Luther on Pastoral Duty during a Plague

At the London Review of Books blog, historian Lyndal Roper has a helpful, brief piece on Luther’s response to the plague that came to Wittenberg. Roper is Regius Chair of History at the University of Oxford and has written a biography of Luther. Her column is largely a summary and interaction with Luther’s pamphlet, Whether One May …

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Renegade: A Graphic Novel of the Life of Martin Luther

Renegade:Martin Luther, The Graphic Novel, by Dacia Palmerino and Andrea Grosso Ciponte (Plough Publishing House, October 2017), pb., 156 pp. Ages 14+ This is an engaging and fairly detailed graphic novel on Martin Luther covering his entire life, from birth to death. It was originally written in Italian and translated into German before coming into English this …

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New Article on Missions in the Reformation

 The latest issue of the Southeastern Theological Review came out today, and it focuses on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. You can see the cover to the left, but it contains articles by Nathan Finn, Malcolm Yarnell, Stephen Eccher, and myself. Nathan’s essay and mine come from presentations given at the REF500 event at …

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Luther, Evangelist & Missions Advocate

Over the years many scholars have suggested that the Reformers had little interest in the task of world missions or evangelism. I have countered this idea concerning Calvin at this site and in several different publications (one, two, three). Here I’d like to address Luther. I have not encountered among lay people as much the …

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Luther’s Hymn, “In Devil’s Dungeon Chained I Lay”

In his classic biography of Martin Luther, Here I Stand, Roland Bainton records Luther’s hymn, “In Devil’s Dungeon Chained I Lay.” What a beautiful, poetic proclamation of the gospel! How I need to be reminded that God “turned to me his father heart” and then to hear the Lord Jesus say, “Hold thou to me, …

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Luther and the Care of Souls

I have previously written on the pastoral impulse of the Reformation, the fact that this renewal of the church arose primarily from the earnest desire to care for souls, to see that they be taught the gospel and shown the way to peace with God and eternal life. This is a crucial point. Just recently …

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The Pastoral Heart of the Reformation

Last week my article, “The Care of Souls: The Heart of the Reformation,” was published in the latest issue of Themelios. The article is my attempt to highlight the pastoral impulse behind this pivotal moment in history.  Amidst the important theological and political issues which were involved in this historic movement and which continue to …

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