Luther: Biography of a Reformer

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book but weak in content
Review: Frederick Nohl was a North American Lutheran who had degrees in education (B.S., Concordia, River Forest, IL) and history (M.A., Northwestern, Evanston, IL). In his working career, he was a teacher and principal for a couple of Lutheran elementary schools in Illinois. So his abilities converged that allowed him to write an easy-to-read biography, which he did so in 1962. Luther: Biography of a Reformer is a renamed version of Nohl's original book, Luther: Hero of Faith.

Luther: Biography of a Reformer covers the early life of Luther and that segment of the Reformation well, but dedicates only a few pages to the last decade of Luther's life. Nohl paints with broad brush-strokes and is sometimes inaccurate in his descriptions. For example, after chaos began to hold sway in Wittenberg's churchly life in 1522, Luther returned from Wartburg to help to restore order by preaching his Invocavit sermons. Luther's fellow professor Karlstadt had changed the way the Lord's Supper was received: the laity were told to receive both the body and the blood of Christ--if not, they would be sinning! Nohl writes that when Luther returned, "Those who wanted to receive both the bread and the wine could do so, while those who wanted only the bread were also taken care of" (pg. 133). However, Luther did not do that; he restored communion under one kind until the situation could be sorted out without troubling anyone's conscience. For Luther considered liturgical changes as a blessing only if they came as Gospel gifts and not as coercive mandates of the Law, as Karlstadt had made them.

On Luther's revision of the Mass, Nohl writes that Luther's German Mass became the official order of service for Saxon churches in 1526 (pg. 150). This is true, but incomplete. Today, we hail Luther as a champion of the laity and promoter of the vernacular in the Divine Service. But Luther is not so simple to be classified so quickly. Luther intended his highly simplified Deutsche Messe (German Mass) only for small village churches with few resources--not as a repudiation of his own earlier and more strictly liturgical work, the Formula Missae of 1523. Luther's intent was that the poorly educated of Saxony could worship using the Deutsche Messe liturgy, especially in country congregations. Today, we should note this well when many among us use services so lacking of any formal liturgy that some among us now consider the Deutsche Messe of 1526 to be "high church"!

And the few times Nohl uses his pen to explain Luther's theology, he comes up wanting. On the term "Lutheran," Nohl correctly writes that "Luther and many of those supported him did not want to be called Lutherans" (pg. 182). Then he writes, "They preferred to be known simply as Christians, or as evangelicals" (pg 182). Again, what Nohl contends is true, but incomplete, for Lutherans also preferred the term "Evangelical Catholic." For Luther, true reformation was marked by a recapturing of Christianity's evangelical, catholic, and orthodox past. Luther did not want his reforms to end up within a sect; he wanted them to stand within that "great cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1) and testify to the living God in the "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church" of all time and space. The following quotation shows the philosophical view of the Lutheran reformers: "So we teach nothing . . . that is alien either to Scripture or to the church catholic. We have simply cleansed and brought into the light the most important statements in the Scriptures and the [Church] Fathers that had been obscured by the sophistic quarreling of recent theologians" (Kolb-Wengert, Apology of the Augsburg Confession: 1, I, 32)

When Nohl writes about Luther's understanding of the Gospel, he records, "Because of his faith in Christ, the believer is a `free lord, subject to no one'" (pg. 83). Luther understood that St. Paul never said that one is saved because of faith but through or by faith--the cause is always God's grace, Christ's work. Faith is God's gift to the believer and through God-given faith, the believer simply believes. To be correct, Nohl should have written, "By faith in Christ, the believer is a `free lord, subject to no one.'"

Concerning Luther's "Gospel discovery," Nohl describes it in this way: "I see the answer! God punished Jesus in my place, the same Jesus who had kept God's holy Law. By punishing His Son, God carried out His threat that sin will be punished by death. All I have to do is . . ." (reviewer's emphasis, pg. 47). Nohl's error to direct the reader inward is appalling because it misapprehends Luther's understanding of justification. Nohl's improper explanation directs a person to look to his own works, decision, or belief instead of Christ alone for salvation. It also robs a person of salvation's certainty because it directs him to his own efforts instead of Christ's. When Nohl explains Luther's Gospel discovery, he unwittingly puts the reader back under the Law. From that, Christ has set us free; the Gospel has no "ifs" or "strings" attached. I can hear Luther now cursing anathemas on Nohl's misunderstanding of the Gospel.

On the purely positive side, of all the chapters in the book, I found Chapter 10, "The Family Man," to be jewel to seek out. It that chapter, Nohl gives a glimpse of the man Luther, and his relationship with his wife and children. Nohl's retelling of Luther losing two of his daughters to death shows forth Luther's humanity for all to see, as well as his confidence in Christ in such a true, personal way. Especially touching was a letter Luther had written to his son, Hans (pgs. 170-173).

In his book, Luther: Biography of a Reformer, Nohl has written an engaging and quick read. However, Nohl takes some license when he "connects the dots" of Luther's life, taking some liberties and distorting what may have really happened. In addition, parts of his book are more of a hagiography than a biography. Finally, Nohl's casual explanations of Luther's theology makes Luther seem more like an American Protestant than a German reformer. Despite the parts of the book I enjoyed, and its very beautiful format, I do not recommend Nohl's biography.


