The Teaching of Martin Luther

Abstract

"This year we commemorate the fifth centenary of Martin Luther's birth, but let us agree among ourselves that the epoch-making episodes in his career, the years when he altered the course of western history, came between 1518 and about 1530. Then it was that, protected by powerful German princes and cities, he defied the papal and hierarchical structure of the Church and set up Evangelical churches throughout Germany and Scandinavia. The missionary success of the Lutherans was phenomenal in and far beyond his lifetime. I have visited Lutheran congregations as far apart as Bra~ov in southern Rumania and in the forests of Finland, all founded before Luther died."