Martin Luther on the Bondage of the Will

by Martin Luther, J.I. Packer (Translator), O.R. Johnston (Translator)

Genres: Theology

Hardcover

About the author

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German monk, theologian, university professor and church reformer whose ideas inspired the Protestant Reformation and changed the course of Western civilization.

Luther's theology challenged the authority of the papacy by holding that the Bible is the only infallible source of religious authority and that all baptized Christians under Jesus are a spiritual priesthood. According to Luther, salvation was a free gift of God, received only by true repentance and faith in Jesus as the Messiah, a faith given by God and unmediated by the church.

Luther's confrontation with Charles V at the Diet of Worms over freedom of conscience in 1521 and his refusal to submit to the authority of the Emperor resulted in his being declared an outlaw of the state as he had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the perceived unity of the medieval Church with the secular rulers of western Europe, the widespread acceptance of Luther's doctrines and popular vindication of his thinking on individual liberties were both phenomenal and unprecedented.

His translation of the Bible into the vernacular, making it more accessible to ordinary people, had a tremendous political impact on the church and on German culture. It furthered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation, and influenced the translation of the English King James Bible. His hymns inspired the development of congregational singing within Christianity. His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the practice of clerical marriage within Protestantism.

Much scholarly debate has concentrated on Luther's writings about the Jews. His statements that Jews' homes should be destroyed, their synagogues burned, money confiscated and liberty curtailed were revived and used in propaganda by the Nazis in 1933–45. As a result of this and his revolutionary theological views, his legacy remains controversial.

Reviews

[Molly Atchison]

Following Luther’s train of thought required a lot of focus for me, focus which I sometimes lost while making my way through this book. The sentences are very wordy and often required doubling back to them in order to get to his meaning. Those things made this a challenging read.
But the book is certainly helpful in walking one through the objections to God’s sovereign grace, and pointing out the illogical nature of the “free-will” position. I deeply appreciate his emphasis on turning to the text of Scripture and away from human reason and philosophy. And also his insistence that our interpretation of Scripture must be based upon what the human author, by the Spirit, MEANS to communicate - rather than being based upon what the words the author used CAN possibly mean. Luther teaches that the Scriptures are to be taken literally/naturally, and insists that any other hermeneutic leaves the meaning completely up in the air and allows for no solid grasp of the truth.

[Jobe Arnold]

This book helped put together more pieces of my understanding of God's grace and human desire. Luther's fiery assertion of God's sovereignty and human impotence reminded me a lot of the ending of Till We Have Faces, which though it rubbed me the wrong way at first, has slowly grown on me as the way I ought to approach God's plan for me. While I typically bristle at Luther's style of delivery, I think it's because I associate it with Twitter chuds with 140 characters to work with. Luther not only has plenty of space to back up his points, but also an audience that is actually dependent on his perspective and not just an echo chamber.
This book provided me so much food for thought and I feel a lot better about hanging in these kinds of discussions with my Catholic and Armenian philosopher friends. While I didn't mind the density too much (reading someone else's marked-up copy helped a lot here), I thought Luther spent too long refuting Erasmus' "if man is required to do something, he must be able to do it" point. It makes sense that he'd have to keep restating his arguments when most of them were new to his audience, though, and in all, this was an eye-opening glimpse into the kind of man Luther had to be to start and continue the Reformation. If you're still reading this, I hope you have a Merry Christmas free of indulgences remembering the one who worked to make you righteous.