Table of Contents
Foreword Walter Klaassen xi
Preface xiii
My Earlier Luther Book
The Title
My Target Audience A Word of Thanks
List of Abbreviations xix
i In Search of a Gracious God 1
Luther Not the First Reformer
To Find a Gracious God
God's Grace Found
Luther's Theology
ii Luther's Early Red-Hot Pen 11
The Ninety-Five Theses
Major Reformation Writings
The War of Pamphlets
Birth of Religious Fundamentalism
iii Dissenting Groups and Why They Opposed Luther 23
Great Variety of Radicals
Origins of the Radical Reformers
Why They Left Luther
iv The Enemies Within: Luther and the Wittenberg Radicals 33
Karlstadt and Luther
The Zwickau Prophets
The Augustinian Monks
Return from the Wartburg
Order Restored
The Presence of Christ in Holy Communion
Final Encounter with Karlstadt
v "The Soft-Living Flesh of Wittenberg": Luther's Struggle and the Revolutionaries 53
Luther on Authority Prior to 1525
The Common Man and Authority
Thomas Muntzer
Differences Between Müntzer and Luther
Müntzer's Radicalism
vi "I Commanded Them to be Killed": Luther and the Peasants 71
Luther's Responsibility for the Peasants' War
The Twelve Articles
Luther Against the Peasants
Concerning the Harsh Booklet
Concluding Comments
Revolution of the Common Man
Non-Peasant Participants
A Note on Luther and Capitalism
vii Two Riders of the Human Wili: Luther Opposes Erasmus and Humanism 89
Humanists and the Reformation
Luther and Erasmus
Erasmus and Pope Adrian VI
Erasmus on Free Will
Luther on the Bondage of the Will
A Bitter Erasmus
Stalemate?
A Note on Anabaptists and Free Will
viii Luther Knew and Opposed the Evangelical Anabaptists 113
Origin and Spread of Anabaptism
Muntzer and the Swiss Brethren
Doctrine or Ethics?
Conclusion
ix "I Told You So": Luther and the Anabaptist Kingdom in Munster 149
"I told you so!"
Kingdom of Munster Begins
The Prophets Arrive
Jan van Leyden and Polygamy
Luther and the Münsterites
Was Luther Correct?
Anabaptism and Münsterism
Merino Simons and Münster
x Much Ado about Spirit and Matter: Luther and the Spiritualists 165
Inner and Outer Word
Hans Denck
Luther on Hans Denck
Caspar von Schwenckfeld
Much Ado about Spirit and Matter
Luther and the Word of God
Schwenckfeld and the Word of God
Concluding Comments
xi Three in One or One in Three?
Luther Opposes the Rationalists 185
The Spirits Luther Had Called Up
Law and Gospel
Concerning the Trinity
Ami-Trinitarians
Michael Servetus
xii To Believe What You Like? Luther and His Opponents on Tolerance and Religious Liberty 201
Luther's Early Views on Tolerance
Ecclesiastical Visitation?
What to Do with Heretics
Sedition and Blasphemy
Luther's Changed View
Anabaptists on Tolerance
Tolerance Problematical during the Reformation
Tolerance among Some Spiritualists
A Note on Persecution
Conclusion