Martin Luther: The Later Years Issue 39 | 1993 Click here to order the downloadable audio version

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Scholars have given the mature Luther more attention in recent years. The following books help trace Luther’s actions and thoughts from the time he emerged from Wartburg Castle in 1522 until his death in 1546.

• Mark U. Edwards, Jr., Luther and the False Brethren (Stanford, 1975); Luther’s Last Battles: Politics and Polemics, 1531–1546 (Cornell, 1983). Two of the finest books about the later Luther. Interestingly written and based solidly on the sources.

• Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: The Preservation of the Church, 1532- 1546 translated by James L. Schaaf (Fortress,1993). The third and final volume of what will likely become the standard multi-volume biography of Luther in English.

• H. G. Haile, Luther: An Experiment in Biography (Doubleday, 1980; Princeton,1983). A colorful, well-written biography of the mature and aging reformer.

• Paul Althaus, The Theology of Martin Luther and The Ethics of Martin Luther, both translated by Robert C. Schultz (Fortress; 1966, 1972). Althaus systematically covers Luther’s doctrinal and social teachings.

• Heinrich Bornkamm, Luther’s World of Thought, translated by Martin H. Bertram (Concordia, 1958). The book presents Luther’s teachings on a wide variety of issues.

• Walter G. Tillmans, The World and Men around Luther (Augsburg, 1959). Interesting thumbnail sketches of the people, both friends and foes, who interacted with Luther.

• Jaroslav Pelikan, ed., Interpreters of Luther (Fortress, 1968). Eleven essays on how Luther has been interpreted from the sixteenth century through the twentieth century.

Luther wrote some 60,000 pages, much of it later in life. For the range of those writings, see the largest English collection—Luther’s Works: The American Edition, ...