Luther: A Life:
Janz, Denis R
Readable, honest & accurate LUT1ER: A LIFE John M. Todd Crossroad, $17.50, 396 pp. Denis R. Janz TO WRITE a biography of Martin Luther is an extraordinarily difficult undertaking. For one thing,...
...Even the most sincere claims to objectivity can only temporarily disguise the biographer's own point of view...
...Todd resists the constant temptation of popular biography to violate the complexity of the man in the interest of clarity and simplicity...
...Shining through on almost every page are his personal likes and dislikes, his deepest hopes and fears...
...The sources Todd relies on for this background are judiciously chosen...
...Lay Protestants too would do well to read this book: its salutary realism is a bulwark against the remnants of uncritical hagiography which one still finds in some circles...
...Furthermore, Todd does all this in a style which is eminently readable and clearly geared to the educated nonexpert...
...A popular biography of this caliber obviously invites comparison with a previous classic in this genre, Roland Bain-ton's Here I Stand, written in 1950...
...It is only in the light of these difficulties that the achievement of John Todd can be fully appreciated...
...That such an impressive biography of Luther should be written by a Catholic is significant...
...More than any other classical Christian theologian, Luther lays bare for us his innermost feelings...
...One finds here not only profound recognition of Luther's theological genius, but also of the psychopathology that accompanied it...
...All we can ask for then is integrity,-and what will inevitably emerge is a pic--ture of Luther as profoundly human, and therefore hopelessly enmeshed in the radical ambiguity of human existence in which he so deeply believed...
...It is said that even among experts on Luther, those who have read it all can be counted on one hand...
...Then too, it was as true in the sixteenth century as it is today that those who confront Luther's personality rarely remain indifferent or detached...
...Excellent though it was, Bainton's book is now dated...
...he discusses everything from his problems in the latrine to his chronic depression...
...Not only is this biography unfailingly accurate, but it is also deeply honest...
...For one thing, he wrote prodigiously -one publication every fortnight for the last twenty-five years of his life, enough material to fill some one hundred large volumes in the modem critical edition...
...When it comes to explaining Luther's theological views, as it inevitably must, Todd avoids technical jargon and gives brief but remarkably accurate summaries of the issues involved...
...Integrity demands that both be said, and Todd does so...
...Nor did Luther restrict himself in his writing to abstract theological speculation...
...We read of Luther's heartrending grief at the bedside of his dying daughter, and we also read of the embittered old man's appalling hatred of the Jews...
...This abundance of personal data may at first sight seem like a blessing to his biographer, but it is also in a sense the biographer's curse, for it forces him to paint a picture which is as multidimensional and complex as the human subject itself...
...Especially welcome are Todd's lucid, nontechnical explanations of the late medieval theological background against which Luther reacted...
...Todd presents us with a comprehensive view of Luther the man which is based on a wide reading of the sources and a thorough familiarity with some of the best secondary literature...
...Those offended by his vulgarity and unimpressed by his theological achievement can present Luther as a kind of foul-mouthed Billy Graham...
...It is a sign that the ecumenical Luther scholarship carried on for decades by Catholics is filtering down to the popular level and beginning to transform the consciousness of the lay Catholic by replacing vague hostility with sympathetic understanding...
...Among the popular biographies vying to replace it, I would rank Todd's work at the very top, and recommend it, not only as an introduction for students, but also to those who always felt they should read something about Luther but, for one reason or another, never have., never have...
...Those astounded by his theological genius and courage can present Luther as a saintly hero who, after a thousand years of sub-Christian teaching, once again bids the light shine out of darkness...
...All caricatures are avoided here, and any possibility of an unambiguous judgment on Luther the man is ruled out...
...Whether the biographer feels love or hatred for Luther the man, ample material can be found for constructing a caricature...
Vol. 110 • May 1983 • No. 9
