Martin Luther: Man Between God and the Devil

The perspective from which Oberman writes about Martin Luther determines the way the biography is structured, and the care with which Oberman explains that perspective does much to clarify the thesis of the book. Oberman takes the view that Luther was very much a man of his time--the close of what has been called the age of belief--and that his career as churchman, earnest reformer, radical shaker of the foundations (to use Paul Tillich's term), and ecclesiastical and theological theoretician cannot be understood without reference to his psychological makeup, which was typical of that age. This does not mean that Oberman presents a psychohistory of Luther. But he does take the view that Luther was typical of the late-medieval actor in that he held to a dualistic cosmology, such that God and the Devil were not metaphors for shaping spiritual conscious. Instead, they were each present to the reality of human experience.

This is why the subtitle of the book is so important. The text repeatedly comes back to Luther's personal preoccupation with the peril or health of his immortal soul as

. . .
al implications quickly captured his logic. Oberman cites the distinction that Luther made in the Theses between indulgences granted by the Church to commute Church-imposed penalties, and punishment that may come from or that can be relieved only by God: [I]ndulgences . . . profit only the living, not the dead in purgatory, because indulgences can only commute punishments imposed by the Church. The profound consequences of sin, namely fear and insufficient love of God and one's neighbors, cannot be removed by indulgences but only by the Gospel (Oberman 190). The import of Luther's document is that it positioned Scripture, not the ecclesiastical authority of the church, as the foundation of the faith, and it criticized the institution from moving away from the message of faith and toward the message of wealth: The true treasure of the church is the most holy Gospel of the glory and grace of God. But this treasure is naturally [merito] most odious, for it makes the first the last. [Mark 9.34; Matt. 20.16] The treasure of indulgences, on the other hand, is very acceptable, for it makes the last the first. Therefore the treasures of the Gospel were the net with which one once caught the wealthy. The treasures of indulgences are
. . .

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Approximate Word count = 2411
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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