Martin Luther

When I read biographies, I usually end up highlighting four or five, maybe half a dozen passages—some of these because of interesting ideas, and sometimes because I’m noting an unsupported judgment that weakens the overall point the writer is making.

It’s rare that I mark more than a dozen passages, but when I finished this biography of Martin Luther and went back to count up the highlights, I discovered more than twenty—and all of them marking sections woth rereading.

This is one of those rarities, a biography written by a scholar clearly thoroughly engaged with the time period as well as the subject, but written so lucidly that the book can be enjoyed by academics as well as the casual reader such as myself.

From his first appearance on the European scholastic stage in the early 1500s, Luther inspired a firestorm of writing about him and his ideas, a storm which has scarcely abated in the half-millennium since. Selderhuis steers with style and expertise through all these shoals—whether vilifying or hagiographic—as he presents the man through his own words as much as possible. Back in my own grad school days, I struggled through Luther’s words in Reformation-era German, and I recognized many of these passages.

Selderhuis places Luther within the context of his era, initially furnishing an understanding of life in Luther’s Germany and setting it against the religious issues of that time. Without passing judgment on the Roman Catholic Church of the period (and reminding the reader that Luther began his famous career determined to be a good monk, which he was for half his life), Selderhuis shows how Luther evolved from organizer to reformer.

I appreciated the care the author took in explaining the scholastic and theological pursuits of the day, such as setting up debates—which the famous 95 Theses was intended to be. Luther did not dramatically break with the Church when he proposed the theses. He wanted debate, clarification, and correction, and Selderhuis takes us through every step of Luther’s thought processes as he dealt with his initial religious fears, then read the Bible for himself, and then encountered Erasmus’s Greek translation, which was a thunderbolt to Luther.

Selderhuis then takes the reader step by step through the evolution of Luther’s thought as he strives to define Christian faith through Biblical text, and separate it from centuries of traditional and ritual accretion that, he posited, had nothing to do with Christ’s message. So we read about Luther making his way through one crisis to another, harrowed by spiritual, political, medical, and later, social and familial problems—his own personality, as he often recognized, getting in his way, especially later in life.

It’s clear from this record that Luther both relished life and yet was tormented by what we can now recognize as the symptoms of Meniere’s disease, and probably IBS as well—much exacerbated not only by the diet of those times, but the horrible “cures”—most of which involved some form of dung. When he called himself, as he frequently did, a bag of maggots, that might not have been very far from the truth.

Pain likely made Luther irascible, and drove him to see Satan and devils everywhere, including, in his later years, not only his enemies but old friends with whom he disagreed. Seiderhuis does not neglect the less savory side of Luther, such as his venomous writings about Turks and especially Jews. The latter is particularly unfortunate, as we know how those words were used by certain Germans in the last century, and yet Luther—presented with the horrific outcome—might have regretted his heat, for we also see evidence of his dislike of violence. He not only found the noble art of hunting dispiriting, as he felt sorrow for the innocent animals, but he dreaded violence being used to enforce religious laws and views, as inevitably happened—all this while living in expectation of being dragged to the stake by either pope or emperor.

Seiderhuis does not neglect the important figures in Luther’s life, and takes the time to give them their voices, not excluding Luther’s wife Kathe, who too frequently has been judged as a shrew because of complaining letters from the many Luther invited to his home. It was she who had to collect rents, in order to pay for a household that not only included the many Luther invited to reside with them, but seventeen children—her own six, and the eleven belonging to Luther’s siblings who died young. She organized his bachelor pad into a home, and established kitchen gardens and milk animals, as Luther--raised as a monk--never thought about money. He shared everything he had, but it fell to her to figure out how to do it.

Above all, this is a record of Luther’s spiritual evolution, and the beginning of the reformation church branches, as he and his contemporaries debated crucial concepts, and tried to find ways to translate those into everyday life, as well as in new forms of worship.

Political writers often find it convenient to overlook the spiritual side of Luther, claiming political and social expedience on every side (particularly in reference to the Peasants’ War, and other imperial maneuverings), but Seiderhuis demonstrates that this was an age of faith. As evidenced by the hundreds, even thousands, who traveled at great hardship just to lay eyes on Luther, or to hear him preach.

In spite of his many illnesses, Luther was an indefatigable worker, writing many books, and sometimes as much as forty letters in a day, but Seiderhuis shows—often with illustrations from the Cranachs, who lived nearby—how Luther took time in the evenings to be with his family, and how important music was to him. So, in the end, we see the man as well as the reformer and catalyst for change.

The bibliography at the end is every bit as formidable as one could expect in such a careful, scholarly work, and the prose is clear, humane, vivid, and engaging.

First sentence from the introduction: Luther was a problem. Certainly for the pope and the emperor, but often he was also a problem for his fellow reformers. Prone to outbursts of rage and coarse language, Luther was frequently stubborn and undiplomatic, even with allies.

