A primeira-dama da reforma: A extraordinária vida de Catarina von Bora (500 anos da reforma)

by Ruth A. Tucker, Marcelo Siqueira Gonçalves (Translator)

Apesar de ser conhecida por causa de seu ilustre marido, Catarina von Bora foi responsável por trazer estabilidade à vida de Martinho Lutero e possibilitar que ele se transformasse na figura que foi. É a história dessa mulher forte e ousada que Ruth Tucker retrata em A primeira-dama da Reforma. Da rotina no convento à fuga e aos vinte anos de matrimônio com Lutero, Tucker narra a vida dessa extraordinária camponesa do século XVI e mostra que, passados 500 anos, Catarina ainda é surpreendente e relevante – e sua personalidade única permanece moderna mesmo nos dias de hoje.

Uma mulher para todas as eras

Fazendeira, administradora marcante, mulher nada convencional para sua época. Apesar de ser conhecida por causa de seu ilustre marido, Martinho Lutero, Catarina von Bora não foi uma esposa aceitável para o século XVI – e também não seria hoje. Ainda assim, foi ela a responsável por trazer estabilidade à vida de Lutero e possibilitar que ele se transformasse na figura que foi. Catarina foi a personagem mais indispensável da Reforma alemã depois do próprio marido.

É a história dessa mulher forte e ousada que Ruth Tucker retrata em A primeira-dama da Reforma. Da rotina no convento à fuga e aos vinte anos de matrimônio com Lutero, Tucker narra a vida dessa extraordinária camponesa do século XVI e mostra que, passados 500 anos, Catarina ainda é surpreendente e relevante – e sua personalidade única permanece moderna mesmo nos dias de hoje.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, History, Church History, Womens, Christian

264 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2017

About the author

Ruth A. Tucker (PhD, Northern Illinois University) has taught mission studies and church history at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Calvin Theological Seminary. She is the author of dozens of articles and eighteen books, including the award-winning From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. Visit her website at www.RuthTucker.com.

Reviews

[Rodrigo Santos · Rating 1 out of 5]

A intenção até me pareceu boa, e o título e tema chamam bastante atenção, mas o livro infelizmente é baseado no “se”, existe muito achismo, e o que é pior, a narrativa é toda feita em cima de ideias da autora, que me pareceu flertar com o feminismo.

[Becky · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so painful for me to read. I wanted to learn about "the unconventional life of Katharina von Bora" but the whole of it would make a pamphlet apparently. To fill the void the author repeats herself ENDLESSLY and fills the rest with details about other women who she thinks compare or contrast to Katie Luther.

[Lindsay Bowley · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is not much known about Katie, so the book sometimes seems to have a lot of filler. It placed emphasis on gender discrimination a little too much for my taste as well - I like the facts with out the biographer’s inferences included when it comes to reporting on someone’s life.

[Kay · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't even finish the book. So little is known about Katie that this author had to fluff up her pages by multiple rabbit trails outside of the 16th century and sources that have nothing to do with Katharina von Bora. The author also takes a rather negative view of Luther, slanting quotes I have read from other sources to fit her feminist view. A very unbecoming biography. I do not recommend it if you are interested in actual historic accuracy of the Luthers' life.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terminei de ler o último livro deste ano e, para ser sincera, fiquei decepcionada. A proposta de apresentar uma personagem que a História omitiu é, realmente, muito boa. E a escrita é envolvente, muito boa, e instiga o leitor a acompanhar o raciocínio dos fatos apresentados pela autora.

Todavia, como obra biográfica, deixa muito a desejar. Pela interpretação completamente contemporânea acerca da religiosidade do século XVI, falhando em compreender a transição do medievalismo para a Idade Moderna, e até mesmo o grande papel que Lutero desempenhou nisso por meio da "Reforma Protestante", evento histórico religioso que marcou aquele contexto social, espalhando-se pela Europa e afetando-a na esferas social, política, econômica. Essa religiosidade consistia na submissão humana, de um modo geral, a algo superior, encarnado na figura de Cristo e que atuava, mediante a Igreja Católica, como formação de aspectos morais que controlavam a mentalidade da época, mesclando-se aos aspectos políticos que vemos nas disputas de reis que, não raro, transformavam-se em guerras. O fato das mulheres acompanharem isto não as diminui, de modo algum, enquanto atores sociais de seu tempo. Qualificá-las como "submissas" ou "desesperadas para casar" para fazer oposição à personagem que a autora pesquisa é não entender que:

a) o casamento era necessário, tanto como dogma religioso quanto papel social, para as mulheres de todas as camadas sociais; contudo, para as de nobre nascimento, não havia outra opção (exceto uma carreira religiosa), tendo em vista o propósito político das alianças matrimoniais.

