An Academic Book Review of Roland H. Bainton¶s
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther
David G. TerrellJune 25, 2010
Bainton, Roland H,
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, xiv + 336 pp., 89 ill.,
Nashville,Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1950.Bainton begins his fascinating and illuminating landmark biography of Martin Luther with his decision, at age 22, to become a monk after being trapped outside in the midst of araging storm and surviving close lightning strikes after an appeal to his father¶s patron saint, St.Anne. This episode provides an ironic introduction to Bainton¶s telling of Luther¶s life²which,after his embrace of monasticism, would lead to a shattered medieval Catholicism.After this anecdote, Bainton turns to the geopolitical setting of Luther¶s life, anddescribes, in clean narrative, the nationalism already fragmenting the political unity of Europe.He also describes the humanistic changes in the society and in the Church; changes that infectedthe senior members of the curia, including the popes, whom Bainton charges with secularism,flippancy, sensuality and a lack of scruples. Bainton then posits Luther as the man who recalledChristianity to its Religion, asserting that ³If there is any sense remaining of Christiancivilization in the West, this man Luther in no small measure deserves the credit.´ Baintonclearly admires Luther, and his life as ³a man of religion.´ He therefore sets about Luther¶s life by beginning at his conversion, describing his youth only as it contributes to his entry into themonastic life.
1
From this beginning, Bainton weaves his history, building upon a body of primarysources concerning Luther and the Reformation.
1
Roland H. Bainton,
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther,
(Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1950), 15-16.
1
Terrell, David G.
Of Luther¶s youth, Bainton¶s principal observations pertain to the religiousconservativism of his German peasant upbringing; and, the intense psychological tensionsinduced by the counterpoint between his religious hope for salvation and his sincere fear of eternal damnation.
2
Wrath and mercy were the staples of his early religious life, and ³Christ theJudge´ was the envisioned manifestation of his Savior.
3
Luther¶s joining the monks of theAugustinian Order may therefore have been an effort to claim the forgiveness promised byChurch Fathers who deemed ³the taking of the cowl to be second baptism.´
4
Bainton then spends several chapters describing Luther¶s monastery novitiate and his becoming a priest. He spends some time discussing the anxiety attack Luther suffered during hisfirst opportunity to preside at Mass. Apparently, Luther¶s intense drive to achieve a perfectholiness, and the human realization of the impossibility thereof, caused him much agony and adeep depression.
5
Bainton also believed that Luther¶s trip to Rome in 1510, to represent his order at a conference, was a significant disillusionment. In Rome, Luther seems to have been exposedto a more worldly Catholic Church²one full of levity and scriptural ignorance²that crushedand alienated him.
6
After returning from Rome, Luther was transferred to Wittenberg, where hewas to spend the remainder of his vocational life, with short exceptions. Tormented with his own perceived sins, and disenchanted with the failings of other clergy, Luther worried himself toanguish. His vicar in Wittenberg, Johann von Staupitz, who would be influential in Luther¶s later life, attempted to divert his fears by tasking him to pursue a Doctor of Divinity and assigninghim to become the chair of Bible at Wittenberg¶s university. This responsibility drove the
2
Bainton,
Here I Stand
(HIS), 20.
3
Bainton, HIS, 21-22.
4
Bainton, HIS, 24.
5
Bainton, HIS, 30-31.
6
Bainton, HIS, 36.
2
Terrell, David G.
terrified and agonized Luther to dive into the Scriptures in search of the doctrines he now had toexpostulate to others. Interestingly, Bainton points out that Luther, until now, was no Biblescholar, as until this point, the decretals and the scholastic authors were at the center of histheological education.
7
In this assertion, Bainton stays close to his previous assessments andwork regarding Luther.
8
Bainton details the next several years on Luther¶s life in a narrative, switching betweenLuther¶s biblical studies and the lectures whose writing forced him to crystallize his newscriptural mastery. His studies caused him to develop a scripturally-based view of the role of Christ in the salvation of man. His sermons and commentaries focused on the forgiveness of sinsthrough unmerited grace, made possible through the atonement of Christ.
9
In this, he broachedno issues with Catholicism²his doctrine was that of Paul the Apostle, although intensified andclarified. At his point, Luther envisioned no reform other than implementing a religiouseducation program based upon the Scriptures.
10
According to Bainton, the onset of Luther¶s disagreement with Catholicism truly beganaround 1516, when the sale of indulgences in the region reached extraordinary levels of cupidity.The overindulgence was instituted by Pope Leo X, of the Florentine Medici, to finance the building of the new St. Peter¶s in Rome and to redeem his less-than-sacred debts.
11
The situationdirectly led Luther to propose his ninety-five theses for debate, thus intending to raise the issuesamongst the clergy²and only amongst the clergy. The theses made these three main points.
7
Bainton, HIS, 45.
8
Roland H. Bainton, "Luther's Struggle for Faith,"
C
hurch History,
((Cambridge University Press on behalf of theAmerican Society of Church History) XVII, no. 3 (September 1948): 193-206), 193-206.
9
Bainton, HIS, 50-51.
10
Bainton, HIS, 51.
11
Bainton, HIS, 56-57.
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Bainton begins his fascinating and illuminating landmark biography of Martin Luther with his decision, at age 22, to become a monk after being trapped outside in the midst of a raging storm and surviving close lightning…
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