Martin Luther

Ted Peters translates theological concepts into a folksy manual for pastoral care.

In her memoir, comedian Maggie Rowe lays bare a struggle with excessive guilt that rivals Martin Luther’s.

Martin Luther isn’t the only theologian for whom we celebrate a major anniversary this year.

Until Christians can all share the Lord’s Supper, the rift continues. But there is no denying how massively the ground has shifted.

For a long time, Luther's hometown lay forgotten.

"A commemoration, not a celebration." What does this mean?

If your mother is drowning in one location and two strangers in another, should you save your mother or the two strangers?

Luther understood the “aesthetics of the book” but not the economics of the book. He never made a pfennig from his publications.

Phil Jenkins's abundant evidence gives lie to the traditional assumption that all but the four canonical Gospels were effectively squelched in the fourth century.

October 31, 2017 draws near. How should we mark it, especially those of us who care about Christian unity?

Many scholars have traced the intra-Christian conflicts over slavery. Less noticed are the situations in which Christians were themselves enslaved.

For this end-of-the-year post, we asked our favorite historians and writers to share prayers from the past that could serve as guides for our present.

Christine Helmer’s important new book has an unusual literary feature: its titular character is killed off not once, but twice.

Theo Hobson’s ambitious book traces the historical emergence and fate of liberal theology in the modern period. He defends the “liberal state” and the way good liberal Christianity is allied with it.

The Reformation led to a full embrace of the radical political implications of a humanity created in the image of God.

Last spring I visited the Paris exhibition Cranach in His Time, where I was introduced to a sampling of Lucas Cranach Sr.’s diverse and sometimes puzzling range of work. Cranach (1472–1553) produced more than 1,500 paintings, not to mention engravings, decorative work and altarpieces.

I began my tour with his portrait of the powerful and shrewd Frederick the Wise, who was Saxon’s ruling elector, Cranach’s patron and Luther’s protector. A little further on I studied a portrait of Luther, Cranach’s friend and partner, painted as a nonthreatening monk—an effort to persuade his critics that he was not dangerous.

"Religious commitments are no longer taken for granted as part of North American people's lives," says Scott Kershner of Holden Village, a Lutheran retreat center in Washington State. "So space opens up to ask very basic and interesting questions."

Here is my unscientific rule: if Martin Luther treated a biblical book
with disdain, then that book is really popular in
modern Africa.

Walk along with Century contributor Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and her husband Andrew
Lars Wilson as they retrace the journey Martin Luther made from Erfut, Germany,
to Rome in 1510—500 years ago this year.