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Luther and His Spiritual Legacy
Series: The Classic Luther Studies Series
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
"Luther can be a forceful teacher of lived religion. He can be a resource for the enrichment of personal spirituality for members of all Christian confessions. Above all, Luther sought to help people be struck personally by the word and work of Christ."
So writes Jared Wicks in Luther and His Spiritual Legacy, a work full of citations of Luther's teaching that shows the Reformer treating major issues of Christian living that focus on conversion from self-reliance to trusting God's word of grace. After a concise survey of the world in 1500, Luther's theology of the cross emerges from his interpretation of Psalms and Romans. Once the Reformation reached an initial settlement, Luther produced attractive catechisms to counter ignorance of the Christian basics among the people and their pastors. Luther's many-sided controversial arguments--with Catholic opponents, the Reformation radicals, Erasmus, and Zwingli--were efforts to ward off misconceptions of the central dynamics of Christian conversion. But Luther's later constructive works offer a well-rounded account of life in Christ--characteristically marked by personal certainty ever renewed from God's address, by eruptive spontaneity in doing good, and by dutiful service in one's vocation.
Jared Wicks, SJ, has his doctorate from the University of Munster, Germany. His dissertation
came out as Man Yearning for Grace: Luther's Early Spiritual Teaching (1969). He taught at Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago and the Gregorian University in Rome, bringing out further studies of Luther in Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church (1992). Since 2011, he has been scholar-in-residence at the Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio, from which he published a retrospective essay, "Half a Lifetime with Luther in Theology and Life," in Pro Ecclesia (2013).
"Luther and His Spiritual Legacy is the best brief introduction to Luther's life and thought I know of. For Wicks, Luther's goal was not to found a new church but to summon the one Church back to her first love--the crucified and risen Jesus. A major ecumenical achievement."
--Joseph Mangina, Wycliffe School of Theology, Toronto
"A still widely read book on Luther . . . in many ways an early example of transformational Luther scholarship."
--Stephen Pietsch, Australian Lutheran College