Abstract
The 500th anniversary of the Reformation, dated from the appearance of Martin Luther’s ‘95 Theses’ at the end of October in 1517, has been the catalyst for something of a surge in related publications. Many will be aware, for instance, of Roper’s Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, published last year in this country and widely reviewed in the national press. Both books reviewed here constitute something of a contrast to Roper’s work, and indeed in different ways a corrective to common presentations of Luther in literature produced in English.
Kaufmann’s short volume, originally published in German, avoids the normal chronological framework of biographies. Indeed, it tells the story of his life twice, first in a chapter titled ‘Living in the Reformation of God’ and then in another headed ‘A Theological Life’. The subtitle of the introduction, ‘One Person in Two Natures’, signals what Kaufmann argues is the pivotal duality for understanding his subject: the inward person on the one hand, and the public person on the other. His point is that Luther lived both his inward and his public lives with formidable intensity, and that while there may have been tension between them, there was no contradiction. At the centre of the two was the Bible – the Bible he wrestled with day by day in study and meditation, and the Bible he devoted himself to expounding for the benefit of the Church.
Kaufmann stresses the importance to Luther of his public, institutional responsibilities as a preacher and university teacher, responsibilities he acquired before the Reformation and to which he remained utterly committed through all the changes that followed. He draws attention to the work Luther undertook with an eye to the long-term task of nurturing and shaping the new Church he helped to bring to birth: his Bible commentaries, the Bible translation on which he kept working right up to his death, his catechisms and his hymns. At the same time, Kaufmann repeatedly emphasizes the apocalyptic horizon within which Luther saw the events unfolding around him and within which his explosive identification of the Pope with Antichrist was located. Reformation for him was not a human project, but the work of God in preparing the Church for the end of days. Although Kaufmann’s admiration for his subject is very evident, he is clear too about his failures and limitations, not least in the way he responded to the Peasants’ War.
Laffin’s very different book also reflects a deep appreciation of Luther, but although based on a doctoral thesis there is perhaps surprisingly little critical evaluation of his thought. That is in part because it is framed as a critique of Luther’s critics. Laffin identifies a repeated tendency to present Luther’s thinking about Church and society as an intensification of late medieval nominalism in which community and institution are ultimately displaced by the encounter between the human individual and God. While in the introduction he finds this approach in such widely influential figures as Quentin Skinner, Alastair MacIntyre and Eric Voegelin, he singles out John Milbank for particular attention in what follows. In the concluding section of the final chapter, Laffin draws together the threads of his argument that Luther’s understanding of political life holds more promise than Milbank’s much discussed position for resourcing the political theology the Church needs today and an accompanying critique of modernity.
There are parallels with Kaufmann’s work not only in the reliance on German accounts of Luther’s theology, in particular that of Oswald Bayer, but also in the constant recourse to his non-controversial writings, and in particular his scriptural commentaries. Laffin finds rich material here to illuminate in striking ways themes from Luther’s work that we may have thought we understood well enough. For instance, he shows how Luther used the imagery of marital union to articulate what he wanted to say about justification, how he wrote about the intimate relationship between faith and love and how he rendered inseparable word and sacraments in the life of the Church. Crucially, Laffin argues that later presentations of both the ‘two kingdoms’ and the ‘orders of creation’ by defenders and opponents of Luther alike seriously misrepresent the subtlety of his thought in this area. Fundamental to his case is his reading of Luther’s account of the three ‘estates’ or ‘institutions’ (‘orders of creation’ is a later phrase) as ‘a means of attuning our discernment in the direction of the specific promises in Scripture for places where human life can be lived’ (p. 182).
Laffin’s monograph is clearly written and contains much to interest readers with a broader concern for political theology. Kaufmann’s slender volume may, however, be recommended to anyone who would like in this anniversary year an accessible and magisterial overview of Luther’s theology, densely interwoven as it was with his remarkable and endlessly fascinating life.