This book highlights the writings of the young (or early) Martin Luther, which separates it from other books on Martin Luther's theology. The book sets Luther in radical, at times almost shocking, contrast with theological and philosophical modernity. Reinforced by hundreds of quotations from Luther, what emerges for readers is a revision of age-old and current ideas of Christian faith, into which they are invited. Thus, Catholicism, medieval and modern; Protestantism (according to Iwand, a stimulus to Nazi ideology); Lutheranism, particularly with its staid doctrine of the "Two Kingdoms"; Liberalism, with its personalism and ethics of intention; Pietism, likewise vulnerable to political mishandling; the "Quest of the Historical Jesus" and Existentialism, nourished by Nietzsche and Freud--all are subject to confrontation, and in all this readers are directly engaged as if by Luther himself. In the transfer from classroom lecture to the edited and published book, nothing is lost of the original encounter of a master interpreter and student of Luther.
