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xix introduction William R. Russell This volume concentrates unapologetically on Luther’s theological writings.1 Such a focus aligns with Luther’s self-understanding of his life’s work as a pastor and theologian. For the Reformer, theology helps the church speak about God— specifically about the God revealed in Jesus Christ. That is,theology helps the church preach the gospel. As a professor of theology, Luther was called to help the church speak clearly and cogently about that revelation.2 Therefore,for Luther,wherever the church speaks in ways that obscure or misinterpret the gospel, it needed to be reformed. Luther took the vocation of theology so seriously that a collection purporting to identify his basic writings must look at his theological contributions . This perspective looks away from the trendy and the excessively topical. Such a focus provides a perspective that much of the debate in recent decades over Luther’s thought seems to have missed, with its concentration on topics related to his political and social impact.The various trends of the debate,coupled with the complexity of Luther’s 1. This introduction (as well as the introductory materials throughout) builds upon and synthesizes the introductory material of the prior editions. 2. Douglas John Hall makes a compelling case for Luther’s continued relevance as a theologian in his theological memoir , Bound and Free (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2010).Years before, the late George Forell devoted much of his career to making a similar case. See “The Place of Theology in the Church,”in Martin Luther:Theologian of the Church,ed.William R. Russell (St. Paul:Word and Word, 1995), 125–43. thought and personality, gave rise to an astonishing variety of “Luther portraits.” One must admit that each of them possesses a degree of accuracy. And each of them also shows the unmistakable marks of when, by whom, and for what purpose it was drawn.3 The Reformer, however, did not understand himself as either a social revolutionary or a political operative.He saw himself as a theologian—that is,as one who interprets the Scriptures for the mission of the church.Thus,for Luther,theology and the Bible go together.The guiding principle, the Leitmotiv, of his work lies in his famous distinction between law and gospel (a theological assertion!).For Luther,this interpretive tool both arises from the Bible and then informs how he interprets the biblical text. This, theological dynamic of law-gospel directs his statements about the nature of God and how God deals with the world politically and socially. For Luther, the distinction between law and gospel is a vitally important element—and, in the judgment of some (notably, Karl Barth), a fatal element—in his interpretation of the authority of temporal government and social custom and of how Christians relate to them. Several of the selections in Part VI have been chosen with this debate in mind, but they come where they do because the fundamental ideas about the Word of God in Part II and about grace that appear in Part 3. Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., Interpreters of Luther (Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1968). xx Introduction III must be clear if the reader is to make sense of the social and political ethics of PartVI.This book attempts to take Christian doctrine seriously as an object of study in its own right, not merely as a prelude to politics. Much of what Luther,a sixteenth-century German , says about politics pertains chiefly to his own time and place. But the Luther who speaks in this volume is primarily an international figure. Sometimes he did see himself as a defender of Germanic values against Roman ones, but usually he strove to articulate his teachings in a larger, more international context.The Wittenberg of Luther’s day was a crossroads for students from many countries who returned to bring the Reformation to their own peoples and churches. Indeed, Shakespeare tipped his dramatic hat to this dimension of Luther’s work when he wrote into Hamlet’s character the Prince of Denmark’s connection to Wittenberg. For much of its history, however, German academics have dominated Luther studies. Indeed, students could not get very far in the field without the pioneering work of German scholars and editors in the past centuries. In the second half of twentieth century,however,that began to change substantially. Luther scholars in many lands have gone on from the tutelage of their German mentors to create a truly international community, reflected...

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