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Title: Martin Luther : Selections From His Writing by Martin Luther, John Dillenberger ISBN: 0-385-09876-6 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 20 February, 1958 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great introduction to Luther
Comment: I think this is just about the best introduction to Luther's writing around. It covers a pretty broad range of his writing, and seems to give a pretty good introduction to his theology and thought. Incidentally, "Freedom of a Christian" is worth the purchase price alone. It is simply the best discussion of faith and works that I have ever read. It is immenseley clarifying. I would recommend this highly, particularly since it is so inexpensive.
Rating: 4
Summary: Denying Papal Bull
Comment: Dillenberger presents a selections of treatises, Biblical commentaries, and sermons sensibly arranged with a good introduction. Two missing works were the Small Catechism and his speech at the Diet of Worms ("Here I stand ... I cannot do otherwise"). In three key works from 1520 "An appeal to the ruling class of German Nationality", "The Pagan Servitude of the Church" and "The Freedom of a Christian", Luther develops (re-discovers?) the doctrine of justification by faith and emphasis on Scripture. Luther steers from a legalistic life of a Christian ("Beware lest you make Christ into a Moses"). He vigorously attacks the practice of indulgences, Papal Supremacy and the papal court: "At present there is a crawling mass of reptiles, all claiming to pay allegiance to the Pope, but Babylon never saw the life of these miscreants". At times he practices his own demagoguery; of St. James he does "not hold it to be of apostolic authorship".
Luther attempts to remove the differences between cleric and public classes by opening the Eucharist to everyone and his German Bible made Scripture available to German peasantry. Luther grants spiritual rights to the individual, and states importance of the Christian community, but he did not extend this politically, and should not be viewed as advocating political democracy. The "Appeal to the ruling class" was popular among the nobility because it provided justification for not sending money to Rome.
After reading St. Augustine's Confessions, it is interesting to see how this Augustinian monk extends the idea of grace. The works on free will were the most paradoxical for me. He seems to argue both that without grace man is incapable of free will, but also that "God has taken my salvation out of the control of my own will".
Rating: 4
Summary: A critique of the medieval Catholic Church.
Comment: Martin Luther accused the Catholic Church of abandoning the teachings of Christ. Rather than preaching the Bible to the masses, the clergy instead oppressed them by forcing them to follow multitudinous Church customs. Luther didn't oppose customs per se, but only the Church's placement of man-made doctrines over the Bible. His most vehement criticisms were leveled against works, especially the practice of indulgences. Luther argued that the Church had replaced faith in Christ with good works as the means to salvation, to the detriment of the masses. Worse, this erroneous doctrine was not accidental but a deliberate scheme by the clergy to acquire wealth.
Luther blamed even St. Francis for establishing such customs as monasticism and asceticism that resulted in a division of the body of believers into a laity and a clergy. Luther laid the most blame for the Church's waywardness on the popes. As leaders, it was their responsibility to ensure that the Bible's doctrines are taught and followed. However, not only did they allow to be practiced doctrines that contradict the Bible, but they also violated Biblical teachings. For example, popes owned vast real estates and excommunicated individuals to intimidate the disloyal. Consequently, the Catholic Church of medieval Europe became a powerful political entity, despite Christ's admonition to Christians to abstain from worldly affairs. In view of these gross and blatant violations of Christian doctrine, Luther referred to the contemporary pope as the antichrist and an agent of the devil.
Although I am not Lutheran, this book provides an essential overview of the issues that fueled the Protestant Reformation. It should be read by people who are interested in European history, with an emphasis on the beginning of the Renaissance.
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Title: Institutes of the Christian Religion (Two Volumes in One) by John Calvin, Henry Beveridge ISBN: 0802881661 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther, J. I. Packer, O. R. Johnston ISBN: 0800753429 Publisher: Fleming H Revell Co Pub. Date: April, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland Herbert Bainton ISBN: 0452011469 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Essential Erasmus by John P. Dolan, Desiderius Erasmus ISBN: 0452009723 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: June, 1964 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: By Faith Alone by Martin Luther ISBN: 0529109670 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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