Here I Stand: A Life Of Martin Luther

by R H Bainton

Paperback, 1950

Status

Available

Collection

Description

Biography & Autobiography. Christian Nonfiction. Religion & Spirituality. Nonfiction. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was a vast and complicated movement. It involved kings and peasants, cardinals and country priests, monks and merchants. It spread from one end of Europe to the other, and manifested itself in widely differing forms. Yet in spite of its diverse and complex character, to start to understand the Reformation you need know only one name: Martin Luther. Roland Bainton's Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther remains the definitive introduction to the great Reformer and is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand this towering historical figure.

Publication

Abingdon Press (1950), Edition: Reprint, 422 pages

Rating

(165 ratings; 4.2)

User reviews

LibraryThing member kvyar
This book does suffer from a couple of flaws. First, this is probably not the most scholarly biography of Luther, and the citations aren't formatted in a very convenient way. The only citations given for quotations from Luther himself are page numbers in a German-language edition of his collected
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works, which is troublesome if you'd like to know which of his writings a particular quotation came from. Second, Bainton (who was a Protestant minister, though not a Lutheran specifically) was clearly biased in Luther's favor -- maybe not to the point of making important omissions, but certainly to the point of glossing over or rationalizing away some of Luther's more repugnant statements.

Nevertheless, I do recommend Bainton's book for the simple reason that he was an excellent writer, and he paints a vivid, engrossing picture of Martin Luther's personality and thought without crossing the line into confabulation. I'm no kind of expert in this field, but I have glanced at the easily available biographies of Luther, and I think this is a good one -- probably the best choice for the interested general reader who lacks the time to get through something denser.
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LibraryThing member billmeister16
A must read for any Christian that has not neglected their history. A romanticized look at the incredible life of Martin Luther. A classic work indeed.
LibraryThing member librisissimo
Competent but rather dull. Boynton's shifts from commentary to quotation (or a summary of Luther's and others' positions and writings) are not well-marked. His copious endnotes are not actually noted in the text, but left for the reader to find out; there are several for just about every page.
LibraryThing member aevaughn
I enjoyed reading this work although sometimes I feel like I'm reading a sermon rather than a biography. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to start reading a biography explicitly about Martin Luther's life.
LibraryThing member TheBooknerd
An interesting if not particularly enjoyable read. The author's adoration of Luther comes across quite clearly, so it's a useful book for comparing different perspectives. I would never consider this a history text, but this would likely be a worthwhile book for anyone interested in religious
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history, regardless of which side of whatever fence you stand on. Also, I can't deny that Martin Luther is a major historical figure, so I'm glad to have read at least one biography on him, even if it was this one.
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LibraryThing member robeik
It has been said by others that Martin Luther was the first 'celebrity' - his fame of his breach with the Roman Catholic Church spread across the whole or Europe. Yet as this book shows, it was not something he wanted; he preferred reform of the church. He certainly did not agree at all with the
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radical derivations of German revolt against external oppression, like Munster.
Luther would have been exciting to be around. He loved a beer, enjoyed company, singing and music. Yet he also suffered from depression, and ill health. Bainton wonders whether this is related to his struggle with God, but it appears his depression may have been clinical.
The book is thorough in its discussion and analysis of Luther's interaction with the Roman Catholic Church, the local princes, and with Erasmus, his Bible translation and how he changed life in Germany. It covers his efforts to maintain peace (he was against the violence of Munster and others), but little is said of his influence on further reformers; for example, John Calvin is not mentioned.
The author concludes the book by briefly covering the latter years of his life; very briefly regarding his death which gets one sentence. He does cover the less pleasant aspects of Luther - his anti-Semitic writings (which he has is religious, not racial) and his coarseness (not uncommon in those days). It is these things that opponents of Luther grasp to discredit him and his legacy.
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LibraryThing member BradKautz
Martin Luther was one of the titans of the Protestant Reformation. It was Luther, along with John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli, who gave the Reformation its defining and enduring shape, influencing it in ways that continue today. This biography by Bainton is perhaps not exhaustive, but it is
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comprehensive, as it considers Luther’s life and times. We look into his life and see how Luther’s overriding passion, i.e. the love of God above all else and the consequent desire to reform the church, according to God’s self-revelation in the Bible played out on the stage of 16th century Europe.

Luther didn’t plan to reform the church. Following his father’s wishes he was studying to become a lawyer. But he had an experience that set him on a different path, one which began benignly as he fulfilled a vow to become a monk. And to use a modern phrase, one thing led to another, and Christianity has never been the same.

Bainton honestly explores the different phases of Luther’s life, pointing out both the highs and the lows. I was a little familiar with both aspects of Luther’s life previous to reading this book and found that there was much more to learn about Luther and the way he intersected with his time and its culture. An example would be from some of the polemical material of Luther’s late career, where Bainton highlights the nuances that we don’t easily appreciate 500 years later.

Bainton has painted a rich portrait of a complex man, a man who above all served a sovereign, gracious and holy God. It is a biography written over 60 years ago but which has held up well for good reason. I highly commend it.
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LibraryThing member Nathaniel.Simmons
Great read. The first half reads like a fast paced novel chronicling his life and the second explores specific aspects of his character, thought, and influence. This makes the first half more fun than the second, but the whole book is worth the read.
LibraryThing member dtgwynn
Martin Luther was one of the most influential men in Western Civilization over the past half-millennium. Most people today do not know enough history to understand someone like Luther, who was really a medieval theologian. Bainton does a wonderful job of placing Luther in his own time, educating
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the reader on the religious and political landscape of the time. Without this context, Luther no doubt would appear bizarre to the modern reader. Bainton praises Luther for his bravery in standing for what he believed to be true, and for his long-held hope that the Pope would change course if only he knew about the abuses in the church. Bainton takes Luther to task for his indefensible positions regarding persecution of Jews and Anabaptists, but makes sure the reader understands Luther's full position, which was not as simple as hatred and prejudice. The modern person who believes that a straight line can be drawn from Luther to the Holocaust is most misinformed. The most moving portions of the book are certainly the earlier chapters which detail Luther's personal spiritual struggle, which will find resonance in any Christian's heart.
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LibraryThing member salem.colorado
Here I Stand : A Life of Martin Luther, by Roland Bainton, is considered one of the best biographies of Luther. It has been a classic for many years and is easy to read and has many woodcut illustrations. This is one of the source books Dr. Dwight Johnson used in writing his wonderful play. It is
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found in the Biography section under the number B/LUTH.
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LibraryThing member donbarger
Great!

This was a great book. It brought Martin Luther’s life.... to life. I have always loved reading about Luther but this really helped synthesize all of the history that I have read about him. The book was well written and I found it easy to read.
LibraryThing member kslade
Great biography of Martin Luther, the reformer of the 1500s.
LibraryThing member zot79
Very dense and worth the effort.
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