Martin Luther | Biography, Reformation, Accomplishments, Quotes, & Facts

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• What seems to characterize him more than anything else is an almost childlike trust in God’s overarching forgiveness and acceptance

• the Augsburg Confession, quickly became the guiding theological document for the emerging Lutheran tradition

• Biographies of Luther accordingly have a tendency to end their story with his marriage in 1525

• omit the last 20 years of his life, during which much happened

• His tone became strident and shrill

• In 1539 Luther became embroiled in a scandal surrounding the bigamy of Philip, landgrave of Hesse

• Luther noted that the patriarchs of the Old Testament had been married to more than one wife and that, as a special dispensation, polygamy was still possible

• From the mid-1530s Luther was plagued by kidney stones and an obvious coronary condition

• continued his academic teaching

• In February 1546 Luther journeyed, despite his failing health, to Eisleben, the town where he was born

• mediate an embarrassing quarrel between two young and arrogant noblemen, the counts Albrecht and Gebhard of Mansfeld. He was successful

• One day later, on February 18, death came

• Martin Luther is assuredly one of the most influential figures in Western civilization during the last millennium. He was the catalyst for the division of Western Christendom

• cultural legacies, such as the emphasis on vernacular language

• not a systematic theological thinker. Much like St. Augustine in late antiquity, Luther was what might be called a polemical theologian

• Protestant scholars viewed him as the most stunning exponent of the authentic Christian faith since the time of the Apostles, while Catholics viewed him as the epitome of theological ignorance and personal immoralit

• partisan perspectives

• sola Scriptura

• a priesthood of all believers

• grace