Martin Luther As Comforter Writings On Death

Using meticulous rhetorical analysis of several important Luther texts, this book examines how he offers comfort to those who are facing their own death or who are coming to terms with the death of loved ones.

What was Martin Luther’s teaching regarding death, and to what extent did his own fears of and experiences with death manifest themselves in his writings? What influence did the medieval preoccupation with a ‘good death’ have upon him? How did Luther counsel those facing death—to meet it with acceptance, or resistance, or both? Using meticulous rhetorical analysis of select sermons, pamphlets, and letters of consolation, this book examines how Luther offered comfort to those who were facing their own death or who were coming to terms with the death of loved ones. Thus the book makes an important contribution to existing scholarship on Luther and the formation of an early modern Protestant ethos surrounding death, bereavement, and burial.

This overview of Luther's thought proceeds from the perspective of his use of the Latin preposition coram, "face-to-face with." Preeminent Luther scholar Robert Kolb proposes that under Luther's use of dominant ancient concepts of reality in his day, he placed the foundation of relationships. These relationships included the fundamental relationship of the Creator with every person and thing he made, along with all those relationships stemming from ordering his creation by his creative Word. With Luther's emphasis on the personal nature of the Creator, who continues to re-create by speaking in the absolution of sinners, he taught that believers experience life's realities in relationship (1) to the hidden God; (2) to sin, death, and Satan; (3) to the revealed God as Trinity and incarnate; (4) to the revealed God who becomes present in believers' lives through oral, written, and sacramental forms of his Word; (5) to their own self; (6) to the world both as God's creature and as perverted tempter; and (7) to individual human beings in the context of their callings. Chapters touching each of these relationships explore Luther's thinking and his practice of the faith based on his trust in the Creator, Savior, and Sanctifier and love in service to the neighbor. Individual chapters explore these topics within the context of contemporary treatments of various aspects of Luther's thought. A special focus of the study critically examines the ontological proposal of Tuomo Mannermaa and his students in Finland, offering as an alternative a better text-based assessment of what Luther's views can mean for the church today.

Between Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 and his excommunication from the church in 1520, he issued twenty-five sermons and treatises on Christian piety, most of them in German. These pastoral writings extended his criticisms of the church beyond indulgences to the practices of confession, prayer, clerical celibacy, the sacraments, suffering, and death. These were the issues that mattered most to Luther because they affected the faith of believers and the health of society. Luther’s conflict with Rome forced him to address the issue of papal authority, but on his own time, he focused on encouraging lay Christians to embrace a simpler, self-sacrificing faith. In these pastoral writings, he criticized theologians and church officials for leading people astray with a reliance on religious works, and he began to lay the foundation for a reformed Christian piety.

This anthology discusses different aspects of Protestantism, past and present. Professor Tarald Rasmussen has written both on medieval and modern theologians, but his primary interest has remained the reformation and 16th century church history. In stead of a traditional «Festschrift» honouring the different fields of research he has contributed to, this will be a focused anthology treating a specific theme related to Rasmussen’s research profile. One of Professor Rasmussen's most recent publications, a little popularized book in Norwegian titled «What is Protestantism?», reveals a central aspect research interest, namely the Weberian interest for Protestantism’s cultural significance. Despite difficulties, he finds the concept useful as a Weberian «Idealtypus» enabling research on a phenomenon combining theological, historical and sociological dimensions. Thus he employs the Protestantism as an integrative concept to trace the makeup of today’s secular societies. This profiled approach is a point of departure for this anthology discussing important aspects of historiography in reformation history: Continuity and breaks surrounding the reformation, contemporary significance of reformation history research, traces of the reformation in today’s society. The book relates to current discussions on Protestantism and is relevant to everyone who want to keep up to date with the latest research in the field.