First sentence from chapter one: God, the Devil, and death were everyday topics in the world into which Martin Luther was born. As a child, Luther learned that God was a Judge more righteous than merciful. The Devil was out to snatch your soul and turn women into witches. Death was not the end of life, Luther was taught, but instead it was the moment you appear before God and enter purgatory. With these dour lessons firmly in his head, is it any surprise that years later Luther would say that every mention of God was “as a clap of thunder in [his] heart”? The god that Martin Luther was told to believe in as a child was a god who signaled his righteousness chiefly through punishment.

Premise/plot: Herman Selderhuis has written a spiritual biography of Martin Luther. He balances writing about Martin Luther's life with letting Martin Luther tell his own story by sharing quotes from his books, letters, sermons, pamphlets, etc. Even if you've read half a dozen books on Martin Luther in the past, I'd invite you to read this newly published biography. Selderhuis' narrative style is compelling.

My thoughts: I loved this book. I have read a handful of books on Martin Luther. Perhaps I should amend that to read, I've struggled my way through a handful of books on Martin Luther. I've almost always found them dull, intimidating, repetitive, or simplistic. Perhaps that isn't fair. Perhaps a fairer description would be not quite ideal in terms of reader appeal or approachability.

I loved Selderhuis' biography because it was packed with information, with detail, but the presentation was such that everything fit together and created a big picture context. It included plenty of information--some of it new to me--in a fascinating narrative. Nothing was dumbed down or made to be concise. The book was not yet another basic outline of his life. There's a passage in Ezekiel that I think applies here.

Ezekiel 37:1-10 reads,
"The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army."

Other biographers have given readers the dry bones of Martin Luther. But it is Selderhuis' biography that has given Martin Luther flesh and skin in my opinion.

I loved LEARNING. There were so many things I did NOT know about Luther even though I've read up on him.

For example, did you know that Martin Luther once promised his wife fifty guilders if she would read the Bible cover to cover during the period of early October to Easter? (She was SUPER busy being a mom and wife) Selderhuis writes, "Apparently, Käthe accepted this arrangement because on October 28, Luther mentioned to a friend, “She is taking this seriously, because she has already reached Deuteronomy.”

I was aware of Martin Luther's many stomach ailments. But I was NOT aware of the ringing in his ears. I found out I have something else in common with him!

OR did you know that on his deathbed Martin Luther kept quoting Psalm 31:6?

Favorite quote, "Every preacher must be so sure and should be so convinced that he has and that he preaches the Word of God that he would be willing to die for it, specifically because preaching concerns life."

Despite the fact that religion itself has no real place in my own day to day life, theology has always been a subject that fascinates me. Why do people believe what they do? And how?

In university I did a bit of work on the reformation in England and again, the subject matter just grabbed me. Religion has shaped countries, it still does.

So I jumped at the opportunity to read this book on Martin Luther, a figurehead of the reformation across Europe. A reluctant figurehead at first, as I discovered reading this book, and not always a pleasant man.

The author takes the reader on a very matter-a-fact journey through Martin Luther’s life. He shows Luther as a committed monk, a passionate and stubborn reformer, a respected theologist, a loving father, but also touches on his difficult character and his flaws, his anti-semitism and his self-righteousness.

The biographical parts are interspersed with quotes and letters from Martin Luther himself. The author speculates little, preferring to lean on fact, and although it can sometimes make the text a little dry, it also gives it integrity. Sometimes it does jump around in time and it is not always clear why the author has chosen to write this biography that way.

Overall, having read this biography I feel I have gained an understanding of a turbulent time I did not quite have before. I am certainly a little wiser.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley for an honest review. Selderhuis offers here a very accessible biography of pastor, monk, and prophet Martin Luther. The author integrates Luther's theology throughout the book, explaining it in a way that is easy to understand for the layperson. He gives a fair assessment of Luther's irascible temperament which sometimes was his own worst enemy. He does not ignore Luther's failings, such as his involvement against the Peasant's Revolt. However, Luther's anti-Semitism is relegated to the final chapter. Indeed the final chapter is the weakest in the book - when the author appears to be jamming in final issues that could have been better integrated elsewhere. Despite, this issue, the biography is a commendable one which offers a balanced, comprehensive view of the greatest Reformer.

I have to be honest, this was a great read. Wow, to help me understand an individual who had a lot to do with the reformation movement was a big task to take on and this book did a masterful job of capturing for us who Martin Luther really was. I love that this book went from his birth to his death, and did a in depth view of all the things that Martin experienced in his life. I really think Herman did it best by covering as much of Martin's life as possible, without getting bogged down with too much detail. He kept the biography moving which kept me engaged. I am guessing now after reading this, I have to pick up his book on John Calvin. Great work and very helpful to those of us who want to know more about church history. Not always easy to communicate church history in a way to keep one engaged. Herman did it.

Biographies on Martin Luther are obviously not in short shrift lately (especially on the heels of Reformation 500). While Selderhuis has his quirks, most biographies of Luther are worth diving into in order to demonstrate how polarizing and indeed fascinating Luther is and was. A worthy and interesting addition to the library of Luther books.