Out of the Storm: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther

by Derek Wilson

A revelatory biography of a remarkable Renaissance man whose rationalist convictions changed not only the post-Reformation Church in Europe but also the individual’s relationship to society.

On Halloween 1517, Martin Luther nailed to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church his 95 Theses protesting papal indulgences. It is one of the ironies of history that at the very moment when Charles V came to rule over a European empire which was, for the first time, as large as that controlled by Charlemagne, a young Saxon monk irrevocably shattered its very raison d’être.

Luther’s solitary stand against the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms in 1521, and his magnificent German translation of the Bible in the 1530s secured his place in history as one of the greatest religious thinkers of all time. His vast oeuvre (over 70 volumes) sprang from one idea — that believers are saved by faith alone and not works — and incited the world’s biggest evangelical revival, provoking the re-thinking of deep-seated ideas about church and state, government and the individual, war and peace.

But was Luther a humanitarian and champion of individual freedom or was he a defender of state tyranny who sparked a century of religious wars? In Out of the Storm Derek Wilson offers a fresh assessment of Luther’s place in history and in so doing, shows how the world was changed forever by this deeply passionate, intelligent and courageous man.


From the Hardcover edition.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Christianity, Theology, Religion

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Derek Wilson has been a writer of historical fiction and non-fiction for 50 years. His much acclaimed prize-winning works have largely centred on 16th and 17th century Europe. He has used various pen names for his fiction, his current Thomas Treviot Tudor crime series being written under the name D.K. Wilson. The first 2 books in this series - The First Horseman and The Traitor's Mark are based on real unsolved Tudor mysteries and have received enthusiastic plaudits. Readers have favourably compared this innovative series with the books of C.J. Sansom and S.J. Parris.
Recent non-fiction triumphs include The Plantagenets, Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man, and Charlemagne: a Biography.
Derek Wilson graduated from Cambridge and spent several years travelling and teaching in Africa before becoming a full-time writer and broadcaster in 1971. He has frequently written and appeared on radio and television and is popular as a public speaker having appeared at several literary festivals,British Museum, Hampton Court Palace, The British Library and other prestigious venues.

Reviews

[Bob Bixby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilson is unapologetically sympathetic to Martin Luther. He writes this book as an apologetic with unbelievers in mind. I'm not as optimistic as he must have been that unbelievers would plow through this, but if they did they would read a book that dares them to discard the Christian (particularly Protestant) influence on the West. I was regretting only one thing when I finished this book: that I had borrowed it from the library instead of purchasing my own copy, something that I sensed would be the case by the time I was in to the second chapter. I wrote down many notes and I intend to purchase my own copy for my library soon. With 2017 coming up, I think that evangelicals should read this biography and absorb Wilson's message.

In my humble opinion this should replace the classic Roland Bainton biography of Luther ("Here I Stand") as the go-to for evangelicals when talking about a good Luther biography. Wilson writes with today's critics in mind and is less flowery. He deals, however sympathetically, with some of the post-WW II criticisms of Luther that came out the Nazi Germany effect.

Derek Wilson is a good writer, witty, and there are tons of one liners and great quotes.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography of one of Europe's great figures, a lowly German monk who challenged the corruption & venality of the Roman Catholic Church & its head, the pope in Rome. He, and other like-minded souls, set in motion the biggest upheaval in Christian Europe we have ever seen - at least until the French Revolution!
Derek Wilson manages to elucidate the complexities of early 16th century religious divergences, but draws attention to Luther's essential belief in the teachings of the New Testament & its applications to the lives of the common man & woman in a very vivid century...when the printing presses of Zurich, Basle, Strasbourg & other increasingly evangelical cities were pouring out books & pamphlets...& bibles in the vernacular, helping both native languages & increasing literacy to spread The Word of a Christian God to all who craved a guiding light in their lives...without the intercession of greedy priests & avaricious cardinals selling indulgences & intimidating their lowly parishioners & supplicants.
The book concludes with a very pertinent - to 21st century heresies! - assessment of the effects of Luther & his devotion to his cause...as we descend into a nightmare world of false news, individual truths & wishful thinking about human progress. We need to take stock of how we inform ourselves...as Luther took stock of how he interpreted the Christian doctrine of charity to others, responsibility for our actions & a faith in the essential morality of Jesus Christ's ministry as encapsulated in the Sermon on the Mount....to be blessed by our own behaviour & motivated by treating all others with kindness & compassion, without the need for material gain. Luther serves as a role model to anyone confronting faceless, soulless multi-national, global organisations with little or no obvious morality.... mentioning no names!

