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Luther's Inner Conflict: A Psychological Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Harold J. Grimm
Harold J. Grimm
Affiliation:
Capital University, Columbus, Ohio
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Extract

Recent Luther scholarship seems to have reached an impasse in its attempt to solve the apparent inconsistencies between the so-called young Luther and the older conservative writer of confessions. Within the last few decades two distinct schools of thought, with of course variations in each, have developed in the attempt to solve this problem.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , September 1935 , pp. 173 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1935

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References

1 Cf. Meineeke, Friedrich, “Luther über christliches Gemeinwesen und christlichen Staat,” Historische Zeitschrift, CXXI (1920), 1–22Google Scholar; also Holl, Karl's criticism of the use of the term corpus christianum, Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kirchengeschichte, Tübingen, 1923, I, 344.Google Scholar

2 Troeltsch, Ernst, “Bedeutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der modernen Welt,” Historische Zeitschrift, XCVII (1906), 54Google Scholar; 14–15.

3 Brandenburg, Erich, “Luthers Anschauung vom Staate und der Gesellschaft,” Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, LXX (1901), 25Google Scholar. Cf. Holl, , op. cit., p. 347.Google Scholar

4 Holl, , op. cit., p. 344Google Scholar. Cf. Luther, Martin, Werke (Weimar, 1883—Google Scholar, designated below by the abbreviation W. A.), XXX (part 2), 111.

5 Cf. Matthes, Kurt, Das Corpus Christianum bei Luther, Berlin, 1929, passim.Google Scholar

6 Troeltsch, , op. cit., pp. 18–27.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., pp. 29–30.

8 Cf. Müller, A. V., Luthers theologische Quellen, Giessen, 1912, passim.Google Scholar

9 The conflict is evident in his question, “Du bist alleyn klug?” , W. A. XXIII, 421Google Scholar. Cf. Holl, , op. cit., p. 382, note 3.Google Scholar

10 , W. A., X (part 3), 64.Google Scholar

11 Ibid., XVIII, 344ff., passim.

12 Landesherrliches Kirchenregiment. That the tendency toward establishing territorial churches under the leadership of the princes was already evident in the period before the Reformation has been conclusively shown by Hashagen, Justus, Staat und Kirche vor der Reformation, Essem, 1931, p. 558.Google Scholar

13 Although Luther had discarded the medieval concept of the visible church, he retained the medieval doctrine of an invisible church. Cf. Loescher, Friedrich Hermann, “Schule, Kirche und Obrigkeit im Reformationsjahrhundert,” Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschiehte, XLIII (1925), 30Google Scholar; , W. A., VI, 370, 407.Google Scholar

14 Ibid., XIX, 74, 76; Holl, , op. cit., 365, note 2.Google Scholar

15 de Wette, Wilhelm M., Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe, Senaschreiben und Bedenken, Berlin, 1825–1828, II, 562.Google Scholar

16 , W. A., XIX, 72.Google Scholar

17 De Wette, , op. cit., III, 88.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., II, 51.

19 Müller, Karl, “über die Anfänge der Konsistorialverfassung,” Historische Zeitschrift, CII (1911), 1–30.Google Scholar

20 W. A. L., 634; XXVI, 200, 212; Holl, , op. cit., pp. 378–380.Google Scholar

21 The best accounts are those of Graebke, Friedrich, Die Konstruktion der Abendmahlslehre Luthers in ihrer Entwicklung dargestellt (Naumburg a. S., 1907)Google Scholar, and Köhler, Walther, Zwingli und Luther, Leipzig, 1924.Google Scholar

22 , W. A., II, 742–743.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., XI, 432.

24 De Wette, , op. cit., II, 574–576.Google Scholar

25 , W. A., XXVI, 241–509.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., pp. 442–443.

27 Cf. Köhler, , op. cit., p. 626Google Scholar. References to the Church Fathers are, of course, not unusual among the early reformers. Zwingli also referred to them and used scholastic arguments to fortify his doctrines. Even the great Erasmus frequently quoted the Church Fathers.

28 , W. A., XXVI, 335–336.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., p. 499.

30 Ibid., p. 509.

31 It has become fashionable to think of the young Luther as the intrepid young monk who shattered medieval superstitions and gave the world freedom of conscience, and to dismiss the older Luther as an enigma. As a matter of fact, Luther was already thirty-eight years of age when he appeared before the Diet of Worms.