Robert Scribner in: Times Literary Supplement, 28/5/1982

RAINER WOHLFEIL:

Einführung in die Geschichte der

deutschen Reformation

230pp. Munich: Beck. DM26.

3 406 08675 6

JOHN M. TODD:

Luther: A Life

396pp. Hamish Hamilton. £18.

U 241 10703 2

For most of this century, Luther has

set the standard against which all

other aspects of the German Reform-

ation have been measured. Under-

standing the Reformation meant

understanding Luther and his impact;

the best introduction to the subject was

believed to be a good biography of the

man. During the past decade, how-

ever, some remarkable changes have

been taking place in Reformation

historiography, excellently summed up

in Rainer Wohlfeil's survey of recent

research. Intended largely as a student

introduction, this book is also a major

contribution to the current debate

about social historical approaches to

the Reformation, and it shows how

inadequate a Luther-centred view has

become.

Wohlfeil sketches briefly the main

phases of development of the Ger-

man Reformation, and provides an

overview of the major schools of

historiography since the sixteenth

century. He then turns to an ex-

tended discussion of the concepts

used to understand the Reformation,

pointing out that many of our com-

mon assumptions about it are imposi-

tions of later ages, rather than six-

teenth-century perceptions of events.

The notions of "Protestant" and

"Protestantism" in our modern usage

were creations of the seventeenth

century, as was "the Reformation"

itself. The concept of the "age of the

Reformation", describing an inter-

related complex of political and eccle-

siastical events, dates only from the

nineteenth century, and was the

creation of Ranke.

Doctrine is not neglected. Wohlfeil

gives a lucid account of the many

different kinds of doctrine being

preached during the first half of the

sixteenth century, indicating that it

was by no means certain that

Luther's would come to be the norm.

The reason for this is found in two

themes which receive the greater

part of Wohlfeil's attention and now

stand at the centre of recent histor-

iography of the German Reform-

ation: the wide-ranging public debate

precipitated by the "Luther affair",

which created in Germany for the

first time something resembling mod-

ern "public opinion"; and the move-

ments which arose in the wake of

this debate demanding changes not

only in religious practices but in

many other areas of life as well.

These began in the German towns,

but spilled over into the countryside,

and ranged from public assemblies,

protest meetings and minor demon-

strations to riots, urban rebellions

and the complex confrontation

known as the German Peasants'

War. Historians have yet to assess

the full measure of these movements,

but it is clear that they combined

religious with social and economic

hopes and fears, and released an

extraordinary ferment in German

society. Historians from the German

Democratic Republic consider the

entire phenomenon to have

amounted to an "early bourgeois

revolution", although Wohlfeil, in a

careful analysis of their approach,

denies the applicability of the label.

The inspiration for all these asso-

ciations was the desire, encouraged

by the example of Luther himself, to

apply Christian principles consist-

ently to the conduct of daily life. For

this reason alone, theology and

theological tendencies cannot be

ignored in any analysis. But the

Reformation movements were often

more responsive to Zwinglianism or

Anabaptism than to Lutheranism,

which became too cautious and sub-

missive to authority when faced with

serious socio-economic and ecclesias-

tical issues, especially after the

Peasants' War. Wohlfeil rightly identi-

fies Anabaptism and ecclesiastical

radicalism as a major theme in modern

Reformation historiography, although

he seriously underestimates the origi-

nality of both tendencies in seeing

them as a "reaction" to Lutheranism,

rather than independent movements in

their own right. Another similar

phenomenon, hitherto largely ignored

by historians, is iconoclasm and Wohl-

feil likewise picks out this theme, and

the wider question of the Reformation

and art, as an important field for

discussion in the years ahead.

Most important, however, is his

contention that the Reformation can

only be properly understood "in so-

cial historical perspective". Here he

echoes the views of several other

historians who maintained that the

Reformation involved not just changes

in individual belief, but forms of group

behaviour. He argues that social, poli-

tical and religious matters were inex-

tricably interlinked, and that Reform-

ation movements were more decisively

shaped by non-religious influences

than has so far been conceded by

church historians. There is only one

major omission here, Wohlfeil's failure

to discuss the recent work of Peter

Blickle, who argues that it was the

importance attached to the Gospel as a

legitimation of social protest and of the

principle of Christian liberty inter-

preted in a social context, which pre-

cipitated a near-revolution in 1524-26.