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

The time was right. Movable type meant books for the masses. The hucksters who marketed indulgences were becoming more and more crass. It's not surprising that the main voice of dissent came from Germany, away from Rome, where religious issues, taxes and autonomy for principalities could be rolled into one cocktail of dissatisfaction.

Wilson writes that in posting the 95 thesis, Luther was unaware of the Goliath he would be fighting. Once he took it on, his defense required him to realize, frame and expose the chasm between the scripture and the church that had evolved in its name.

The book shows how Luther rose to the occasion and how his trials opened up a torrent of thought, discussion and liberation. He advocated that the people should read the Bible and not rely on clerical intermediaries to tell them what it said. He walked the talk, by translating the Bible to everyday German so that common people could understand it. He wrote hymns to illustrate Biblical passages and to facilitate worship. He provided both wine and bread for communion for everyone, not just clergy. Most importantly, he distinguished God's word from the words of man and the man-made structures built in its name.

While, Luther was prolific, an intellectual powerhouse of new and liberating thought, his domain was the scriptures. Wilson writes of reformers who, inspired by his words, tried to relieve the plight of the peasants, but Luther's message was spiritual and not political. Wilson does not lay the turmoil of the age on his doorstep.

Luther finds no scriptural authority for clerical celibacy. In one curious page we learn that Luther liberated nuns from a convent, returned some to families, found husbands for some and from this group, eventually found a wife. Since this foray changes his life it has to be part of his biography, but how many "liberating" assaults on convents or monasteries did he make? This is a time when governments are using his texts as justification for taking over church lands.

The author shows affection for his subject, but also sees his failures. Luther's tenacity and zest have a downside: the passion can be turned on those who disagree. One chapter is devoted to Luther's problems in living beyond his time. Events have eclipsed his ken.

Many attribute to Luther the ushering in all that is modern. In challenging the powerful and ossified church of Rome, Luther empowered individuals to embrace their own spiritual life, and from this flowed ideas about freedom and individual responsibility.

Wilson sticks to his subject. He resists many potential side trips into other aspects of the time.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun fact: The publisher of this book is St. Martin's Press. Isn't that appropriate?

Some of the things I learned from this fine biography of Martin Luther:
1. Luther probably did not say "Here I stand. I can do no other" at the Diet of Worms. That apparently was tacked on later.
2. From 1526 to 1540, one-third of all German-language books were written by Luther.
3. The question of infant baptism came up even in Luther's day. Luther did not break with infant baptism. This was not a matter of Scripture for Luther, but a matter of "too much, too soon." Also, in a time of high infant mortality he didn't want to rob parents of the comfort of being able to baptize their babies.
4. Luther set out to write an updated version of "Aesop's Fables," but didn't finish the task.
5. I learned two words that were new to me. "Eirenic" (Webster's prefers the spelling "irenic") means tending toward peace and reconciliation. Derek Wilson uses this word a lot. "Sacerdotal" means priestly. Wilson is Cambridge-educated, and his vocabulary far exceeds my University of Missouri-educated vocabulary. But it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.

What's missing: Maps. Please keep this in mind next time, St. Martin's Press. Good maps would easily add so much useful information for the reader.

Here's an excerpt from "Out of the Storm" (Page 326):

"What Luther established was the galvanising enfranchisement of the individual soul faced with the enormities of eternity and infinity. Enfranchisement and dignity. No longer was a man's salvation dependent upon the prayers and sacerdotal acts of a priestly caste. But if he now stood alone 'coram Deo' (in the presence of God) he found Luther's God stooping to offer him, through the Cross, salvation as a free, unmerited gift. This realisation was exhilarating, intoxicating. It transformed the lives of countless thousands of Luther's contemporaries,as it had done for millions before and would do for millions more in after years."

[Nancy Peifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book. Wilson does an admirable job handling the complexities and challenges of writing about a person who had an incredible impact on the world and was extremely controversial. His work was balanced, objective, and so well written. I frequently found myself reading a sentence or two to my husband because it so skillfully expressed a thought or idea. (It's also been awhile since a book sent me to the dictionary so often!)

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read very few books that at the same time move so fast and so slow. Full review to come shortly.

+++++++++++++

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I should start this review off with a couple statements religion as it pertains to my life:

1. I was baptized Lutheran and attended a Lutheran church up until the middle of my freshman year of high school.

2. I started going to the Methodist church and was confirmed there because a pastor at my home church found it appropriate to discuss church financial matters at an Easter service. This was very off-putting to me.