b) o que seria submissa, de fato, quando, para muitas mulheres daquela época, portar-se de maneira era como foram educadas? Tantos motivos há e colocar as mulheres do século XVI como, em sua maioria, submissas é apagar suas histórias, seus modos de vida em um contexto marcado pela vida familiar para tantas delas.

Diante disso, a comparação com fatos pessoais da autora desnorteia a pesquisa biográfica, trazendo elementos modernos, o que prejudica o estudo, tendo em vista o julgamento do que é ser esposa em nossos dias versus ser esposa de um reformador religioso em 1530. Adivinhar pensamentos e sentimentos caberia mais a um romance histórico do que à biografia em si. Um último fator que me decepcionou foi a contradição da escrita feminista com a oposição de "personagens fortes como a Katharina" versus "mulheres submissas" que aceitavam tudo.

Há outros pontos mais que, entretanto, se expusesse aqui, prolongaria o texto. Apesar desse desapontamento, recomendo a leitura para os que se interessarem pelo tema. Creio que como ponto de partida, é uma obra valida. Só não deve ser esquecido que as diferenças entre os séculos XVI e XXI são muitos. Deve-se, portanto, ser evitado ver mulheres aparentemente de personalidades fortes como "a frente de seu tempo", porque, na realidade, ninguém realmente o era. Todos somos, em um grau maior ou menor, produtos do processo de socialização pelo qual passamos, seja em qual época for.

[Blakeney H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Considering how many, many times the author states that there are almost NO records or writings on Kathrarina, she makes a LOT of assumptions. Add to that, poorly, almost high school-like research paper writing and an almost tangible dislike of Martin Luther from the author, I would not recommend trying to make it through the 12 chapters.

[Choi Kyusik · Rating 1 out of 5]

I learned nothing about Katie Luther ... The author's central point in this book was that Katie Luther was not well known because "her brand was resented by many, including Luther's closest colleagues". As a result, this book spends far more time discussing Luther's colleagues and the braoder German culture of the period rather than Katie's own life.

This is not a biographical book.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have not heard by now. 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Due to this a cultural phenomenon has occurred in which a plethora of books relating to the Reformation have been produced. Of all of the books produce a majority of them have been biographies on Martin Luther. In amongst these biographies about Martin Luther there have been a surprising number of biographies focused on Martin and Katie Luther as a Reformation couple. This has been a fantastic study in which the details of the first couple of the Reformation have been explored.

Yet not to be out done a biography focused primarily on Katie Luther has now been produced by famed missionology historian Ruth A. Tucker. Tucker is the author of many books on the history of missions as well as women in church history. While in some cases she is a bit too egalitarian for my taste, her biography of Katie Luther does not engage into those egalitarian views as much as she has done in the past.

With regard to the biography itself. Tucker focuses primarily on the roles in which Katie Luther performed. The Laurels wife the role of mother the role of business woman as well as many others. Each of these roles demonstrated how Katie Luther was a woman outside of her time, yet strikingly a product of her time so that this first lady of the Reformation was a woman to which godly women, specifically that ministers wives, should aspire to. As a minister myself, my wife thoroughly enjoyed this biography for she sees many of her own characteristics shared between her and Katie Luther. Which unfortunately is not seen as positive in the modern-day but was singing as pertinent in the early days of the Reformation. I highly recommend this book to not only pastors and to the congregation but specifically to women who are being called into Ministry, as well as women who are being called to be ministers wives. Both of which are noble Godly callings indeed, and this book will give them an example to aspire to.

