Fortress Press

Martin Luther, Volume 3: The Preservation of the Church, 1532–1546

Martin Luther, Volume 3

The Preservation of the Church, 1532–1546

Martin Brecht (Author), James L. Schaaf (Translator)

$39.00

Interested in a gratis copy?

How do you plan on using your gratis copy? Review requests are for media inquiries. Exam requests are for professors, teachers, and librarians who want to review a book for course adoption.

ReviewExam
  • This item is not returnable
  • Ships in 2 or more weeks
  • Quantity discount
    • # of Items Price
    • 1 to 9$39.00
    • 10 or more$29.25
The third volume of Brecht's magnificent biography describes the final fourteen years of Luther's life, beginning with the accession of Elector John Frederick in 1532. The period is often treated briefly because some Reformation developments continued without him, his Catholic opponents paid only partial attention to him, his personality displayed great tensions, and his judgment, errors. Yet the preservation of the church—those confessing the Reformation gospel being identical, according to Luther, with the true church—dominated Luther's concerns.

A work of immense and engaging scholarship, gracefully translated by James Schaaf, this volume offers comprehensive and original interpretations of Luther's private life, his congregation and the church in Saxony, his professorial lectures and theological controversies, Bible translation, Luther and the council of Trent, and his later writings about the Jews and Turks. With 34 illustrations.
  • Publisher Fortress Press
  • Format Paperback
  • ISBN 9780800628154
  • Dimensions 6 x 9
  • Pages 546
  • Publication Date August 20, 1999

Endorsements

"The exacting scholarship and balanced judgment of this biography will help ensure its place as the definitive work of its kind well into the next century."
— Dennis R. Janz, Loyola University

Table of Contents

    Translator's Preface
    Foreword
    Sources of Illustrations

    I. PEACEFUL BEGINNINGS UNDER ELECTOR JOHN Frederick—BUT WITH MOST OF THE OLD PROBLEMS (1532-36)

  1. Elector John Frederick
  2. Electoral Saxony and Its Church
  3. Wittenberg
  4. Home, Family, and Personal Health
    II. LUTHER'S ROLE IN THE REFORMATION'S PROGRESS IN OTHER GERMAN TERRITORIES, THE AGREEMENT ON THE LORD'S SUPPER, AND THE RELATIONSHIPS WITH FRANCE AND ENGLAND (1532-36)

  1. The Reformation in the Principality of Anhalt
  2. Relationships with Other Territories and Their Reformation
  3. Defense against the Münster Anabaptists
  4. The Agreement between the Southern Germans and Luther on the Lord's Supper in the Wittenberg Concord
  5. France and England
    III. RENEWED STRIFE WITH OLD OPPONENTS

  1. Duke George and the Repression of the Reformation in Ducal Saxony (1532-39)
  2. The Private Mass and the Consecration of Priests
  3. Erasmus and Witzel
  4. The Injustice of Archbishop Albreacht of Mainz
    IV. COMPLETING THE TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE

  1. Translating the Prophets and the Apocrypha
  2. Revisions
  3. Arguing with the Critics
  4. Praising and Recommending the Bible
    V. THE PROFESSOR

  1. The University: Its Organization and Constitution
  2. The Ordinations
  3. Graduations and Disputations
  4. The Final Lectures
  5. The Collected Works
    VI. THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES IN WITTENBERG

  1. On the Significance of Repentance in Justification—the "Cordatus Controversy"
  2. The Repudiation of Jacob Schenk
  3. John Agricola and the Antinomian Controversy
    VII. LUTHER AND THE COUNCIL (1533-39)

  1. Initial Catholic Probes and Evangelical Reactions
  2. Summoning the Council to Mantua, Luther's Articles, and the Smalcald Assembly in 1537
  3. The Illness
  4. Critical Publications against the Pope
  5. The Final Position: On the Councils and the Churches
    VIII. THE RIGHT OF RESISTANCE, ATTEMPTS AT PEACE, THE DEFECTION OF THE LANDGRAVE, AND RELIGIOUS COLLOQUIES (1538-41)

  1. New Discussions on the Right of Resistance
  2. The Peace Negotiations in Frankfurt, 1539
  3. The Calamitous Bigamy of Landgrave Philip
  4. The Religious Colloquies and Their Expected Failure
    IX. PERSONAL AFFAIRS (1537-46)

  1. Ill, Old, and Tired of Living
  2. Marriage, Children, Family, and Guests
  3. Home, Household, Garden, and Property
  4. Social Life, Festivals, and Music
    X. LUTHER'S CONGREGATION—WITTENBERG (1537-46)

  1. The Preacher and Pastor
  2. The Congregation
    XI. LUTHER'S CHURCH—ELECTORAL SAXONY (1537-46)

  1. The Relationship to Electoral Saxon Society
  2. Pastors and Congregations
  3. Church Administration and Church Order
    XII. THE PROGRESS OF THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE AND IN EUROPE

  1. The Reformation in Ducal Saxony
  2. The Reformation in the Electorate of Brandenburg
  3. Halle—Between Albrecht of Mainz and Electoral Saxony
  4. The Reformation Experiment in the Dioceses of Naumburg and Merseburg
  5. Relationships with Smaller Neighboring Territories
  6. The Other German Territories and Adjacent Lands
  7. The Reformation in European Lands
  8. The Action against Duke Henry of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and the Reformation in Brunswick—Wolfenbüttel
  9. Renewed Controversy about the Lord's Supper
    XIII. THE ENEMIES OF CHRIST AND OF HIS CHURCH: JEWS, TURKS, AND THE POPE

  1. The Jews (1525-46)
  2. The Turks
  3. The Pope (1542-46)
    XIV. THE FINAL JOURNEY

  1. The Unity Negotiations in Eisleben
  2. "Now Lettest Thou Thy Servant..."
  3. "Dead Is the Charioteer of Israel"—Burial and Remembrance

    Abbreviations
    Notes
    Index
    Subject Index to Volumes 1-3
1