
small act of protest into a battle against the power of the Church.
A New Statesman, Spectator, History Today, Guardian and Sunday
Times Book of the Year
This classic work by one of Europe's most respected
twentieth-century legal minds tackles law through the eyes of
Martin Luther. Johannes Heckel first reveals the basic features of
Luther's doctrine of law in its totality, drawing from an
overwhelming amount of material from all genres of Luther's
writing. Heckel then considers how Luther viewed law as the
framework for the existence of a Christian in this world. He
develops a picture of Luther's position on law by grounding it in
Luther's theology, arguing that his concept of natural law has to
be understood in terms of the divine and the secular. Finally,
Heckel shows the practicality of Luther's position by focusing on
the places in which a Christian interacts with legality in this
world -- church, marriage and family, and politics. / "When
Johannes Heckel's Lex Charitatis appeared more than half a century
ago it brought new clarity to the much disputed issue of Luther's
understanding of the law and of God's governance of his created
order. . . . Having Heckel's work in English will assist scholars
and students alike in putting Luther's insights to use in the
context of twenty-first-century problems." / -- Robert Kolb,
Concordia Seminary
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