How Luther Became the Reformer
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
No story has been more foundational to triumphalist accounts of Western modernity than that of Martin Luther, the heroic individual, standing before the tribunes of medieval authoritarianism to proclaim his religious and intellectual freedom, “Here I stand!” How Luther Became the Reformer returns to the birthplace of this origin myth, Germany in the late nineteenth century, and traces its development from the end of World War I through the rise of National Socialism. Why were German intellectuals—especially Protestant scholars of religion, culture, and theology—in this turbulent period so committed to this version of Luther’s story? Luther was touted as the mythological figure to promote the cultural unity of Germany as a modern nation; in the myth’s many retellings, from the time of the Weimar Republic forward, Luther attained world-historical status. Helmer finds in this construction of Luther the Reformer a lens through which to examine modernity’s deformations, among them anti-Judaism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Catholicism. Offering a new interpretation of Luther, and by extension of modernity itself, from an ecumenical perspective, How Luther Became the Reformer provides resources for understanding and contesting contemporary assaults on democracy. In this way, the book holds the promise for resistance and hope in dark times.
- Focuses on Luther as a late medieval Catholic
- Examines how the theologians of the Luther Renaissance applied the title of Reformer to Luther
- Proposes an alternative approach for telling the story of Luther’s work as a reformer
- History and Story: An Introduction
- The Experience of Justification
- How Luther Became the Reformer
- Modernity and Its Contradictions
- A Test Case of Anti-Judaism
- How Luther Became the reformer (lowercase) of Catholicism
- Reformation
Drawing on a lifetime of work on Luther, Christine Helmer has produced a highly original and stimulating interpretation of his theology, maintaining that his image as the great Protestant reformer who ushered in the modern era is a myth created by German historians a century ago and that he is better understood as a late medieval figure and Catholic reformer. This passionately argued study is sure to engage—and stir a much needed debate among—readers of both faiths.
—Michael Massing, author of Fatal Discord: Erasmus, Luther, and the Fight for the Western Mind
A century ago, most Protestants viewed Martin Luther as the great prophet of freedom who liberated the West from the oppressive rule of medieval Catholicism and set Western churches, states, and cultures on the road to modernity. Christine Helmer has long shown us that Luther’s reformation was far more medieval, far less revolutionary, and far more complex in influence than the heroic image of Luther would have it. This learned volume exposes the tangled roots and routes of this heroic Luther myth in modern German thought, challenging everyone from Hegel and Schleiermacher to Weber and Holl for their highly selective and present-minded readings of Luther. This is forensic critical historiography at its best.
—John Witte Jr., Woodruff University Professor of Law, McDonald Distinguished Professor, Emory University
This book is perceptively, importantly disturbing. There have been many quality biographies of Luther and examinations of his theological effects. But no other work explains the consequences of the wrongheaded myth of Luther. Through sharp readings and revisions, Helmer pulls Luther from a harmful hermeneutic and reminds us again that the way we explain our human past very much determines our capacity to live into a truly freer present.
—Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, and History, Yale University
- Title: How Luther Became the Reformer
- Author: Christine Helmer
- Publisher: Westminster John Knox
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 200
- Christian Group: Lutheran
- Resource Type: Biography
- Topic: Reformation
Christine Helmer is Professor of German and Religious Studies at Northwestern University. She is the editor or coeditor of numerous volumes in the areas of biblical theology, Schleiermacher studies, and Luther scholarship, and is the main Christianity editor of the Encyclopedia of Bible and Its Reception. She is the author of The Trinity and Martin Luther and Theology and the End of Doctrine as well as instructor of the free massive open online course (MOOC): “Luther and the West.”