Luther in Spanish

Translations of Luther into Spanish go back to the sixteenth century. Ever since, some of Luther’s polemical writings have seen continuous if limited distribution in the Spanish world.¹ Sadly, for the longest time, works about Luther by Spanish-speaking authors were dependent on secondary sources, where they could only find references and fragments from Luther’s original writings; access to German and Latin texts was not always easy or even possible.²

However, in connection with Luther’s 400th birthday celebrations in 1883, the initial publication of the Weimar Edition of Luther’s works in Germany, and the subsequent “Luther Renaissance,” we find some parallel developments in Spanish history. Luther biographies as well as translations of his writings were in some demand at the time. One early development was the foundation of the Librería Nacional y Extranjera in 1873 by the Lutheran pastor and missionary Federico Fliedner. Fliedner (1845–1901) was the author of a well-known and rather popular (and still available) biography of Luther.³ Probably the most translated of Luther’s works was the Small Catechism, usually born out of the missionary efforts, including those in Puerto Rico and other Spanish Caribbean nations.⁴ Other works of significant interest have been Luther’s commentaries on Romans and Galatians, The Freedom of a Christian, and The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Perhaps with the exception of the last item, for the most part the aim in providing these translations has been missionary and educational rather than polemical.

The largest work of translation of Luther into Spanish, Obras de Martín Lutero, was initially a joint effort between two theological schools in Argentina: the Facultad Luterana de Teología and the Facultad Evangélica de Teología de Buenos Aires.⁵ For this multi- volume project, begun in 1958, the schools arranged the publishing support of Editorial Paidós (Argentina) and Publicaciones El Escudo (New York).⁶ Representatives of American Lutheran churches, together with scholars and translators, were recruited from several schools, including the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Reformation scholars from Europe, especially Germany and Spain, also contributed to this effort. As could be expected, this translation project was based on the original texts in the Weimar Ausgabe. For some documents, such as Luther’s Catechisms and the Smalcald Articles, the critical edition of the Book of Concord was also used. (The Spanish translation of individual Lutheran confessions was available only in a piecemeal process over time; the complete publication of the Libro de Concordia was finally accomplished by 1989 with the support of several sponsors.⁷) The aim of Obras was primarily to provide access to a number of Luther’s writings that were not available in Spanish at the time, in addition to new and improved translations of works previously translated. Other stated goals included offering a venue for theological dialogue among the churches in Spanish-speaking countries.⁸

Prior to the publication of Obras there were some other notable efforts, such as an anthology of Luther’s works sponsored by the Iglesia Evangélica Española for the celebration of the 450 years of the Reformation in 1967.⁹ As was explicitly stated in the first edition, theirs was an attempt to navigate the line between undue praise and flat rejection of Luther’s theology, especially its exegetical character. Those translators and editors intended to set the record straight and offer a sound contextual interpretation of Luther’s writings and theology.¹⁰

After Obras, among the new translations of particular works some collections deserve mention. One significant contribution is that of Joaquín Abellán.¹¹ In the context of Luther’s 500th birthday, his selection emphasized political theory (for example, the “two kingdoms” doctrine¹² and the possibilities of “just war” thinking) amid tensions within Western societies on political and cultural matters and the question of the links of the Western world to surrounding civilizations. Many consider the best modern translation of Luther’s works (selection of twenty-one writings) to be the project of Teófanes Egido, then...