Further reading: Martin Luther
Mike Reeves
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Mike Reeves is UCCF's Theological Advisor, before which he was an associate minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London. View all resources by Mike Reeves
Luther is extremely easy to read: stimulating, amusing and clear. It could not be easier to engage with the man himself. Timothy Lull’s anthology, Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989) contains an excellent collection of the most important works.
Luther’s Letters of Spiritual Counsel, in the Library of Christian Classics series (Vancouver: Regent College, 2003), and Table Talk, both easily available, add some of the best vignettes of insight into the humanity of the man himself.
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There are two books of essential reading in the secondary literature. The first is Roland Bainton’s classic biography of Luther, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon, 1950). Though published in 1950, it is still an addictive read, and also attractively illustrated with contemporary woodcut illustrations.
The other is Paul Althaus’ The Theology of Martin Luther, trans. R. C. Schultz (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1966). It remains the best single-volume overview of Luther’s theology, but is worth reading just for the material on sin and justification, irrespective of relevance to Luther himself!