This book was provided to me free of charge from Zondervan Academic in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

Katie Luther, First Lady of the Reformation

© 2017 by Ruth A. Tucker

Publisher: Zondervan Academic

Page Count: 208 Pages

ISBN: 978-0310532156

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a very fascinating read, there was way too many comparison stories, and often too much historical context that by the time she resumed the story, I had forgotten where we were up to. I wonder whether the extra information irrelevant to the life of Katie or Luther was a filler? Or maybe the author (Ruth) had too much fun researching that she had to put it all in there? I also found some points really repetitive. Sometimes I just skipped paragraphs because the information was already repeated, just said in a different way.
On a seperate note, you can just skip entirely chapter 9. Her feminist egalitarian views completely come to the surface and cloud her view on Luther and why Katie submitted to him in their marriage. She blamed her submission on society and culture (as most feminists do), but Katie was a woman of the Word and she submitted because her and Luther were compliementarians and found submission to be entirely Scriptural.
I think Ruth’s main issue is she makes too many comparisons to herself with Katie. By doing so, she puts herself in Katie’s shoes and assumes she would be thinking how she would think and feel when certain situations arise. That’s the problems right there. Ruth makes it too personal when it should be purely a facts based book.
To conclude: I really don’t think it’s possible to get a more thorough book on Katie and the historical context with which she and Luther were in. For that reason, I believe this book is an excellent one stop book. But be prepared that Ruth talks a lot about herself and asks a lot of 21 century cultural questions throughout.

[Mark McElreath · Rating 3 out of 5]

This serves as an intriguing look into an often forgotten life. Martin would not have accomplished so much if he had not had his Katie.

[Challice · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Not knowing Katherina von Bora is a key to knowing her. Understanding is sometimes found in obscurity. What we do know of her comes largely through her husband's writings, thus seeing her in his reflection. Or perhaps knowing her as we know black holes--not by seeing them, but by knowing their effects on nearby matter."

I wish this quote would have opened the first chapter of Katie Luther: First Lady of the Reformation. Ruth Tucker did a marvelous job piecing together a biography on someone well-known in name from history, but a character we know so little about.

I really struggled with this book. I felt like Emma in Austen's novel: "I love it. I hate it! How could [she] do that? I hate it!" The writing felt very much like how we were taught to write papers in college. Find evidence to "assert" your writing. It made it a bit disconnecting at times.

What I LOVED was also what I struggled with. Tucker does address that we do know so little on Katie, and that her viewpoint and portrait of her comes from various sources and that she does take some liberty in assuming Katie's thoughts and behavior. I recently did another review on a fictional telling of Luther and von Bora's relationship and what really bugged me was the assumption on details. So, apparently, this is a weakness of mine. Bare that in mind. BUT, Ruth Taker in this biography of Katie really gathered her sources from women of similar mindset of the time, the culture of the time, and Martin Luther's own writing to form her conclusion of Katherina in whatever capacity Tucker was writing about. The author starts from infancy and each chapter grows in the character and age of Katherina. Tucker also gave me a real eye opening awakening of the life and times, and I am forever, grateful.
It is easy to romanticize this time. We Christians like to do that. What I saw previously as a submissive quiet woman that ran from a convent, was actually a very self-reliant and assertive industrious wife and mother. The books quotes a lot of sources that has some colorful descriptions that my eyelashes flew high over. Language that I had no idea were spoken of in that day.
One thing that I kept struggling through was the whole gender comparison and discrimination references. It was Tucker's strong point in her book and also what I found frustrating. I think it was a common thread that was weaved throughout the book.

It is sometimes good to get a perspective different than when you commonly see or read. Ruth Tucker did that within the pages. Sometimes she would repeat herself within different chapters. It wasn't out of context but more of a pause within my mind of "didn't we discuss this?" But over all, it was a book that was given a lot of care to details and descriptions.

I am still on the fence to my star review. Its between a 3 and 4 stars. I disagree with some viewpoints, I am more aware of others, and I learned more about this remarkable woman. No one is perfect, no not one. She was never perfect, but she seems like my kind of gal.

