Overview

Martin Luther - monk, priest, intellectual, or revolutionary - has been a controversial figure since the sixteenth century. Most studies of Luther stress his personality, his ideas, and his ambitions as a church reformer. In this book, Christopher Ocker brings a new perspective to this topic, arguing that the different ways people thought about Luther mattered far more than who he really was. Providing an accessible, highly contextual, and non-partisan introduction, Ocker says that religious conflict itself served as the engine of religious change. He shows that the Luther affair had a complex political anatomy which extended far beyond the borders of Germany, making the debate an international one from the very start. His study links the Reformation to pluralism within western religion and to the coexistence of religions and secularism in today's world. Luther, Conflict, and Christendom includes a detailed chronological chart.

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9781107197688

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Reviews

'This is no partisan book. Readers will find themselves surprised by, and disabused of, common assumptions about the Reformation being primarily theological or populist.' P. E. Blosser, Choice 'The grand total of events, persons, writings, places, and ideas that Ocker surveys is astounding. And yet, amidst the copious details and the range of materials, the book does not leave one bewildered. Ocker manages to narrate a compelling and readable account of the controversy about Luther from Wittenberg in the early 16th century to South America in the 21st.' Jarrett A. Carty, Reading Religion 'Martin Luther is one of history's most extensively debated and studied figures. Ocker's focus is not only Luther's biography or theology. Rather, this work explores factors that contributed to the reception of Luther's teaching in both Europe and America from the era of the Reformation until the present. This book's clarity about the reception history of Luther's teaching on various levels of political contexts from nations to individuals make it important reading for both historians and theologians.' Aaron Klink, Religious Studies Review 'The book itself, in its paperback incarnation, is handsomely produced … Christopher Ocker's elegant and richly documented study also inspires a sense of déjà-vu, echoing the debates of the 1970s and '80s which pitted social historians of the Reformation against church historians …' David Bagchi, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History

'This is no partisan book. Readers will find themselves surprised by, and disabused of, common assumptions about the Reformation being primarily theological or populist.' P. E. Blosser, Choice

Author Information

Christopher Ocker is Professor of History at the San Francisco Theological Seminary and Chair of the Department of Cultural and Historical Studies of Religions at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He is the author of Biblical Poetics before Humanism and Reformation (Cambridge, 2002), Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany, 1524–1574 (2006), Johannes Klenkok: A Friar's Life, c.1310–1374 (1993), and many articles on religious conflict, biblical interpretation, theology, and religious politics in late medieval and early modern Europe. He is co-editor of Politics and Reformations: Essays in Honor of Thomas A. Brady, Jr (2007), has been a managing editor of The Journal of the Bible and Its Reception, and is a member of the editorial board of Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions.

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