This volume sets out to illumine “not Luther as monk, priest, intellectual, or revolutionary, but rather the controversy about him” (13). In doing so, it forges fresh perspectives on the man and the movement that arose out of medieval elements but decisively changed Western European and then global thinking and action on a host of issues. Ocker intends to analyze “Luther not as an agent who affected the world according to a plan or even by accident, but as the subject of a controversy that never came to a conclusive end” (372). To assess why he became subject to controversies that now extend over five centuries one must, of course, inquire why so many have advanced such contradictory views of the man and his message. Ocker's focus falls on “conflict,” the disruptive elements of Luther's impact on the medieval political and ecclesiastical constellations. It does not extensively touch on more positive cultural and religious aspects of Luther's impact. For example, his promotion of individual responsibility through his understanding of the Christian's callings in daily life shaped modern political attitudes much more than his understanding of Christian freedom, but Ocker does not explore either topic. Wittenberg contributions to the modern practices of various disciplines—including astronomy, botany, historical studies, and neo-Latin literature—go unmentioned, as does the musical tradition growing out of Luther's love of music. But what Ocker does accomplish in 380 pages of text (a very helpful chronological table of the developments during Luther's life in the larger ecclesiastical and cultural context covers an additional 126 pages) is most impressive as he surveys profound changes in institutional life across Europe in the sixteenth century and the continuing appeals to and criticisms of the Wittenberg reformer in five centuries.
The author's command of the secondary literature is extraordinary, and he weaves together primary sources with the results of a wide range of research, for the most part critically assessed and put to use in shaping his interpretation. Ocker's sprightly style and his eye for the right anecdote to make a point enliven his narrative. The personal stories or accounts of religious challenge and change in early sixteenth-century communities demonstrate repeatedly how the often profound impact of Luther “came home” upon individuals, caught up, often without wanting to be, in the swirl of events unleashed by the Wittenberg call for reform. Ocker's selection of stories supports his particular emphases in analyzing this impact, such as his recounting of an incident growing out of a meeting of nobles and prelates in Ulm in 1535 that illustrates his conclusion that the Christian rivals lived in symbiosis with each other and their controversies “appropriated and reinforced older, more global discriminations between Christians, Moslems, and Jews” (233–271).
The charm of the volume rests in the author's ability to weave vital elements of this complex age together in a series of complementary snapshots that bring new points of observation to readers’ minds. Most of the book treats sixteenth-century developments, but his detailed depiction of the seven images of Luther that he finds dominating the last three centuries of Luther interpretation (prophet, demon-loving heretic, omni-Protestant figurehead, cultural icon, liberal Protestant, national Gargantua, and Catholic reformer) is fascinating in its presentation of how Luther could so often be employed to oppose his own views.
Ocker certainly does not ignore the role of theology among the many factors that contributed to the Reformation and its enduring attraction as a topic of study and discussion. However, he sells the significance of the relationship with God for sixteenth-century Western Europeans short when he suggests that theology was important because of “the political stake rulers had in religious orthodoxy” (174). Certainly, some rulers made decisions regarding reform with careful political calculations, but both those who ignored the negative impact of religious decisions upon their political status and those who practiced shrewd politics sincerely wrote out private prayers and a few even learned the biblical languages to read scripture in its original form. Ocker's brief recapitulation of the heart of Luther's primary concern, summarized as “justification by faith,” lies at the heart of a significant omission in his analysis. Ocker does not adequately treat Luther's transformation of the definition of what it means to be “justified”—to be Christian—because he fails to recognize the reformer's distinction between two aspects of human righteousness. Luther distinguished the “passive justice” (better “righteousness”), given by God's unconditional love and grace for his chosen, from his “active justice,” which consists in obedient performance of God's will for daily life in the love and service that trust in Christ that God's gift of righteousness motivates (107). This change of definition, clearly, played a role alongside a host of other religious, social, and political factors. But despite the lack of “conversion” accounts that Ocker notes, Luther's rejection of a ritual-based, hierarchically governed understanding of Christian life and his recognition of trust in Christ in response to God's unreserved embrace of sinners as the center of Christian living seems to have played a significant role in expediting rather rapid change in personal religious convictions and allegiances.
Even at points of disagreement, Ocker stimulates and offers new perspectives and insights. This volume will provoke lively discussion and the deepening of insights into the dynamics let loose by that Wittenberg “monk, priest, intellectual, and revolutionary” (13) on the next five centuries.