But Wohlfeil has produced an excel-

lent introduction to what deserves to

be labelled the "new Reformation

history".

To attempt any new biography of

Luther in the light of this is a hazar-

dous undertaking, demanding that

Luther be seen neither as hero nor

as saint. John M. Todd's life suc-

ceeds admirably in establishing the

human limits of the man while yet

appreciating his undoubted achieve-

ments. Todd is fascinated by

Luther's psychology, but without fall-

ing into the crude Freudianism of

Erikson's Young Man Luther. We

see Luther as a depressive personal-

ity (Todd comes close to saying man-

ic depressive), irascible, given to sex-

ual lusts, to outbursts of extraordin-

ary coarseness and obsessed with his

chronic constipation. Todd does not

refrain from criticizing him for being

often arrogant and bigoted, but this

enables us to assess Luther's true

measure as a man of boundless ener-

gy and passion for people and ideas,

and with a profound commitment to

what he held to be genuine religious

experience. This very positive side of

Luther made him a scholar and

theologian of genius, and a teacher,

pastor, husband and father of gentle

understanding and kindly humour.

Todd does not escape all the dan-

gers of the traditional biography. He

concentrates a little too much on the

"heroic years" of 1517-22 and on the

"confessional" events up to 1530

which formed the Lutheran church.

It would have been useful, however,

to have heard more about Luther's

pastoral work in the years 1528-46,

when he was engaged in the singul-

arly frustrating work of building up

this new church. We could also have

been told more about Luther's con-

tinual expectations of the Last Days,

and the waxing and waning of his

apocalyptic mood, closely related to

his growing pessimism about the pos-

sibility of forming within his own

generation genuinely pious Christian

believers. Sometimes Todd over-

dramatizes his achievements - for ex-

ample, writing of Luther's 1520 re-

form programme as "shocking in the

extent of change it demanded". Yet

it was only a few points more radical

(its theological implications aside)

than other reform plans abroad at

the time. In fact, the most shocking

of Luther's suggestions is very rarely

mentioned: that a woman with an

impotent husband is justified not

only in taking a lover, but also in

going off to live with him elsewhere

in a common-law marriage.

Sometimes Todd uses modern

terminology which sits uneasily on

descriptions of sixteenth-century

events: the pre-Reformation church

characterized as a "totalitarian pol-

ity", the terms "left", "right", "cen-

tre" used to describe the spectrum of

reform around Luther. Indeed, given

that Luther provoked one of the

major upheavals in the history of the

Christian Church, it seems quite in-

appropriate to speak of him as stand-

ing "in the centre". Occasionally

Todd translates badly: for example,

using the term "living wildly" for

wilde Ehe (common-law marriage).

There are a few minor errors of fact,

the most important of which is to

speak of the "massive violence" com-

mitted by the peasant rebels of 1524-

25 under the influence of "extremist

leaders". Such leaders rarely set the

tone of the Peasants' War, and the

amount of violence was very small by

the standards of the time, certainly

far less than that visited on the

rebels in revenge. It should be said

here that Todd's treatment of Luther's

role in the Peasants' War is an excellent

example of fair-minded historical judg-

ment.

Although Todd pays more atten-

tion to political and ecclesiastical

matters than to social or economic,

he is not unaware of recent trends in

Reformation scholarship. This may

escape the general reader in the abs-

ence of footnotes or any substantial

bibliography, but it is clear to the

specialist eye in numerous references

throughout his text. His frequent use

of careful qualifications, measured

judgments and judicious asides shows

that he is well read in all the fields

discussed by Wohlfeil and has care-

fully incorporated their findings into

his overall picture. This unassuming

use of recent scholarship throughout

enables him to avoid the danger of

producing another stock biography

and to provide a more subtle and

reflective set of standards against

which to measure Luther.

Robert Scribner