In August of 1520, Martin Luther published the first of three incendiary works, Address to the German Nobility, in which he urged secular authorities to take a strong hand in "reforming" the Roman church. In October, he published The Church Held Captive, and by December the deepest theological rationale appeared in The Freedom of a Christian. With these three books, the relatively unknown Friar Martin exploded onto the Western European literary and religious scene. These three works have been universally acknowledged as classics of the Reformation, and of the Western religious tradition in general. Though Reformation scholars have been reluctant to single out one as the most important of the three, Denis Janz proposes a bold case for The Church Held Captive. In the first entirely new translation in more than a century, Janz presents Luther's text as it hasn't been read in English before. Previous translations stifle the original text by dulling the sharpest edges of its argumentation and tame Luther by substituting euphemisms for his vulgarities. In Janz's dual language edition we see the provocative, offensive, and extreme restored. In his wide-ranging introduction, Janz offers much-needed context to clarify the role of The Church Held Captive in Luther's life and the life of the Reformation. This edition is the most reader-friendly scholarly version of Luther's classic in the English language.

Auteur

Denis Janz grew up in Western Canada and completed his Ph.D. in the history of Christianity at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto. He served as Provost Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at Loyola University New Orleans, and was promoted to Professor Emeritus in 2017. His teaching, writing, and editing has covered the entire history of Christianity, while his most exacting research has focused on medieval and Reformation topics, above all Luther.

Contenu

Preface Abbreviations Introduction (a) Orientation (b) The Growth of Luther's New Ecclesiology: From Ecclesia Sacramentorum to Ecclesia Verbi Beginnings 1518 The Leipzig Debate The Aftermath of Leipzig Ecclesiology in The Church Held Captive Excursus: Luther's New Ecclesiology and Thomas Aquinas (c) The Church Held Captive: Composition, Language, Title, Basic Thesis (d) A Note on Further Developments in Luther's Ecclesiology and Sacramental Theology (e) A Note on the Book's Early Reception History (f) A Note on This Translation The Church Held Captive in Babylon: A Prelude By Martin Luther A Letter of Introduction From: Martin Luther, Augustinian Friar To: Hermann Tulich, with best wishes The Sacraments Imprisoned The Lord's Supper The First Imprisonment: Communion in One Kind The Second Imprisonment: Transubstantiation The Third Imprisonment: The Mass as Our Gift to God Our Good Work or Christ's Testament? Our Sacrifice or Christ's Promise? The Sacrament of Baptism God's Promise of Forgiveness The Sign of this Promise A Sacrament Corrupted by the Popes Vows and the Freedom of Baptism The Sacrament of Penance A Sacrament Destroyed by Greed and Power Contrition Confession Satisfaction Confirmation Marriage A Non-Sacrament Sex, Love, and Law Sexual Morality and Christian Freedom Ordination An Invention of the Papal Church Dionysius the Areopagite Ordination and Power Celibacy and Power The Restoration of Christian Liberty The Sacrament of Extreme Unction The Distortion of Scripture The Promise of Healing The Promise of Forgiveness and Peace Conclusion Reducing the Sacraments to Two The Gift of Recognizing God's Gifts Bibliography Index