[bruna · Rating 3 out of 5]

é muito interessante, mas não necessariamente como uma biografia. ao se deparar com a enorme escassez de informações sobre a vida da Catarina Von Bora sob sua própria perspectiva — comparando-a, inclusive, a um buraco negro: sabemos de sua existência e o admiramos, mas não o compreendemos totalmente —, a autora decide preencher as lacunas da forma mais honesta possível, trazendo os escritos de Lutero e várias referências externas a fim de entender o contexto histórico da época... ou seja, são várias páginas com suposições de “o que era mais provável?”
dada a conjuntura daquele período. isso funciona em boa parte da narrativa mas, em certos momentos, senti que a autora se perdeu um pouco ao escrever parágrafos e parágrafos com divagações do tipo: “o que será que Catarina sentiu/pensou nesse momento?” — já que essas são precisamente as dúvidas que o leitor busca responder através do livro. além disso, acredito que os questionamentos relacionados aos papéis de gênero propostos pela autora são, por vezes, anacrônicos e, infelizmente, acabam sempre caindo no limbo das hipóteses. pra mim, esses fatores tornaram a leitura um pouco maçante.

masss, deixando essas coisinhas de lado, é uma obra muito rica, especialmente pra quem tem interesse em saber mais sobre a Reforma Protestante :)

[Kristen · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars.
Read this for book club.
I had 2 big issues with this book.
1. There just isn't enough historical information about Katherina Luther to spin into 200 pages. She left no journals and very few letters. She was mentioned only briefly as Martin Luther's wife in writings about Luther with some complaints about her being perhaps too invested in the acquisition of land/wealth. Some of Luther's letters TO her remain and we can gather things about her life and infer some of her thoughts and personality based on this, but it's not enough to make a book.
2. Because of this dearth of information, the author chose to fill this out with a TON of speculation and bizarre fantasies about some "enterprising garbage collector" coming across some undiscovered journals of Katie Luther. There are other sections when she fantasizes about how she and Katie would have been friends, but not like sharing-secrets-and-giggling friends, but two-industrious-women-who-worry-a-lot friends. Her assertive insertion of herself into the book is really distracting and reads as very unprofessional if this is supposed to be a biography.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I understand the author's attempts. She tried to write a book about Katie Luther through inference and speculation, through understanding the average lifestyle of a person in Katie's time and place, and through comparing and contrasting other figures in history.

There's too much personal speculation for my taste. The author took quite a bit of liberty in using her own opinions of Katie to write about Katie. There were sections of the book where the author contradicted herself some in her view of Katie's life. For example, in chapter 12, which talked about Katie's widowhood and final years, the author notes that details of the years prior to Katie entering the convent (i.e. her first five years of life) are lost, but not so the years as a widow. Then, in speaking about Katie's death, the author makes mention that Katie seems to go missing for "months, almost years, at a time" and that her (almost seven) years of widowhood are "difficult to unravel."

There is a fair amount of repetition in the book. Overall, I just did not like it.

[R.M. Lutz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was torn on how to rate this book. On the one hand, I found it interesting and enjoyable for the fact that it was about Katie, who I have wanted to learn more about. On the other, I found the author's writing style jerky and difficult to follow at times--darting forward and backward in time and exploring other figures, only to circle back to Katie with minimal transition within the span of a couple paragraphs. Furthermore, I didn't care for the author's long exposes on her own life interspersed throughout the work, especially considering how she would gloss over opportunities for more direct quotes on the titular character's life. She also comes at it from a more feminist perspective than I personally favor, but that's simply a matter of taste. In spite of all those things, I managed to read the volume in the span of an afternoon, so I suppose I enjoyed it reasonably well, boosting my rating from 3 to 4 stars.

[Shane Fritz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author made clear that Katie herself did very little writing, other than business contracts; at least her letters were not preserved. A lot of what was said about her in this book was borrowed from the research of others. The author contrasted Katie with other notable women, both of the times and of later times. The author also inferred a lot from what Martin Luther said about her, either in letters to her or to friends of his. She was industrious, hard-working, independent-minded. I'm glad that I read it, but was disappointed that there wasn't more. However, it was 500 years or so ago, and she was busy feeding her family and the boarders, brewing beer, cultivating herbs, gardening, washing, and having six babies. No wonder she didn't have time to write!

