Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 03:1 (Summer 1957)
Article: Recent Luther Studies
Author: A. Skevington Wood

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TynBull 3:1 (Summer 1957) p. 4

Recent Luther Studies

A. Skevington Wood

‘It is probably true to say that during the past half century more hours of historical research and theological analysis have been devoted to Martin Luther than any other figure in the history of Christianity except its Founder.’ Such is the measured statement of Professor E. Harris Harbison of Princeton. It is by no means an exaggeration. In view, therefore, of the vast mass of material at our disposal, we can do no more in this brief survey than touch and glance upon a few of the major studies of Luther which have appeared since the midpoint of this present century. We shall concentrate mainly on those books and articles which appear in English, although it will be necessary at times to allude to outstanding continental works.

The most serious impediment to an understanding of Luther here in Britain has been the lack of adequate and comprehensive translations of his writings. The definitive Weimar edition, which is still incomplete, yields its treasures only to those who can cope with the late medieval Latin and middle high German in which Luther expressed himself. English readers have had to rely on the much slighter selections of Wace and Buchheim, whilst America has produced the editions of Lenker and Holman. In 1955, however, there appeared the first of a fifty-five volume series of Luther’s works, edited by Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan of Chicago, which promises to make good a long-standing deficiency. Thirty exegetical volumes are to be published by the Concordia House of St. Louis and twenty-five volumes of Reformation writings and occasional pieces will issue from the Muhlenberg Press. Volumes 12, 13 and 21 on the Psalms, the Sermon on the Mount and the Magnificat, are already available and maintain an exceptionally high standard. Another less exhaustive series (edited by Bertram Lee Wolf) aims to cover The Reformation Writings of Martin Luther. Only two volumes have so far been offered. The Library of Christian Classics lists four titles relating to Luther, of which the Letters of Spiritual Counsel are now ready. Professor Theodore Tappert has produced a judicious anthology. Dr. Pauck’s rendering of the Lectures on Romans will be awaited with the utmost interest: meanwhile we have to be satisfied with

J. Theodore Mueller’s abbreviated version of 1954. For the theological significance of this ‘Reformation manifesto’, as James Mackinnon called it, see my articles in the Scottish Journal of Theology, March and June, 1950.

TynBull 3:1 (Summer 1957) p. 5

The year 1950 marked the advent of two remarkable biographies of Luther. There was urgent need both for a full-length critical treatment and for a shorter popular account. The first...

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