Luther Vermitteln: Reformationsgeschichte zwischen Historisierung und Aktualisierung ed. by Benjamin Hasselhorn (review)

The director of a church museum in Recklinghausen asked a tour group of school children to guess when the first evangelical congregation in that area was founded. When one girl finally piped up with the right answer—150 years ago—she was asked why. "Because that was when Martin Luther King started the Reformation" (37).

Here is one of the knotty issues faced by planners of Reformation 2017 in Germany. Despite public opinion ranking Luther as the fourth most famous figure in their history, few German youth see him as relevant to their own times. When a sample of students who had completed eight years of religious instruction were asked if Luther had any influence in their lives, only one in eight said yes (86–105).

This book is a collection of papers—all in German—presented at a conference in 2015. It gives a behind-the-scenes account of problems facing planners of the 500th anniversary observance.

The government had used the anniversary to present Germany as an open and hospitable country and had anticipated a flood of tourists. Was it possible to avoid the carnival atmosphere of a tourist bonanza? Merchants were already putting "Here I Stand" on red ties, the Luther rose on mousepads and cake molds, and "Hallo Luther" on coasters and Frisbees. Even official tours through the Wartburg castle ended, inevitably, in its gift shop (175). It was threatening to become the contemporary equivalent of the indulgence traffic (12).

Given this mercantile feeding frenzy, how could the real Luther be transmitted from generation to generation, as this book's title suggests? Several articles survey previous interpretations of the Reformer in museums (117–135), textbooks (37–63), movies (193– 207), and television (208–228). Current efforts include three special exhibitions, described in "Luther and the Princes" in Torgau (148– 163), "Luther! 95 treasures—95 People" in Wittenberg (184–189), and "Luther and the Germans" at the Wartburg (173–183). Luther is also online (106–108), in the movies (229–234), and on TV (235–240).

All these activities circle around one theme: freedom. The Wittenberg exhibit labels the stages of Luther's life as "anxiety, search, understanding, and liberation" (188). The movie "Katharina" depicts her life as a "path of liberation" (234). A six-part television series, "The Luther-Code," traces how Luther was a catalyst for "an age of freedom and individuality" (238). Even the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) study document for the anniversary is titled "Justification and Freedom" (68).

A group of faculty members from the University of Saarland challenge this trend in an article on religious education ("Rechtfertigung Lehren," 64–87). They argue that Luther's insistence on simul justus et peccator has been obscured by those who substitute "acceptance" for justification. They fault the EKD study on "Justification and Freedom" as sounding more like the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" than Luther. When one neglects the peccator side of Luther's formula, they argue, justification is made a basic human condition rather than a "miracle of renewal." If the struggle with sin is overlooked, individuals are denied the chance for deeper self-awareness, not just of their unworthiness under the judgment of the world—coram mundo—according to the values and norms of the achievement society, but also coram deo. They offer two examples from religious education curricula (82–86) showing that justification in its fullest sense can be relevant, even helpful to students in their daily lives.

Can the enormous effort that has gone into the planning of Reformation 2017 deepen the spiritual life of a rising generation? It is going to be a heavy lift. One of this book's authors writes that, as he sat on a train leaving Wittenberg, a woman sitting across from him asked her child, "Do you know who did something important there?—pointing to the city church. The youngster answered, "Luther used to work there. He saw to it that people wouldn't have to pay taxes...