[Elizabeth Ziegenfus · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for a solid biography of Katie Luther so I bought this one because it was published by Zondervan Academic. I was sorely disappointed. While there is good information about Katie Luther, the author, Ruth Tucker, interjects her own life into the story. She tells the read how she feels a connection with Katie Luther because she grew up on a farm with no running water and electricity. Likewise, she is sure she and Katie are kindred spirits because they are both worrywarts. These and other reflections on the author's life detract from the story as I picked it up to learn more about Katie Luther, not Ruth Tucker. However, I will give Tucker credit for the extensive footnotes. She references a number of other biographies of Katie Tucker. I plan to pick up one of those soon.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐️ I picked up this book because I became interested in the Protestant Reformation recently and wanted to know more about women’s roles in it. However, this book is a whole lot of speculation, unnecessary author self-inserts, and attempts at rebuilding a life from scraps. I don’t know if there’s enough out there to actually write a good, full biography of Katharina con Bora, and the author seems to be doing the best with what she found. However, I didn’t care about the author comparing her own life to Katie’s, and a lot of the short book was looking briefly at other women of the era and thinking “Hmm, maybe Katie had a similar experience.” It’s okay, and it’s definitely for an evangelical Christian audience and that’s not me.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just okay. As others have said, it seemed like there was unnecessary filler as the author compared Katie to other women (ex. Abigail Adams) and relayed her own personal stories along the way. It seemed more of a rambling in some ways. We don't know a lot about Katie as she didn't leave any of her own writings.

One thing that was really annoying was how the author tried to spin things to present her case for Luther and Katie having more of an egalitarian/mutual marriage rather than a patriarchal one. She would quote something Luther wrote and immediately turn around and say that he didn't really mean it and explain how he lived in contradiction of what he wrote. She did not quote his teaching on wife spanking (which certainly does not support mutuality as she seemed to want to do).

It just didn't seem like she was honestly dealing with the evidence that we do have.

[Maddie Settle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted this to be more than it was. I did not care for the author’s voice all throughout. Instead of telling the story of Katherine she told the story about her opinions and reflection about Katherine and the various historical actors mentioned. I don’t know what I was expecting but for a book this size I anticipated that I would learn more about Katie rather than read the vain spewing of an author that is apparently fed up with men.

[Jeremiah Whiteman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t enjoy giving this book such a low rating, but I did so not because the writing is terrible, nor the biography provided by Ruth. But because Ruth quickly devolves—throughout the book—into interpreting Katie through a modern feminist lens as if she’d be on their side. Ruth is quite anachronistic and tries to read her ideologies and anthropology onto Katie, and it’s because of this that I give it a low rating.

I could recommend reading the first 8 chapters of this book, but not much more.

[Tim Franks · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a few things that I learned from this book about Katie Luther. Overall, I would not recommend this book. Her focus is trying to turn her into a modern feminist. It is hard to read through the book with the constant barrage of man hating and woman power weaved throughout. There are other better options out there for reading on her life. We don't have much to go off of for a history of her life, which makes the author's filling in the gaps as she does as not helpful.

[Alexandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much is known about the life of Katherina von Bora, which the author admits, and unfortunately, often speculates by comparison with other women of the time. A great effort and at times, inspirational, but there is just not enough sources to realize the true Katie Luther and create a thorough biography.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - I should have listened to the reviews of this book. Because there is such sparse information about Katie Luther available, much of this book is conjecture about her experiences and only general information about the time in history. It was boring and repetitive and I chose to shelve it. Too bad as I was very curious about Katie’s life!

[Don Ekback]

I was hoping for more details about her, but rather felt that much of the book was about her husband and the fact that she had a slight influence on him. I also found that there was a lot of emphasis on a comparison with other women fighting for equality with men. Not a bad thing, but it turned into almost a political emphasis on women's rights rather than on Katherina herself.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rare insight into the woman behind Martin Luther. She defies our concept of what we believe women went through in that era, and shows how very true it is that behind every good man is a good woman.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads giveaway program. Some speculation, but a solid, well written read even though it took me a bit to get into it.

[Shawn Durham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but slow at times.

[Justin Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and interesting historically, but somewhat egalitarian and liberal theologically.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just didn’t keep my attention after the first few chapters. Felt like there was much added to make the book longer than needed to be.