INTRODUCTION

Martin Luther developed his theology in the course of a remarkable thirty-four-year career as professor of scripture at the University of Wittenberg and leader of the evangelical reform movement that became the Protestant Reformation. It is helpful to divide this career into three segments: (1) from 1512, when he began lecturing on the Bible, until 1522, when he returned to Wittenberg after appearing before the imperial diet at Worms and being declared an outlaw in Germany; (2) from 1522 until 1530, when Luther and his colleagues were busy shaping the new evangelical Christianity that became Lutheran with the confession adopted by most German Protestants at Augsburg; (3) from 1530 until his death in 1546, when Luther devoted most of his time to university work and to the practical questions of Protestant politics and church life. The distinctive Reformation themes of Luther’s theology were forged during the first period and then honed by the demands and disputes of the second and third periods. Interpreters are faced with the task of finding unity and coherence in a theology that contributed to such epochal change in church and society.