Lyndal Roper's 2017 biography of Martin Luther was well received, and painted a picture of the great German Reformer that was more complex than the usual legend. This volume is probably best regarded as a sort of supplement to that earlier work, and dives further into the complexities of Luther, the good, the bad, and the downright weird. She begins with a lecture on 'The Luther Cranach Made,' the iconography of Luther via Lucas Cranach the elder. Chapter 2 is the gloriously weird 'Luther and Dreams.' Dreams are weird for most of us (or maybe that's just me, at least I hope nobody else has ever dreamed about cross-dressing Hitler), and yet there are still (just look on YouTube, or better, don't) folk who imagine their bizarre dreams are messages from God. Luther generally didn't, but still, weird 16th century dreams (plus one legend). Number 3 is 'Manhood and Pugilism,' because Luther did rather look like a thug. But seriously, manliness was an importanty issue for Luther. Chapter 4 is about names, their use and abuse, and how to abuse people by calling them names. That a man named Hieronymous Dungersheim von Ochsenfahrt dared to write against Martin Luther is surely a sign of his manliness (see previous chapter). But Luther's calling his opponents rude names suddenly becomes a great deal less amusing when we reach chapter 6, and 'Luther the Anti-Semite.' This is of course the great issue with Luther, that for all the other things he did, he was also a raging Jew-Hater. Now at this point in our modern day and age the natural response is *hashtag CancelLuther. Roper is more nuanced than this, while not in the least abating the issue. Not only is it an unfortunate fact that Luther was extremely rude about the Jews, but his language proved a gift to some who came after him - including the Nazis (though Hitler, an Austrian from a Roman Catholic background, can hardly have been influenced by a man who was regarded by his teachers as the very worst of heretics). A final chapter on 'Luther Kitsch' ends the book on a lighter note, with the long history of frankly tacky souvenirs connected with the commemoration of Luther - including the Luther rubber duck, because - rubber ducks.
This isn't a biography of Luther - Roper already wrote one, so she's hardly going to write another just a few years later - it's a series of essays on things surrounding Luther. Copiously illustrated, it is by turns amusing, shocking, and informative - but mostly informative. A great read, though really it's mostly going to be those who have a ton of Luther books (like me) who are interested in it. Neither legend-affirming nor crudely iconoclastic, this is a helpful book for this 500th anniversary of the Diet of Worms.
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- Mr. G. N. CharmleyReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2021
Martin Luther - Antisemitism and Rubber Ducks
Verified Purchase - MCS1968Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2023
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