I have been steeped in fantastic books many of you in the forum have recommended on my road to Rome. I am a 20+ year Protestant, married to a life-long one. I long to bring her with me, but she has asked that I study the Protestant side of the argument as zealously as I have been studying Catholicism. I have asked my Protestant friends and mentors for their recommendations, and the crickets are deafening! Which academically viable book or books have some of you heard quoted from in your experiences defending the faith?
The “Protestant side” is much more than books “for Luther.” If you’re interested in books for the “Protestant side” I have a number I could recommend, if allowed by the Catholic Answers moderators. For starters I recommend Dr White’s,
The Roman Catholic Controversy and the three volumes set by Webster / King:
Holy Scripture, the Ground and Pillar of Our Faith. There certainly are plenty more, but those two represent some of the best current Protestant treatments of Roman Catholicism. Also Dr. White’s debates (including those with Catholic Answers representatives, Akin, Staples, Matatics, Madrid, etc.) are worth tracking down
On the other hand, I can address Luther books.
The best thing to do is actually read Luther. This is much easier than it used to be. You can actually purchase Luther’s Works on CD-ROM. The CD contains the 55-volume American edition. The price for the CD has been going down over the years as well. If you want just a taste of Luther’s writings, there is a good anthology edited by Timothy Lull,
Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. Lull does an excellent job of collecting key texts, and presenting key snippets from Luther’s Works. There is also an older anthology edited by John Dillenberger,
Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings.
One of the most fascinating and helpful resources is
What Luther Says by Ewald Plass. The book contains 1700 pages of quotes by Martin Luther arranged topically. This book is a masterful topical arrangement of Luther’s opinion on a myriad of subjects: everything from practical matters to in-depth theological issues. There are 5,100 quotations on more than 200 subjects. There is a smaller volume similar in nature called
A Compend Of Luther’s Theology by Hugh Kerr. It is out-of-print, but easy to track down, and inexpensive.
Though these anthologies are great introductions, I always recommend people begin by reading some of Luther’s Sermons. Baker books republished seven volumes of these entitled
The Complete Sermons of Martin Luther. The set is inexpensive. I recommend this as a starting point because it gives one a feel for the pastoral heart and care of Luther.
As to basic historical biographies of Luther, I recommend two books that compliment each other. The first is Roland Bainton’s
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. The book is straightforward, and though criticized for being too lenient on Luther, it is a highly reliable historical work. The second is Heiko Oberman’s
Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. This biography is more daring. It presents more of a “Luther, warts and all”. As with Bainton’s book, the historical and biographical information is set forth accurately.
Here are some interesting historical treatments. Robert Kolb’s
Martin Luther as Prophet, Teacher,
and Hero traces Luther’s impact on Lutheranism, and explores the way Lutherans have understood who Luther was. Some early Lutherans went as far as calling him a Prophet.
Martin- God’s Court Jester by Eric Gritsch tackles some of the controversial subjects surrounding Luther, like the folly of using psycho-history to interpret Luther’s life. Richard Stauffer has an interesting little book called
Luther As Seen By Catholics, tracing the way Catholics have understood Luther for the past few hundred years. Similarly,
Luther Examined and Reexamined: A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Reevaluation by W.H.T. Dau gets into debunking accusations leveled against Luther.
But most people never move beyond the biographical with Luther. Luther was a theologian, and had distinctive theological paradigms. For the simplest overview of his theology, Steve Paulson has written
Luther For Armchair Theologians, with the layman in mind. The book is by far the easiest text available on Luther’s theology. For an advanced detailed treatment,
The Theology of Martin Luther by Paul Althaus is, in my opinion, the definitive overview of Luther’s theology. It is an in-depth analysis of Luther’s thought, fully indexed, and documented with citations from primary sources. But the book that really takes Luther’s theology and makes it practical is Gerhard O. Forde’s,
On Being A Theologian Of The Cross: Reflections On Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, 1518.
JS
Luther’s writing on the sacrament made perfect sense to me, but soon thereafter the debate for me came down to either Catholicism or Calvinism: that is, whether to accept Sacred Tradition, or Sola Scriptura.