Martin Luther: A Life

by Martin E. Marty

Book Overview

Called 'The most influential interpreter of American religion' by Bill Moyers, renowned historian and Lutheran pastor Martin Marty portrays the religious reformer Martin Luther as a man of conscience and courage who risked death to ignite the historic reformation of the Church. Luther's arguments, including his '95 theses, ' changed the destiny of Christendom, the shape of Christianity, and gave rise to new freedoms in church and state. Marty explores...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0143114301
• ISBN13: 9780143114307
• Release Date: August 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A great introduction to the life of Martin Luther.

Martin Marty is a Lutheran pastor and scholar who wrote an objective biography on Martin Luther. Marty’s objective was to give an account primarily on Luther’s life and not as a historical account of the religious, social, and political ramifications involved. In covering Luther’s life, Marty planned on discussing Luther’s “positive contributions to the development of human liberty, the free expression of conscience, support of music, development of literary style, and his role in reshaping religious life” (p. xii). His goal, then, is to give a positive account of Luther’s influence on the world. If the reader formulates a negative view of Luther from this book, says Marty, it would be from Luther’s own mouth rather than the biographer (p. xii). While claiming Luther’s positive influence on the world, Marty wants to leave the reader with “the accounts of his posthumous influence and its global consequences” (p. xv) and thus leave the reader with their own inference of Luther’s contribution to the world. In each chapter, Marty objectively describes Luther’s life through four unique motifs that lead the reader, whether Lutheran or not, to acknowledge his unequivocal global influence as it pertains to the Christian life in the world and in the Church.

lutheran expert on luther

It is hard to believe that for one of the single most important figures in western history, whose collected works run to fifty-five volumes, there are only three or four biographies now in print in English. But so it is for Martin Luther, which makes this biography by Martin Marty a welcome addition. Marty's volume takes its place in the Penguin Lives series, a series which tries to match famous figures with well known authors for the general audience. Marty takes as his guiding theme Luther's lifelong struggle with God: "God present and God absent, God too near and God too far, the God of wrath and the God of love, God weak and God almighty, God real and God as illusion, God hidden and God revealed." The German word upon which Marty fastens this theme is Anfechtungen, a word that is hard to translate but very easy indeed for people to appreciate: "the spiritual assaults that Luther said kept people from finding certainty in a loving God." Anfechtungen, said Luther, precipitated a "delicious despair" or crisis of certainty for which the believer could only cast himself upon the mercy of God. For the believer, in Luther's scheme, there is a sure security of faith, but no certainty free of struggle, doubt, anxiety, fears and spiritual warfare. At the end of the day, though, the believer rests in the knowledge that God in Christ says to us, "I am more certain to you than your own heart and conscience." Marty takes us through the major passages of Luther's life: his time in the monastery, his home, the emerging Protestant church, his life as a university scholar and writer, and his civic life in politics. It used to be that Roland Bainton's biography Here I Stand (1950) was the standard life of Luther. Marty's wonderful volume is likely to take its place.

Riveting

I've enjoyed every one of the Penguin Lives books that I've picked up so far. History isn't my primary field of study, so I've not the time to delve into the 1000 page tomes. The series, thus, sort of fills in a gap. It allows a bit of an entrance into these important lives for casual readers like myself. The Martin Luther volume by Martin Marty is, so far, the best of the series that I've read. Luther led a truly fascinating life, and the condensed nature of this short biography makes the biography at moments read like an adventure. That's not to say that Marty sacrificed scholarship in order to make the subject more interesting. Luther's life was adventuresome in many ways, and his personal struggles, the devopment of his thought, and the culture of ideas that influenced him are all probed insightfully. I particularly appreciated Marty's use of the metaphor of Jacob wrestling God as a comprehensive string for tying together and understanding Luther's life. This was really a strong little work. It definitely works for what it was intended. Without simply being a cliffs notes biography, it serves an entry point into Luther's life and theology for the intelligent reader.

An Excellent Introduction to the Legendary Life of Luther

Marty portrays Luther with fairness, objectivity, and clarity. Though he doesn't get much into the free will/no free will theology, he does delve into other aspects of Luther's fascinating life. Beautifully written and an excellent resource for any Christian library.

A fine intro to a great life

Having grown up Lutheran, I've know the facts of Luther's life practically from the cradle, and in our day we had to virtually memorize his Small Catechism when we were confirmed. Since then I've read other, longer bios and all were fine. But this one is excellent, though brief--or perhaps because it's brief. I learned even more about the man and his thinking, though I already knew a reasonable amount. This would also be a fine introduction for anyone who doesn't know much about Luther. It's concise and very well written, and neither idolizes nor condemns a complex man who did much to shape life as we now know it. I'm recommending it to all my friends, Lutheran and otherwise.

Martin on Martin: The Rest of the Story

Martin Luther was the great Protestant Reformer. Martin Marty is one of the great Lutheran theologians of our time. In Martin Luther: Penguin Lives, Martin (the younger) paints an excellent picture of Martin (the Luther) that goes far beyond the movie. Not only does Dr. Marty finish the story of the movie, but he also takes the measure of the man in a surprisingly unbiased manner.The common thread between the movie and the book is the German word Anfechtungen, which is depicted in the movie as "conversations with the devil" and more accurately depicted in the book as plumbing the depths of a tortured soul. It is from these depths that the linchpin of Luther's theology, justification by grace through faith, has its roots - for Luther, it was his way to climb out of those depths alive.Dr. Marty pulls no punches; despite his Lutheran pedigree, he excoriates Luther for his anti-Semitism (on the basis of both Christian behavior and bad scholarship) and his habit of lobbing grenades in unneeded and unwarranted directions (such as Erasmus and Henry VIII). In addition, he questions Luther's behavior during the Peasant Revolt of 1524-25 (unlike the movie) without moralizing or answering the questions for the reader.This is a very accurate biography of Luther. It does not have the sappiness of Roland Bainton's "classic" biography (which was taken to the nth degree in the old b & w movie we "old Lutherans" saw in confirmation class) or the movie's portrayal of Luther as a dynamic hero (which was probably necessary for cinematic purposes).What it does have are Luther's struggles with himself, the Roman church and other reformers. It also has an excellent overview of Luther's vast writings, and places them in context, not only of the development of the Lutheran church but also of his place and time. I feel that it is important and worthwhile to see Luther's struggles with finding eternal truths in his era and that his struggles were not significantly different from ours (except that we have more toys and less truth).I have only had sporadic contact with Martin Marty's work; I have had more contact with folks like Paul Westermeyer and Marva Dawn in the realm of Lutheran worship and music, who were greatly influenced by him. This is the first "full length" look I have had at his work. Although as a Lutheran musician I would have liked to see more about Luther's hymns (which are a versified and surprisingly complete overview of his theology) and perhaps a bit more about his relationship with Philip Melanchthon (the later discredited "brains" of the Lutheran reformation), I found the book to be a very well written overview of the man, his beliefs, and his work. Amazingly enough, it is also a fairly fast read, which speaks well of Dr. Marty's ability to keep "lofty theological questions" readable and relevant. It is a "must read" for Lutherans and a good read for anyone else.