Three Treatises: The Annotated Luther Study Edition

by Timothy J. Wengert (Editor), Erik H. Herrmann (Editor), James M. Estes (Editor)

Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses on the church door at Wittenberg in 1517. In the three years that followed, Luther clarified and defended his position in numerous writings. Chief among these are the three treatises written in 1520. In these writings Luther tried to frame his ideas in terms that would be comprehensible not only to the clergy but to people from a wide range of backgrounds. To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation is an attack on the corruption of the church and the abuses of its authority, bringing to light many of the underlying reasons for the Reformation. The second treatise, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church , contains Luther's sharp criticism of the sacramental system of the Catholic church. The Freedom of a Christian gives a concise presentation of Luther's position on the doctrine of justification by faith. This volume is excerpted from The Annotated Luther series, Volume 1 and The Annotated Luther series, Volume 3. Each volume in the series contains new introductions, annotations, illustrations, and notes to help shed light on Luther's context and to interpret his writings for today. The translations of Luther's writings include updates of Luther's Works, American Edition, or new translations of Luther's German or Latin writings.

293 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2023

About the author

Timothy J. Wengert (PhD, Duke University) is Ministerium of Pennsylvania Professor, Reformation History, at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He has pastored churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin, authored or edited twenty books, and written over one hundred articles.

Reviews

[Colby Reese · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you get anything from these treatises - and you get a lot - you should come away entrenched in the notion that the Christian life is simply a life of faith in the Word. From pastoring to the sacraments to daily spiritual disciplines, each area of the Christian life centers around receiving the Word of promise by faith and distributing that Word so that others may believe.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A helpful collection of three treatises by Luther written in 1520:

1. To the Christian nobility
2. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church
3. The freedom of the Christian

This edition has very helpful marginal notes that explain some of the original source terms in Latin and German and the historical and medieval context of Luther's writings. This is very helpful to avoid anachronistically reading our modern interpretations back into Luther. These treatises show how Luther's theology developed and trace some of his key theological distinctives such as justification sola fide, law and gospel distinction, and the priesthood of all believers. Luther's method demonstrates that he was well versed in the scholastic and medieval traditions in his polemical responses as he used Scripture and church history to refute his critics.

[Dalton Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

These three works of Luther lead up to the Diet of Worms. The first two, To the Christian Nobility and The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, did a really good job of riling me up against those papists. The third, The Freedom of a Christian, is a clear, concise summary of justification by faith. I was surprised by how similar it sounded to how modern evangelicals speak of justification today.

[Noah Buresh]

Luther's Three Treatises should be required reading for all Protestants. He says everything we like to say, but he said it first and he said it better.