'Martin Luther: "confessional" theologian', The Expository Times 126 (2014), pp. 53-6. (original) (raw)

The contemporary fame of Martin Luther (1483-1546) rested at least as much on his popular devotional writings as on his public defiance of Pope and Emperor. By re-considering his early struggles and later work in the light of this reputation, he emerges more clearly as a ‘confessional’ theologian, that is, a theologian of the confessional and of spiritual direction. It is argued that this approach provides a healthy corrective to some one-sided views of Luther, and offers a useful complementary approach in its own right for biography and historical theology.