Rating:
Summary: Well written interesting book on the life of Martin Luther
Review: I really appreciate the way this book is written. It is written with a lyrical style. It is not dry and boring, as are some biographies. It provides the reader a very compelling introduction to the life of this great teacher of the church. It brings the Reformation to life and helps you understand what the issues were that caused Luther to protest the practices of the church in his day. The book points the reader to the core issues, without getting sidetracked into all sort of theories and myths about the Reformation, or trying to resolve debates and arguments among scholars.

This is clearly the book to begin with if you want to learn about Martin Luther and the Reformation.

I like the way the book weaves photos from the new Luther movie throughout the text. It is beautifully printed, in clear and easy to read print on quality paper. PLUS it is a hardback. It is quite a good value.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It was not full of jargon and technical scholar-talk. It made me want to learn more about Martin Luther. I appreciated how it laid out the story of Luther in a clear way, walked me through his life to the very end. The pictures from the new Luther movie are GREAT. This book is a great deal, for a hardback, etc. Thumbs up!

Rating:
Summary: REEXAMINATION TO REFORMATION
Review: The noted educator/historian Jacques Barzun noted "The Modern Era begins, characteristically, with a revolution. It is commonly called the Protestant Reformation...." (1) This book presents a concise and well-written biography of Martin Luther who initiated the revolution on October 31, 1517 when he nailed on the door of the Castle Church Wittenberg, Germany a document containing ninety-five thesis. Luther's intent was to bring his ideas to the attention of the church officials by inviting his fellow professors to debate. "In the thesis he objected to using indulgence money to build a great church in Rome and to the pope's claim he had power over souls in purgatory." He further argued that "religion was a personal matter between God and man and that the Gospel of forgiveness in Jesus was all important."

Luther from an early age was concerned about his relationship with God and the means to reach heaven. He entered a monastery and became a priest and as a professor at University of Wittenberg he studied the Bible. The text follows Luther as he evolved his Bible based religious philosophy including his confrontational relationship with the church in Rome. The text gives a brief, but good account, of the political aspects encountered. Elector Frederick protected Luther when needed while several German knights believed supporting Luther "...could help them in their own fight against the Roman Church. These men were especially angered at the pope's interference in their political affairs and his methods for draining large sums of money from Germany...."
Luther's refusal to recant at the Worms diet, placed him in physical danger so that when returning to Wittenberg his friends kidnapped him and placed him in the castle at Wartburg where he was known only as Knight George. During his stay at Wartburg, he completed a monumental work: his translation of the New Testament into German. Upon returning to Wittenberg, he embarked on a project to translate the Bible's Old Testament into German. His translations of the Bible helped define "the religious beliefs and practices of people around the world, build up the Saxon churches, it also furthered the Reformation throughout Germany and even influenced the development of the German language itself..."

While at Wartburg some of his followers began taking matters into their own hands creating chaos. Luther's successful stand against both pope and emperor had given courage to many other religious leaders.... These now came out into the open, leading thousands of people down all kinds of strange paths. The author gives a compact but good narration of the political and theological issues in Germany as the Reformation developed noting that to try and unite the conflicting religious factions, the Holy Roman Emperor (Charles V) issued a call in 1530 for a diet at Augsburg, from which Luther was banned. The emperor was not successful in this effort to reunite the Western Church, but from this meeting the famous Augsburg Confession was written. While the Augsburg diet failed to unite the Western Church, the author notes "If Germany and the church could not be one, at least the princes could unite, for unless they were united, a single armed attack by their enemies might wipe out any gains they had made." So not only did Augsburg not unite the church, it helped to insure that the Reformation would move forward.

Luther lived almost 16 years after Augsburg dying at age 62 on February 18, 1546. The text closes noting that "Luther's life and legacy of faith gives shape and definition to the religious beliefs and practices of people around the world, and most especially to the church that bears his name."

There have been several biographies written on Martin Luther. However, for those readers who want a concise, compact, very readable biography of Luther, this is an excellent book.

(1) Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life,1500 to the Present
(2001 Perennial Edition) p-5.


Rating:
Summary: Super Book and Super Deal
Review: This book is a perfect book to give to anyone who knows little about Martin Luther. Those who do will enjoy it as a great overview and summary of his life and work. It is a sturdy hardback book, that is beautifully produced. The photos in it are from the new movie out about Martin Luther. Strongly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: good biography of Luther
Review: This book was an easy-to-read biography of the life of the great reformer Martin Luther. It is not overly detailed, but still presents the basic and key events of his life. One gets a good overall picture of his story. It doesn't mention some of his shortcomings. (Such as the fact he was anti-semitic. In this we can not honor him.) This edition contains photos from the recent "hollywood quality" movie of his life. Consider seeing the movie too, besides reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Well written interesting book on the life of Martin Luther
Review: This is re-release of 1962 book under different title, here released in conjunction with "Luther" the movie. Photos from the film are included throughout the book with the appropriate section of the Reformer's history.

The flow is good and follows Luther's life and career. It emphasizes the important highlights of his life, and will provide any reader a substantial overview of this great servant of Christ. Viewers of the excellent movie can benefit greatly from reading this before and after seeing the movie.

For those who would desire to go deeper, suggest you start with James Kittelson, "Luther the Reformer", then to go more deeper suggest you see Martin Brecht's classic three-volume set (the best on the Reformer). One should also visit the magazine "Reformation Today" website and their section "Lutheran Bibliography" for further reading suggestions.