(This post comes from 1517.org. It was written by Dr. John Warwick Montgomery. You can find the original post here.)
This is an adaptation of the introduction from âIn Defense of Martin Lutherâ written by John Warwick Montgomery (1517 Publishing, 2017). Used with permission.
To defend Martin Luther â whose courage in the face of overwhelming religious and secular attack has become a byword in world history â may well seem a superfluous if not presumpÂtive task. One is reminded of the exchange between an eager young man and the great 19th-century evangelist Charles Finney. Young man: âMr. Finney, how can I defend the Bible?â FinÂney: âHow would you defend a lion? Let it out of its cage and it will defend itself!â In a very real sense, Finneyâs reply is applicable to Luther. Since the monumental and as yet uncompleted labor of the Weimarer Ausgabe began in 1888 and the so-called Luther-research movement commenced in the labors of Karl Holl at Tubingen, the Reformer has been âlet out of the cageâ of secÂondary and tertiary interpretations to speak for himself; and his own writings are a magnificent vindication of his person and work. Yet just as the reading of Scripture does not automatically cause all criticisms of it to evaporate, so Lutherâs writings do not in themselves eliminate superficial or perverse analyses of him. The poetical ideal expressed by Horace, De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, or âOf the dead say nothing but good,â has seldom been followed, particularly in the treatment of men like Luther whose controversial ideas and acts have elicited violent opposition. In point of fact, the dead â even those who were most adroit in defending their interests while alive â are pitifully at the mercy of their critics after their demise. What our Lord said to Peter concerning old age applies with equal force to death: âWhen thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst wither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee wither thou wouldest not.â Little study of the history of Luther interpretation is needed to demonstrate beyond all question that the Reformer, powerful enough in life to intimidate popes and emperors, has been âgirdedâ again and again with viewpoints appallingly inimical to his true beliefs and has continually been âcarried whither he wouldest notâ since his death.
The extent to which even today such interpretative tyrannizÂing grossly corrupts a Luther no longer able to defend his own interests is sufficiently illustrated by a single example: John Osborneâs dramatic hit âLuther,â in which Albert Finney preÂsented a coherent (and hopelessly unhistorical) portrait of the Reformer as one driven by unconscious psychological motivaÂtions outside of his volitional control. Osborne derived his picÂture of Luther from the influential psychoanalytical study of the Reformer by the distinguished Harvard lecturer Erik Erikson: Young Man Luther, whose translations into European languages have made it equally known on the continent. On the ground of Lutherâs supposed hatred for a father whom he wished unÂconsciously to repudiate, Erikson claims that the young ReformÂer successfully worked through his personal âidentity crisisâ by transferring the attributes of his father to the Pope and all spiritÂual authority; once he had dealt with his own unsolved problem of self-hate and intolerance of disobedience by destroying these prime authority symbols, Luther âwas at last able to forgive God for being a Father, and grant Him justification.â
Thus through an indecisive modicum of historical data concerning Lutherâs relations with childhood authority figures, together with a liberal and uncritical dose of aprioristic Freudian scientism, students and playgoers in our day have been introduced to a Luther who has only the vaguest connection with the actual Wittenberg ReÂformer. Can we imagine what Luther himself while alive would have done to an interpretation of his cardinal doctrine of justiÂfication (the justification of the sinner by Godâs grace through faith) which asserted that God was the recipient of Lutherâs forÂgiveness and justification? But victories over the dead are easy conquests; and it is the purpose of this volume to render them considerably less facile where the greatest of the Reformers is concerned.
Hopefully, the present work will serve, in the afterglow of the 450th anniversary of the Reformation, to reinforce lines writÂten by 19th century English poet Robert Montgomery:
Chief oâer all the galaxy of lights
Which stud the firmament of Christian fame.
Shone Luther forthâthat miracle of men!
A Gospel Hero, who with faith sublime Fulmined the lightnings of Godâs flaming Word Full on the towers of superstitionsâ home,
Till lo! they crumbled; and his withering flash Yet sears the ruin with victorious play.