Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World

I am only 142 pages into Eric Metaxas' MARTIN LUTHER book! I LOVE IT! His style of writing, while super professional, with a high level of educational intelligence - some words I still want to look up for the definition; but I thoroughly enjoy his personal "quips" and his "humor" in drawing the historic incidents with modern descriptions, helping to make things humanly real; and which the reader can identify. I wish I could state that with greater understanding for you. I appreciate his relating the spiritual, Scriptural truths which were central to the historic storm resulting from Luther's 95 Thesis. Within a page or two, he reveals 8 untruths or mistakes about Luther and this event AND his personal life; and corrects them in the writing. One big one: It is most likely Luther NEVER nailed these 95 Thesis to the Church door! And they were never written for the world about him to read. He only wanted a dialog with and debate with his fellow academics. GOD had other ideas !For me, and I believe for any reader, this is enriching, educating fascinating history Eric Metaxas presents by making all the fascinating characters ALIVE. He takes me, the reader, with him right beside Luther and the others, so close I can almost read their thoughts by their expressions. This is GRAND reading! I wish every member of my family, friends and acquaintances, would read this book. It is pulling me right back in history and a more intimate, real, look at the conflicts which arose in the Catholic Church, and the dynamic revolution which Gospel Truth, and the crowning teaching of Justification by faith ALONE! Oh yes! I HIGHLY recommend reading this wonderful book. It makes me also want to read other historic books and biographies, Eric has written. You can have it in two days from Amazon! GOD bless you as HE speaks to you from this book!

It was a monumental task, but author Eric Metaxas dug deeply into the legend of Martin Luther and researched meticulously the long story that was formed 500-years ago but is relevant today; and he also told the story with aplomb and style so that the reader neither used the tome as a doorstop nor a sleep-inducing sedative. I bought the book on Kindle with skepticism b/c of its size; could I ever hope to finish it? But I found myself flying through the first half of the story in a matter of days.Metaxas is a modern oracle for the heroes of history that we need to study. He convinces us that his topics are about Jesus-loving real humans who decided to be used by God in profound ways. Martin Luther is no different. His story is the hinge-point of history, and most of us just can’t reach back that far?! You know? I’m thankful that Eric Metaxas gave me the ride back to Wittenberg.One may pretend to be rich, yet have nothing; or pretend to be poor, and have great wealth. It’s easy to do on today’s “fake news” internet. Truly, however, for one who is sorrowful, but always rejoicing; the gospel is for those who know they deserve judgement but understand that they have been given a free pass. Reading the Bible makes this clear, and until Martin Luther dedicated his studies to the word of God, this haunted him. How could he ever be good enough to be given entrance into heaven? What amount of good works did it take to ameliorate a righteous God? These were deep thought patterns for a young man, but he was a very serious young man.Like @EricMetaxas who converted to Christianity after a momentous dream in the middle of the night, Martin Luther was thrown to the side of the road by a lightning bolt. He decided because of being spared that he needed to become a monk. It was during those studious years that he was convinced that all a believer needed was to read the Bible. He didn’t need the intervention of the church as a divine “middleman”. Luther discovered that the Son of Man (Jesus) came to seek and to save the lost. The church wasn’t doing it—heck, they made it harder… The little monk overcame his diminutive stature and grew into a titan of his monastery, seminary, friary, university, city, and country of Germany. He rose up with the temerity to take on the emperor and the Roman papacy.Luther was a man who had seen God in a life-changing moment, and after dedicating his life to being a monk, teacher, preacher, leader, still thought God’s glory too much to apprehend. He was filled on one hand with his sense of unworthiness to stand in God’s sight as a creature, and a sinner; yet on the other hand adoring God as one with a view of the great wonder of the gospel—that God receives sinners despite what they’ve done. It was biblical logic and not that of the Catholic Church that won over Luther. He was the father of systematic theology, even though his seminal moment in Wittenberg (historic 95 Theses) was more about protest than theology. He gave Christians the power to think through their own worldview of God in light of the Bible. What a concept?! Recognizing more than one ultimate principle or worldview was one of the most critical moments in world history, which this book makes clear.What resulted after Luther’s passing was a pluralism which also enshrined the idea of religious liberty as the centuries rolled forward. The modern idea of freedom was born, first with a plurality of churches, but as the reformation movement spread beyond Germany to England and to many other countries. It ended the idea that although Rome had the power to crush dissent, it meant that the Catholic Church did not exclusively represent the truth anymore (and probably indicated that it didn’t).After Luther died of heart failure at a young age in 1546, Metaxas closes the biography in a lengthy Epilogue by showing the effects of Luther’s work as the "vox populi," and as one who changed the way the church viewed truth and also the way truth was argued in public. There was a new dimension: first the truth of a matter, and then the process by which one determined what was true. My version was on a Kindle, but the auxiliary resources at the conclusion of the book were still very interesting. My favorite chapter was about Luther’s late, and unlikely marriage to Kathy, a former nun. I guess it was one of the more humane and fun parts of Luther’s colorful life and a great example of a strong, equal, biblical partnership (modern) even 500-years ago! Highly recommend reading this biography, Metaxas does another masterful job. 5-***** stars.

