Birgit Stolt and Luther Studies

The year 2020 marked the death of Birgit Stolt, a scholar whose contributions to Luther studies will endure far into the future. Professor Stolt brought to the field over the last fifty years is quite remarkable, especially in that she was an Auslandsgermanistin, a specialist in the German language at a Swedish university and possessed no formal theological training. Still her scholarship broke fresh ground and opened new vistas for future scholarly exploration in Luther studies. Especially notable is her dedication to helping us appreciate the rich complexity of Luther's language and better understand the role of the emotions in his theology. It would be of great benefit to Luther studies in the English-speaking world if more of Professor Stolt's scholarly work would be translated, beginning with Martin Luthers Rhetorik des Herzens, the best and most comprehensive introduction to her thought.