Now who could that be? One of the most revolutionary agents in history whose actions 5oo years ago changed the Western world, an unknown theologian from a backwater province: Martin Luther.

I am actually reading Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther right now, and it is a fascinating read, if a slog.  She is interested in the inner life of the man, who was an anti-Semit, a hateful misogynist, glory-hungry in some way, all around not a particularly nice person. And yet he was someone who saw institutionalized greed, injustice and power grabbing by the church as something that needed change in accordance with the true meaning of the bible and who fought relentlessly for that change regardless the consequences. He was courageous beyond belief, heroic in the risks he took, risk that could have resulted in being burnt on the stake. His protestations against the catholic church founded the protestant church.

“I want to understand Luther himself,” Roper writes. “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.”  Along the way, at least so far in my reading, she does a terrific job to lay out some of the interrelations between religion and politics of the time.

Luther’s anti-Semitism, it turns out, was anything but incidental. He was virulently intolerant of Jews and called for their cultural annihilation, an adjective that we all know was subsequently dropped in Germany.

Some reviewers have argued that Roper gives short shrift to both the role of Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife (the marriage between this ex-nun and him, an ex-monk, alone was a major act of defiance) and an early feminist, and to any explanations why the ground was so ready for his revolutionary seed. I cannot judge that, given that I have not finished the book.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/07/martin-luther-lyndal-roper-review

Here is a quote from a recent review in the Washington Post which is the link to current affairs (in bold by me), in case the semi-millennial celebration of Luther Year doesn’t suffice.

“Let me stress that “Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet” isn’t written by an atheistical Christopher Hitchens wannabe, but by a highly respected historian. Roper’s tone throughout is one of evenhanded scholarly inquiry. Along the way, though, she drives home a harsh truth: People who are reasonable, empathetic and civilized make ideal neighbors but it’s usually the zealots and extremists who, for good or ill, change the world.”

Photographs were taken in Erfurt, where Luther enrolled at one of Europe’s best universities to study law at his father’s behest, only to drop out and join a religious order 2 weeks later. He was ordained as a priest at the Mariendom, Erfurt’s cathedral in 1502. To the right of it is the St. Severi church.