Best book I have read in a long time …an easy reading page turner….Eric doesn’t bog you down..a great author..

Showed me how much I love Luther - a really engaging read - rich with history - and the authentic struggles of a man of faith.I loved every page - it’s equal to the Bonhoeffer book by Metaxas.

The book is relayed in chronological order as Luther ages. The author has a very extensive detail of the life and history as if he was recording the events side by side with our main character. Mextaxes obviously has done his homework using 402 quotes from 26 sources in the Bibliography.An excellent read that really gets behind the motive of Luther and his pursuit of Christianity vs the strangle hold of Roman Catholicism. It's why we still know of Martin Luther some 500 years later.Bring your dictionary. Mextaxes is quite the word-smith.

Passend zum Lutherjahr habe ich mich mit dem großen Reformator ausführlich beschäftigt und war fasziniert von seinen Einsichten und seiner klaren Sicht von der Bibel her auf seine Zeit. Ich wollte eine Biographie lesen, nur welche? Natürlich gibt es unzählige, aber beim Lesen der Rezensionen fand ich überall nur Defizite, auch bei denen, die extra zum Lutherjahr erschienen waren. Ich will weder eine, die die Fakten durcheinanderbringt, noch eine, die dramatische Szenen einbaut, noch einen Autor, der Luthers Theologie nicht versteht. Schon gar nicht eine, die Luther zu einem Rebellen oder Anarchisten macht. Luther war kein Rebell, sondern er unterwarf sich der Heiligen Schrift. Er wollte alle Autoritäten demütig anerkennen, aber er konnte nicht hinter die Schrift zurück und wurde in die Opposition gezwungen.Ich ließ mir von Experten sagen, dass die einzige brauchbare deutschsprachige Lutherbiographie die von Roland Bainton (1952!) sei, die immer wieder neu bearbeitet und übersetzt wurde. Ich hab sie gelesen, stimmt, super, aber die Sprache ist schwer zu lesen heute.Jetzt gibt es Metaxas, der mit seiner exzellenten Bonhoefferbiographie Maßstäbe gesetzt hat. Zum Reformationstag 2017 kam nun die Lutherbio heraus. Ich hätte sie gern auf Deutsch, da es um deutsche Geschichte geht und viele Originalzitate verarbeitet werden, aber sie wird bei Hänssler erst im Herbst 2019 erscheinen. Nun denn, ich hab sie auf Englisch gelesen und war gefesselt. Metaxas schreibt spritzig, gut lesbar und er erzählt alles, was mich interessiert. Er sichtet die Quellen, die aktuelle Forschung (z.B. die neuen Ausgrabungen aus Mansfeld) und schafft es sogar, die unzähligen Personen aus Luthers Umfeld so einzuführen, dass ich mir erstmals merken konnte, wer wer war. Es stehen Dinge drin, die ich noch nie gehört habe, da werden Briefe zitiert. Zum Beispiel schreibt Luther Kaiser Karl V einen Brief aus Friedberg, zwischen Worms und Wartburg, in dem er dem Kaiser darlegt, dass er keinen Streit will, sondern es um die Sache geht. Er zählt so viele Details auf, von denen ich es nie für möglich gehalten hätte, dass man so etwas über Luther wissen kann, aber Luther war halt ein Superstar, über den alles aufgeschrieben wurde.Am wichtigsten: Metaxas versteht Luthers Bindung an die Heilige Schrift. Das verstehen die meisten Theologen heute nicht. Sie stellen Luther dar als einen modernen Freidenker, der keine Lust auf die alten Obrigkeiten mehr hatte und deshalb etwas Neues wagte. Aber wie gesagt, Luther war auf der Suche nach der Wahrheit und sein Gewissen war „gefangen in der Heiligen Schrift“, wie er in Worms sagt.Die gebundene Ausgabe war bei Amazon billiger als die Taschenbuchausgabe. Ich werd sie nochmal lesen und nächstes Jahr auf Deutsch kaufen.

Written masterfully a virtual page turner. Luther for all his failings, particularly his prejudices, he was responsible for the secularisation of Christianity, which ushered in a belief in a personal relationship with God. He brought back the joy of Christian worship and hymn singing by the congregation, changed the world forever. Mostly for the better. Read and judge for yourself.

Highly readable account, which goes into detail about his life and also weaves what he stood for into the narrative. I think it would have been easy to get bogged down in theological detail, given the subject matter, but the book explains Luther's views in detail whilst maintaining the narrative. Enjoyable, informative and easy to read.