Studies of Luther's preaching have lagged behind studies of many other aspects of his work. The reasons for this are several. Some relate to source material: usually Luther did not write out a sermon and only took into the pulpit brief notes or an outline. For some sermons the notes of hearers are extant but for other sermons none are available. Relatively few sermons, aside from those collected in his postils, were printed. Further, while some scholars have focused on theological aspects of his sermons, few studies have sought to understand Luther's preaching in its particular contexts. Roland Lehmann, in this book based on his 2018 Habilitation at the Friedrich-Schiller-University at Jena, examines a subset of Luther's sermons, namely, those preached by Luther outside of his home town of Wittenberg.

Of Luther's approximately 3,000 sermons, the contents of almost 2,100 are known to one degree or another. For ninety-nine of 141 sermons preached outside Wittenberg some texts are available. Of these, Lehmann has chosen forty-five for close analysis. (Helpful appendices list the sermons chosen by date and location and include biblical text and citation to the Weimar edition as well.) An initial section looks at Luther's sermons in the years 1510 to 1518 and considers Luther's development into a preacher of the Reformation. Analysis of his reforming work starts with a chapter on the sermon preached during the Leipzig Disputation (1519), followed by a chapter on sermons preached in Borna, Altenburg and Zwickau during Luther's spring trip through Ernestine Saxony in 1522. A third chapter takes a longer view of one location, examining nine sermons preached in Kemberg (near Wittenberg) between 1519 and 1537. Chapter iv takes a thematic approach, looking at Luther as a ‘court preacher’ and examining sermons delivered in the courts of rulers in Weimar (1522), Wörlitz (1532) and Leipzig (1529). Chapter v reviews the sermons Luther preached in Coburg where he stayed while his friends and supporters appeared at the Diet of Augsburg (1530). Chapter vi looks at sermons on specific occasions – three baptisms, four weddings, the installation of a bishop and a church dedication – preached between 1532 and 1542. Chapter vii analyses his final sermons in Eisleben, shortly before his death in 1546.

A conclusion considers the different contexts of Luther's sermons and the characteristics of Luther as a preacher. Significantly, Lehmann's attention to context throughout is not simply geographic. Lehmann looks at the history of the transmission of each sermon, important because content can change on the way from notes to printing. He also considers how each sermon compares with those preached by Luther on the same biblical text at other times and in other places. One gains a sense of Luther's development as a biblical exegete and preacher as well as his adaptation to particular preaching contexts. A third aspect of context is the historical, placing these sermons within the contexts of the events marking the Reformation in Germany. A fourth aspect, theological, examines the sermons within four phases of Luther's development as a reformer and of his reforming work. Lehmann then discusses four distinctive characteristics of Luther as preacher: his apologetic critique of his opponents, his verbal imagery, his use of dialogue whereby he took up possible complaints or objections of his hearers or cast his sermon in the form of conversation between characters, and his connection of his own experience of faith to his sermonic explanation of the biblical text. The last of these reveals a personal exegetical history of a biblical text in which Luther constantly discovers and transmits new aspects of the text. Lehmann asserts that the four distinctive characteristics show that Luther sought not to speak about God and the world but rather with them. ‘Luther as preacher always strives, in the pulpit, to reduce the distance between himself, the biblical text, and the congregation’ (p. 511).

Though a number of scholars have seen the Reformation as an ‘oral event’, relatively few have studied the preaching of the era. Much remains to be done, both within and across the confessional and linguistic divides of the time. This thorough and thoughtful study will set parameters for studies of Luther's preaching and of Reformation preaching generally. Its exhaustive footnotes and extensive bibliography will be helpful to anyone undertaking such studies. The various aspects of context that Lehmann so carefully delineates cannot be ignored in future work. Sermons, considered carefully in their multiple contexts, can become another source for understanding the work of individual reformers and the development of reforming movements.