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‘Critically’ and ‘compassionately’—these are key words for engaging Luther and feminist scholarship in the same space.[...]

Lutheran theology does not have a monopoly on grace. “Grace alone” statements do not suffice in unfolding what “all” grace is and does. In comparison to Catholic tradition, the Lutheran imagination of grace appears abstract and excludes experience. Feminist theology, in conversation with the tradition, promises to expand Lutheran hermeneutics and epistemology, starting with grace. In the footsteps of Tuomo Mannermaa, returning to Luther's transformative experience of grace, new avenues open up for reforming Lutheran grace-language. With Luther, a holistic approach to grace can be developed, one that includes Mary the mother of God.

Baptism opens a window to the heart of Martin Luther’s 16th-century theology. It offers a perspective for how Luther understands the impact of grace and its channels, as well as the nature of justification in an individual’s life. In his teaching about baptism, Luther demonstrates the vital working of the Word and lays a foundation for a Word-centered and faith-oriented spirituality. With baptism, Luther articulates his vision for the purpose of the Church and the rationale for sacraments. Baptism reveals different sides of the theologian: one who argues with a zeal on the “necessity” of baptism and its meaningful God-mandated practice in Christian communities and another who imagines God’s saving grace too expansive to be limited to any ritual. The apparent tensions in Luther’s articulation can be understood from his overlapping agendas and different audiences: in his baptismal talk, Luther is both processing his own Angst about salvation and negotiating his developing position in relation to the medieval sacramental theology and other emerging reform solutions. While feistily refuting his opponents, he is also speaking from his personal religious experience of being as if reborn with the encounter of the Word of grace and passionately extrapolating his most foundational conviction: God’s unconditional promise of grace as the ground of being for human life, given to humanity in the Word. The matter of baptism leads to the roots of different Christian “confessional” traditions. The format of the ritual has generated less anxiety than differing theological opinions on (1) the role of faith in the validity of baptism, and (2) the effects of baptism in one’s life. Whether infant or adult baptism is favored depends on whether baptism is primarily understood as a sign of faith, a cause of forgiveness and transformation, or an initiation into the Christian community—or all of the above. Baptism is at the center of Luther’s theological nervous system; it connects with every other vital thread in the theological map. Baptism is a mystery and a matter of faith; it calls for a philosophical imagination and mystical willingness to grasp the questions of reality beyond what meets the eye. “I study it daily,” Luther admits in his “Large Catechism.” “In baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and practice all his or her life. Christians always have enough to do to believe firmly what baptism promises and brings.”

Early Modern European The Front-Runner of the Catholic Reformation: The Life and Works of Johann von Staupitz. By Franz Posset. [St Andrews Studies in Reformation History.] (Burlington,Vermont: Ashgate Publishers. 2003. Pp. xxii, 398. $104.95.) Franz Posset's 2003 book on the life and works of Johann Staupitz is ambitious and provocative. The book is written with the premise that Johann Staupitz, the Vicar-General of the Augustinian Order in Germany in the time of Martin Luther, whose mentor and spiritual father he became, has been underappreciated in the story of the sixteenth-century Reformations. Staupitz was not only a forerunner, argues Posset against previous studies, but rather he was the front-runner of the Reformation. Furthermore, in terms of theological originality, he was on a par with Martin Luther. Going as far as to ask, "Is Staupitz the Reformation?" Posset answers, "Yes and no ."Yes because "he is an exponent of what is usually associated with the Reformation theological principles of 'grace alone, faith alone, and Scripture alone.' No, because he was not a proponent of nationalistic German antiRoman politics." He was a "critical thinker," but he "remained loyal to the church" (p.l, also p. 373). Nevertheless, "All in all, without Staupitz and his reform efforts there probably would not have been the Reformation in Germany as we know it" (p. 379). These statements are based on observations on, first, the close mentoring relationship between Luther and Staupitz and their shared spiritual concerns, and, second, the "five Staupizian axioms": Staupitz' recorded sermons (e.g., Advents sermons in Nuremberg 1516, Tubingen sermons on Job 1497/98, Advents sermons in Munich 1518) reveal a definite scripture-based theology, Christo-centric spirituality (surrounding the Sweet Savior), and a doctrine of unmerited salvation through divine grace alone, through faith alone, and resulting in good works (p. 376). In addition to highlighting the merits and sweetness of Staupitz' theology that indeed justifies for him the title of a reformer, Posset points out that throughout his career, the preacher also assumed a role of a reformer in practice as well: he acted upon his vision for reform of the religious life of the friars, of spirituality and pastoral care of his time, and of the university education in Wittenberg. One of the many contributions of the book is that it brings to daylight the significant place of Johann Staupiz in the many currents of medieval theology and pastoral practice. …

Theologia Deutsch-Theologia Germanica. The Book of the Perfect Life. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by David Blamires. [Sacred literature Series of the International Sacred Literature Trust.] (Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press, a Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2003. Pp. viii, 103. $69.00 clothbound, $19.95 paperback.) The International Sacred Literature Trust provides modern English translations of "sacred tests" held in esteem in different faith traditions. The translations are geared toward a wide audience, with helpful brief introductions to the texts, their authors, and their relevant contemporary traditions. The Theologia Deutsch has been a most influential and widely read, most continuously published German religious test from the Middle Ages. Dr. David Blamires introduces the reader to the work via a succinct, yet eclectic, introduction to the medieval German mystical tradition (Meister Eckhart, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Heinrich Suso, and JohannTauler) and lifts up recurring themes in the time's mystical literature, without elaborating on connections with the Theologia Deutsch. In just a few pages he characterizes the book and its intent and language. The "skeletal" characterization of the book's theology does beg a question as to why this particular text has been selected for this series as a representative of the gems of Christian spirituality. That said, Blamires' brief survey of two centuries of German mystical writing lifts up the richness of that tradition and suggests (without explicit arguments on the matter) its importance to the evolving theology of its most famous editor, Martin Luther. Actually, the use of the book by Luther and his contemporaries would be a topic of further interest, in light of the fact that the Reformer chose to edit this, and most faithfully so. Blamires' brief review of the existing editions and available English translations is helpful and corrects some persistent misunderstandings-e.g., about the author (not Lutherl) and the title of the text. Luther produced two editions of the text that originates from an unknown priest and possibly a knight of the Teutonic order: first one in 1516 (partial text) without a title and another in 1518 with a title Eyn deutsch Theologia. Luther's input undoubtedly enhanced the book's continuing appeal and repeated publication. What makes Blamires' lucid translation timely and different from previous ones is the pool of sources he had at his disposal: since the 1843 discoveries (Reuss) of the 1494-1497 manuscripts and the resulting 1851 edition by Franz Pfeiffer and the English translation by Susanna Winkworth in 1854, the most important editions available so far have been Bengt Hoffman's 1980 English translation "misleadingly titled" the Theologia Germanica of Martin Luther (which uses Luther's second edition, published in the "Classics of Western Spirituality") and Wolfgang von Hinten's 1982 critical edition in German (uses eight manuscripts from 1453 to 1497, in particular the Dessau manuscript of 1477, and Luther's tests) (pp. …