A World Ablaze: The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation

2017 | History & Politics

October 2017 will mark 500 years since Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg, launching the Protestant Reformation. At least, that's what the legend says. But with a figure like Martin Luther, who looms so large in the historical imagination, it's hard to separate the legend from the life, or even sometimes to separate assorted legends from each other. Craig Harline aims to do just that. He tells the riveting story of the first crucial years of Luther's fame, from 1517 to early 1522, and brings out the immediacy, uncertainty, and drama of his story, when the ending was still very much up in the air. Luther started off as a friar deeply troubled by the question of salvation and the fate of his own eternal soul. The conflict that played out within him eventually expanded to encompass the whole of Christendom. Wild Boar is for any reader who wants to get to know Martin Luther as the sometimes cranky friar and professor, instead of the dramatically posed bronze icon that people know.

Craig Harline (Author)