The Making of Martin Luther / / Richard Rex.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Rex, Richard,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2017]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (296 p.)

A major new account of the most intensely creative years of Luther's careerThe Making of Martin Luther takes a provocative look at the intellectual emergence of one of the most original and influential minds of the sixteenth century. Richard Rex traces how, in a concentrated burst of creative energy in the few years surrounding his excommunication by Pope Leo X in 1521, this lecturer at an obscure German university developed a startling new interpretation of the Christian faith that brought to an end the dominance of the Catholic Church in Europe. Luther’s personal psychology and cultural context played their parts in the whirlwind of change he unleashed. But for the man himself, it was always about the ideas, the truth, and the Gospel.Focusing on the most intensely important years of Luther’s career, Rex teases out the threads of his often paradoxical and counterintuitive ideas from the tangled thickets of his writings, explaining their significance, their interconnections, and the astonishing appeal they so rapidly developed. Yet Rex also sets these ideas firmly in the context of Luther’s personal life, the cultural landscape that shaped him, and the traditions of medieval Catholic thought from which his ideas burst forth.Lucidly argued and elegantly written, The Making of Martin Luther is a splendid work of intellectual history that renders Luther’s earthshaking yet sometimes challenging ideas accessible to a new generation of readers.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Wittenberg 1517 -- 2. From Erfurt to Wittenberg -- 3. The Catholic Luther -- 4. The Quest for Certainty -- 5. Intimations of Antichrist -- 6. Luther and Eck -- 7. Rome and Wittenberg -- 8. Worms and the Wartburg -- 9. The Beginning and End of Reformation -- 10. The Meaning of Martin Luther -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Index