3. I did not attend church for over a decade after high school.

4. Eleanor was baptized at the Covenant church where my grandparents got married and where my mom was baptized.

5. Eleanor and I now attend a wonderful Covenant church and I am so grateful for this place that is allowing me to recapture my faith every single day.

I am not sure what compelled me to share these things, but maybe it will help people understand why I am still kind of stupid in religion-related discussions. I feel like when it comes to the Bible itself, I have a decent grasp. When it comes to the hows and whys of some aspects, I am still unclear at times. I love learning about the history of religion, how it has developed and evolved over thousands of years, and who the prime movers and shakers were that made things happen.

So, that makes Martin Luther kind of an important guy, right? And probably someone who I should already know a lot about, seeing as how he is the inadvertent FOUNDER of my section of Protestantism.

So, I didn't really know anything, except one day he marched himself up to the cathedral in Wittenberg, nailed his 95 Theses to the door, and set off on a one-man crusade to stop Catholicism in its tracks.

And even THAT is not entirely accurate.

I knew even less about Luther than I thought, and despite the somewhat love/hate relationship I seem to be developing with the author, and this biography really opened by eyes to who this man was. I don't know why it took me so long to actually read a biography about Luther; perhaps I thought I knew all I needed to, with the whole theses-nailed-to-the-door thing. As it turns out, there is a question of whether or not events actually played out that way, and early on the Theses didn't even make as big of a splash with religious leaders as has been portrayed. In addition to that, I thought I knew more than I did because I have spent so much of the last few years reading about the Tudors, and of course Henry VIII is especially involved in this time period. I have always read about this from the Tudor perspective and Henry's in particular. I'd always wondered what Luther's responses had been to all of Henry's ridiculousness. Of course it is what you'd expect.

Luther's primary motivation for writing his 95 Theses was due to the selling of Indulgences by the Church and the fact that it appeared to even be sanctioned by the Pope. Imagine how different the course of Christianity might have gone had the Pope agreed and stopped the practice? At least in England, how would Henry have wriggled out of his first marriage? He would not have had the excuse to break with Rome, could not have declared himself the Supreme Head of Church...or maybe he could have, this is Henry we are talking about. But what religion would he have wandered toward?

I found the aspects dealing with Luther's personal life more intriguing even than all the uproar he created after his Theses were published. There were so many things I found interesting, the first being that Luther himself eventually married and had many children. How amazing would it have been to have been a student staying in the Luther home, attending University and learning from him at the same time? I can imagine what lively dinner discussions might have been had in the old cloister, and what hustle and bustle would have constantly been going on with students and family around constantly.

Near the end of the book Wilson brings up the thought-provoking point as follows:

"It embarrassed his friends who realized that their leader was becoming increasingly an eccentric, angry old man at odds with the world. It gave unsympathetic historians the opportunity to concentrate on style rather than on substance. And it actually obscured the finer points of his argument" (page 317). Basically, Wilson surmises that perhaps Luther lived too long and actually may have done damage to the movement, though by then it had outgrown him and taken on a life of its own, and to his own legacy. Due to my own limited knowledge, I can not say I agree or disagree, but he makes an interesting point.

I was pleased to discover the author had included Luther's 95 Theses after his notes. I've not read these since high school, and feel like today I have a much better understanding of what he was saying. I've reread that section several times.

Overall I can say I can recommend this book on the basis of both religion and biography. For those interested in the Reformation from the perspective of those who got it really going, this one is definitely recommended. But also I can recommend it as a biography of a highly important figure in history as well.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poppy, secularish, filled a large gap. Downplays Luther’s anti-Semitism, who knows if rightly?

A huge, dictatorial person, without whom fake European unity could have continued and prevented Enlightenment and the attempt at real European unity.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim, as it was staring at me from the library's NEW BOOKS section, all pretty and shiny. Martin Luther and his time/place is a fascinating subject, so I was disappointed to find how often my eyes started to close or how easily i was distracted by EVERY LITTLE THING while reading this book. It gets pretty dry from time to time, or maybe I've just become spoiled by the popular histories I've been reading lately (ahem, Cahill) and that has spoiled me for serious, formal histories. I had to toil through portions, but still found it incredibly interesting and informative once I fought my way through the boring bits. There was a tendency to try to make the religious details of the book relevant for a readership that no longer has to grapple with questions of faith -- which I found unnecessary and somewhat condescending (especially since I believe many people who read this do struggle with questions of faith, grace, etc). There were widespread political consequences of Luther's lifestyle, but that shouldn't undermine the spiritual consequences. I feel the author did a good job of balancing the details, but he seemed almost apologetic that he had to spend so much time on Luther's religious impact -- which was the only impact I think Martin Luther would have wanted to have.

