Author

Martin Luther

· German friar, theologian, and reformer who began the Protestant Reformation

Portrait of Martin Luther.
Portrait of Martin Luther. Source · Public domain

About Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was a German Augustinian friar, biblical scholar, preacher, and reformer whose challenge to indulgences helped ignite the Protestant Reformation. His sermons, pamphlets, catechisms, and Bible translation reshaped European religion and politics. His writing joined pastoral urgency, polemical force, earthy humor, and theological innovation.

Notable works

On this site

Selected Sermons and Reformation Treatises

1517-1546 · Renaissance Early Modern · Sermons

Selected Sermons and Reformation Treatises gathers the Luther who speaks from pulpit, classroom, controversy, and pastoral desk. The center is not one genre but a reformatory voice: the Ninety-Five Theses against indulgence abuse, The Freedom of a Christian, sermons on faith and good works, catechetical teaching, and occasional writings shaped by conflict.

The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio)

1525 · Renaissance Early Modern · Philosophy

The Bondage of the Will is Martin Luther's long Latin reply to Erasmus's On Free Will, published at Wittenberg in December 1525, fifteen months after Erasmus's book appeared. It was written in a crowded year: the Peasants' War had been fought and suppressed, the Elector Frederick the Wise had died, and Luther had married Katharina von Bora in June.