Luther and the Reformation of the Later Middle Ages

Saak re-interprets Martin Luther as an Augustinian Hermit, whose 95 Theses came as the culmination of the late medieval Reformation.

Eric Leland Saak (Author)

9781107187221, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 April 2017

410 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.73 kg

'This is an ambitious book that moves between general discussions of the era and the specifics of scholarship in Luther. Further, it ultimately delivers on its promise of offering a compelling view of late medieval Augustinianism, the diverse intellectual sources of Luther's own thought, and the unfolding of this in the narrative of Luther's transition from Brother Martin to the Reformer Luther.' Matthew Vanderpoel, Sixteenth Century Journal

In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses, an act often linked with the start of the Reformation. In this work, Eric Leland Saak argues that the 95 Theses do not signal Luther's break from Roman Catholicism. An obedient Observant Augustinian Hermit, Luther's self-understanding from 1505 until at least 1520 was as Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian, not Reformer, and he continued to wear his habit until October 1524. Saak demonstrates that Luther's provocative act represented the culmination of the late medieval Reformation. It was only the failure of this earlier Reformation that served as a catalyst for the onset of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. Luther's true Reformation discovery had little to do with justification by faith, or with his 95 Theses. Yet his discoveries in February of 1520 were to change everything.

Introduction
1. The Reformation of the later Middle Ages
2. Seeking God's mercy: living the Augustinian life
3. Discoveries and breakthroughs
4. Luther's ways of thought
5. Brother Martin, Augustinian
6. Mother Church and the Pope
7. The woe of the world: Luther from Friar to Reformer
8. The failure of the Reformation.

Subject Areas: Christian theology [HRCM], Protestantism & Protestant Churches [HRCC9], Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church [HRCC7], Church history [HRCC2], Christianity [HRC]