Summary: This was a sympathetic portrait of Martin Luther, credited with sparking the Protestant Reformation. He took the established Catholic Church to task for some very serious problems (including indulgences, a power hungry paupacy, blatant immorality, and ill-disguised atheism in some cases) and brought a focus on grace into fashion. He took full advantage of the printing press to spread his ideas and challenges. He was however horrified that people took his then-liberal ideas about the authority of the Church and began to apply them to authority in general (believing that state actors were put in place by God and that their authority should not be questioned, which is why he was aghast at the peasant uprisings of the time, and fully supported putting them down by the sword). He was sure that people who read the Bible for themselves would come to the same conclusions he had, and seems to not have expected the rival Christian factions that multiplied rapidly -- he disdained everyone who did not reach his own conclusions or who took his ideas to their logical conclusions. Very prideful man at a tumultuous, exciting point in history.

[Charles Puskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this title in preparation for my trip "In the footsteps of Luther" visiting Eisleben, Eisenach, and Wittenberg, in addition to Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Prague. The author, Derek Wilson, underscored the situation that although Catholic piety was strong among the laity, the abuses of certain clergy were sources of severe concern, e.g., simony, buying indulgences, the abuses under the Borgia and Medici papacies, the so-called Donation of Emperor Constantine (a forgery). Although, some of these abuses were addressed in De emendane ecclesia, 1541, and later in the Council of Trent, German princes were weary of Rome's influence in the territory, and the voice of Luther (recalling John Huss and John Wycliff)was tolerated, even welcomed. Charles V, had acquired a Holy Roman Empire as large as Charlemagne's, but was unable to unify it under one faith (thanks to Luther). The use of the Gutenberg press and the illustrations of Cranach the Elder (and Younger) did much to spread Luther's many writings (today, filling 100 volumes of the Weimar edition). The book complemented well what I had read from Roland Bainton's Here I Stand and Heiko Oberman's Martin Luther titles.

[jcg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good overview of Luther's life and work. Derek Wilson has done a good job of turning a massive amount of dazzlingly complex material into a readable biography. The theological, political, social, economic, cultural and personal implications of Luther's work are touched on. Frankly, I still don't understand what was so revolutionary about Luther's justifcation by faith alone, but Wilson was writing a biography, not a work on theology and there is far too much material to deal with to expect everything to be elucidated completely - a complete work would surely has stretched to several volumes. Wilson has distilled a few hundred years of religious turmoil into the salient highlights and, although there is no in-depth analysis, avoids miring the work down with extraneous detail. Wilson, while pointing out Luther's flaws, paints the reformer in a sympathetic light. A good introduction to the times and tribulations of the protestant reformation.

[Darin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wilson's take on Martin Luther is certainly interesting in places; however, it's hard to figure out what sort of book he really wants to write. In some places, he tends towards a futile Eriksonesque psychoanalysis of Luther. In others, he attempts overarching statements about the secularization of the Church to few accurate results. This can't be an academic work, since there aren't enough footnotes and references to justify many of his historical accounts, and it isn't really a theology text. Unfortunately, Wilson tries to write an accessible work which wants to be all things to all people but succeeds in none of it. If you're looking for a true biography, a theological analysis, or a psychological treatise, there are better titles available for all of these possibilities. Look elsewhere.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough biography of Martin Luther and an in-depth description of his times. This book is not easy reading, even though it's well written. It's full of many of the often complex issues that shaped the Reformation. Often I found myself having to reread passages. Also, Mr. Wilson didn't seem to write his book from a particular perspective. He lets the events speak for themselves; so his book certainly doesn't offer a new take on Luther and his times, but for anyone interested in how and why the Reformation happened I recommend this book.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a Lutheran, but have been interested in Martin Luther as a historical figure for many years. I have to say that Luther is one of the most amazing figures in history. I would highly recommend this book, not only for Wilson's excellent writing style, but because the subject is simply fascinating.

[Debby Zigenis-Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided an interesting view of the life of Martin Luther, the birth of the reformation, the advent of Lutheranism, and the huge impact these events had on the development and thinking of the western world that stretches forward all the way to this very day.

[John Morey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book on Martin Luther