This is not my regular "Luther-Diet". It was exotic reading and not only because of Lyndal Roper's Australian roots in Melbourne or references to Oberman and Küng in Tübingen or finally her current position in Oxford. She did not try to summarize Luther's theology or even attempt at writing it's evolution and development over some 5 decades or so. Neither did she concentrate in the normal way on the "cities of the south" for her biography, but took into account the very crucial surroundings of Luther caught up in the previous German Democratic Republic (DDR) and undertook very successfully to give us an insight into the social history of the reformer and his time. She explains: "We lack a proper assessment of Lutheranism in its home social and cultural context, which was so unlike that of the southern cities." (xxviii) In contrast to the rather parochial Luther, Roper is very much into the original sources and even the latest hit by the secular historian Heinz Schilling is taken up most positively as she goes about in a very casual style to inform, consider and evaluate psychogical, biological and biographical aspects of her protagonist. Aspects which normally did not feature in my education at least although it does really do a lot to explain the erratic and rather volcanic reformer.
If you're pressed for time, you should at least read Roper's brilliant introduction to her book - only about 16 pages if I've got the roman numerals right. They already convinced me, that I should read the entire opus, because it was bound to be fun. Well, it's a sorry truth about Luther's life, but it doesn't end that very well. Rather after the initial upsurge of the reformation in the 1520's it really has some serious setbacks - on the personal, communal and national levels. It's just so astonishing, that this legacy did not stop with Luther's passing in 1546. It really is a miracle and divine wonder! Obviously Robert Kolb in his memorable "ML and the enduring Word of God" (2016), who is not mentioned in this book, has got a point, when he points to the excellent team around Luther and most importantly also the "enduring Word of God" in the 2nd part of his book.
Roper does go to some lenghts explaining Luther's complex relationships with parents, siblings, teachers, sponsors, colleagues, lords and masters. Some are friends even though their number continually deminishes, others are antagonists, enemies and in cohorts with the devils, therefore these latter opposing forces weighing heavily on Luther is hated most assiduously despite its constantly growing number. Roper explains: "For Luther's personality had huge historical effects - for good and ill. It was his remarkable courage and sense of purpose that created the reformation, and it was his stubbornness and capacity to demonize his opponents that nearly destroyed it." (xxvi)
Roper explains her goal: "Where many historians have used this abundance of material to trace his theological development in detail, and to date specific events with greater accuracy, I want to understand Luther himself. I want to know how a sixteenth-century individual perceived the world around him, and why he viewed it in this way. I want to explore his inner landscapes so as to better understand his ideas about flesh and spirit, formed in a time before our modern separation of mind and body. In particular, I am interested in Luther's contradictions. Here was a man who made some of the most misogynistic remarks of any thinker, yet who was in favour not only of sex within marriage but crucially that it should also give bodily pleasure to both women and men. Trying to understand this apparent paradox is a challenge I have not been able to resist. A man of immense charisma, Luther's passionate friendships were matched by equally unrelenting rejections of those he believed to be wrong or disloyal. His theology sprang from his character, a connection that Melanchton... insisted upon: "His character, was, almost, so to speak, the greatest proof" of his doctrine." (xxvii-xxviii)
She sums up some of the difficulties faced by those looking at Luther and back at the Reformation in the 16th century in the last paragraph of her introduction: "It is hard for historians and theologians to tackle what now seems so alien, his disturbing obsession with the Devil, virulent anti-Semitism, and crude polemic. Exploring his inner world, however, and the context into which his ideas and passions flooded, opens up a new vision of the Reformation." (xxxiii)
Allow me another lenghty quote to finish off my strong recommendation to read this book if you are interested in Reformation History, the whole bunch of reformers and Luther specifically. The final word together with a big load of accolades goes to the brilliant writer and excellent biographer Lyndal Roper, who concludes her biography with these paragraphs: "Luther is a difficult hero, nonetheless. His writings can be full of hatred, and his predilection for scatological rhetoric and humor is not to modern taste. He could be authoritatiran, bullyiing, overconfident; his domineering ways overshadowed his children's lives and alienated many of his followers. His intransigent capacity to demonize his opponents was more than a psychological flaw because it meant that Protestantism split very early, weakening it permanently and leading to centuries of war. His anti-Semitism was more visceral than that of many of his contemporaries, and it was also intrinsic to his religiosity and his understanding of the relation between the Old and the New Testament. It cannot just be excused as the prejudice of his day. His greatest intellectual gift was his ability to simplify, to cut to the heart of an issue - but this also made it difficult for him to compromise or see nuance. And yet only someone with an utter inability to see anyones else's point of view could have had the courage to take on the papacy, to act like a 'blinkered horse' looking neither to right nor left, but treading relentlessly onward regardless of the consequences. And only someone with a sense of humor, a stubborn realism, and a remarkable ability to engage the deepest loyalties of others could have avoided the martyrdom that threatend.
The Reformation is often lauded as heralding the arrival of modernity, the freedom of the individual, or, alternatively, the growth of a confessional world that yoked religious to political identity. I hope to have shown that none of these views do justice to Luther or to the movement he started. Luther was not "modern", and unless we appreciate his thought in its own unfamiliar and often uncomfortable terms, we will not see what it might have to offer us today. What Luther meant by "freedom" and by "conscience" were not what we mean by these words now. It had nothing to do with allowing people to follow their conscience; it meant our capacity to know with God, a knowledge he believed to be objective truth. Luther split the Church and ushered in the denominational era, but he was always a maverick thinker who did not believe in following rules or in devising courts to impose morality. He was a man who retained a healthy mistrust of Reason, "the whore". (410f)
My suggestion: Tolle lege!