Wild Boar: The Monk Martin Luther and the Start of the Reformation

FAIN: FZ-231800-15

Craig Harline
Brigham Young University (Provo, UT 84602)

Research and writing of a book on Luther from 1517 to 1522, the five years during which he transformed from an obscure monk to an outlaw celebrity, to be published in 2017 as part of the commemoration of the Reformation's 500th anniversary.

To help commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, I would use the NEH Public Scholar grant to write a book about Martin Luther between 1517 and 1522--thus from the time that he emerged as an obscure monk until the time that as an outlaw celebrity he came out of hiding and started putting into practice the religious reforms he had been promoting for the past several years. Plenty has of course been written about Luther, who is one of the most famous figures in western history, but I wish especially to focus on Luther the flesh-and-blood monk, rather than the monumental figure who changed the shape of western society. The book, to be written during all of 2016, will be in the form of a narrative intended for general readers, and will be published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Associated Products

A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation (Book)
Title: A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation
Author: Craig Harline
Abstract: October 2017 marks five hundred years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg and launched the Protestant Reformation. At least, that's what the legend says. But with a figure like Martin Luther, who looms so large in the historical imagination, it's hard to separate the legend from the life, or even sometimes to separate assorted legends from each other. Over the centuries, Luther the man has given way to Luther the icon, a polished bronze figure on a pedestal. In A World Ablaze, Craig Harline introduces us to the flesh-and-blood Martin Luther. Harline tells the riveting story of the first crucial years of the accidental crusade that would make Luther a legendary figure. He didn't start out that way; Luther was a sometimes-cranky friar and professor who worried endlessly about the fate of his eternal soul. He sought answers in the Bible and the Church fathers, and what he found distressed him even more -- the way many in the Church had come to understand salvation was profoundly wrong, thought Luther, putting millions of souls, not least his own, at risk of damnation. His ideas would pit him against numerous scholars, priests, bishops, princes, and the Pope, even as others adopted or adapted his cause, ultimately dividing the Church against itself. A World Ablaze is a tale not just of religious debate but of political intrigue, of shifting alliances and daring escapes, with Luther often narrowly avoiding capture, which might have led to execution. The conflict would eventually encompass the whole of Christendom and served as the crucible in which a new world was forged. The Luther we find in these pages is not a statue to be admired but a complex figure -- brilliant and volatile, fretful and self-righteous, curious and stubborn. Harline brings out the immediacy, uncertainty, and drama of his story, giving readers a sense of what it felt like in the moment, when the ending was still very much in doubt.
Year: 2017
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/world-ablaze-the-rise-of-martin-luther-and-the-birth-of-the-reformation/oclc/975367591&referer=brief_results
Publisher: New York: Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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