Martin Luther as Prophet, Teacher, Hero: Images of the Reformer, 1520–1620 (review)

Martin Luther as Prophet, Teacher, Hero: Images of the Reformer, 1520-1620. By Robert Kolb. [Texts & Studies in Reformation and Post-Reformation Thought.] (Grand Rapids: Baker Books. 1999. Pp. 278. $21.99 paperback.)

This study examines "the ways in which Luther's image and thought shaped Lutheran thinking and action during the century following his appearance on the stage of Western history" (p. 10). Three conceptions of the Reformer--as prophet, teacher, and hero--emerge, reflecting a variety of needs in his society and the new church whose founder he became. During his own lifetime and immediately thereafter, Martin Luther was often identified with the biblical prophets Elijah, Enoch, and the angel of the Apocalypse as having a unique authority from God to challenge the power of the Roman Catholic Church. As Luther's call for reform was institutionalized, and his church refused to concede interpretative authority to popes and councils, a new secondary-level authority had to be found to interpret passages of Scripture which did not self-evidently interpret themselves. Luther's follower's initially turned to his writings, but strife between the Gnesio-Lutherans and Philippists over the proper interpretation of the Reformer's message soon made it clear that this corpus was too cumbersome and contradictory to serve as a secondary authority. Lutherans managed to resolve most of these differences with their Formula of Concord (1577). It no longer accorded adjudicatory authority to Luther, but to the confessional writings which came to constitute the Book of Concord. While the Reformer's prophetic authority had faded by the end of the century, he "remained for his followers a most valuable and trusted instructor" (p. 120), especially in the sacramentarian controversies of the period. He was also celebrated in art, drama, and during the Reformation's anniversaries as a heroic figure who had defended the gospel and opposed papal oppression. In short, "Luther's memory lived, and his voice was heard, but his authority had been tamed" (p. 134).

In tracing the development of these three interrelated conceptions of Luther from 1520 to 1620, Kolb, true to form, provides the reader with a veritable cornucopia of bibliographic information, with copious footnotes, citations, and synopses of the works of the first three generations of Lutheran commentators and editors. Kolb has limited himself to German Lutheran authors, mostly from regions that accepted the Formula of Concord; he does not treat the Reformer's reception in non-German-speaking lands that also embraced his evangelical creed. And he says little about the German Reformed attitude toward the Wittenberg reformer. While not according him the authority that Lutherans were wont to grant him, Germany's Reformed, as evidenced by the 1617 jubilee celebrations for which they provided the initial impetus, did honor the former Augustinian monk as the man who initiated the Protestant Reformation and, unlike Calvinists elsewhere, frequently used and cited his writings. These minor quibbles, however, do not diminish Kolb's major accomplishment that readers of this journal will find both fascinating and stimulating: By tracing the changing interpretations of Martin Luther's work, Robert Kolb has shown how early modern Lutherans, after repudiating the power of popes and councils, wrestled with the question of authority and ultimately resolved it by transferring the normative guidance they first had placed in Luther and his writings to their church's confessional documents.

Bodo Nischan
East Carolina University

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