Given a life spent in scholarship and controversy, it is easy to forget how much energy Martin Luther devoted to helping the common person understand and take comfort from God’s word. This commitment extended to even the most challenging of biblical texts, and nowhere is this more apparent than Luther’s work on the lament Psalms. Difficult to understand, and perhaps even more difficult to implement in life and devotion, the lament Psalms played a key role in Luther’s thought. More importantly, the lament Psalms were for Luther an essential part of the Christian’s understanding of the life of faith. In this volume, Dennis Ngien helps contemporary readers engage Luther’s commentary on the lament Psalms. What Luther intended for the education and encouragement of everyday Christians, Ngien unpacks and illuminates for life in the twenty-first century. Introduced and commended by Robert Kolb, the volume will be appreciated by teacher and student alike.

The book illustrates the fact that in reforming theology sixteenth century theologians also reformed practice or the imperatives of Christian living. Experts in reformation studies identify and elucidate areas of sixteenth century reforming activity in Martin Luther, John Calvin and other leading reformers to demonstrate the thoroughgoing nature of the reformation agenda. The interpretation of Scripture, the centrality of Jesus Christ, the Jewish question, freedom and pastoral insight form the contents of an important section on Luther. The use of feminine imagery for God, the Augsburg Confession, deification, education, and the gospel are treated in relation to Calvin. The final section deals with Oecolampadius, the Son of Man texts in Matthew, justification, texts on difficult deaths and a Trinitarian exegesis of Scripture. By careful reading of both the historical situation and the primary texts this volume adds significantly to our understanding of the period.

Protestant reformers sought to effect a radical change in the way their contemporaries understood and coped with the suffering of body and soul that were so prominent in the early modern period. The reformers did so because they believed that many traditional approaches to suffering were not sufficiently Christian--that is, they thought these approaches were unbiblical. The Reformation of Suffering examines the Protestant reformation of suffering and shows how it was a central part of the larger Protestant effort to reform church and society. Despite its importance, no other text has directly examined this reformation of suffering. This book investigates the history of Christian reflection on suffering and consolation in the Latin West and places the Protestant reformation campaign within this larger context, paying close attention to important continuities and discontinuities between Catholic and Protestant traditions. Focusing especially on Wittenberg Christianity, The Reformation of Suffering examines the genesis of Protestant doctrines of suffering among the leading reformers and then traces the transmission of these doctrines from the reformers to the common clergy. It also examines the reception of these ideas by lay people. The text underscores the importance of consolation in early modern Protestantism and seeks to challenge a scholarly trend that has emphasized the themes of discipline and control in Wittenberg Christianity. It shows how Protestant clergymen and burghers could be remarkably creative and resourceful as they sought to convey solace to one another in the midst of suffering and misfortune. The Protestant reformation of suffering had a profound impact on church and society in the early modern period and contributed significantly to the shape of the modern world.

Death and dying were not in the main focus of the denominational conflicts of the 16th century. However, pious literature covered these topics again and again, not only before the Reformation, but after it as well. Here, certain denominational differences are clearly visible. Partly, these differences consist in the use of genres: For example, funeral sermons are an often used genre among Lutherans, while they are much rarer in the Reformed tradition. Similar differences can be observed concerning epitaphs. In Roman Catholic areas, funeral sermons and epitaphs are common in the 16th century, too; but their religious function is often a different from the one in Lutheranism. Beyond such interdenominational differences, there are also interesting continuities and connections which the contributors of the volume analyze. For example, there is a certain continuity between 16th century Lutheran funeral sermons and the late medieval tradition of ars moriendi.The volume contains papers presented at the Second RefoRC Conference in Oslo in 2012, and is characterized by a multiconfessional and multidisciplinary approach, with contributions from Church History, Art History, Archaeology, History of Literature and Cultural History. Within a field of research dominated by specialized contributions (e.g. on ars moriendi traditions or on specific traditions of funeral monuments and funeral sermons), the broad approach of this volume may further stimulate to comparative and cross-confessional reflection.