Book recommendation: “Luther: Man between God and the Devil” by Heiko A. Oberman. The book may be out of print but used copies are available.
It is unique among contemporary biographies. Modern biographies emphasize external and objectified circumstances to define their subject. Personal background, psychology, social, and economic factors are treated as all-determinative. The ideas of the person get lost in the shuffle. Yet, the ideas are the catalyst for shattering the preeminence of the Catholic Church in Western Europe, and in much of Christendom.
By objectifying a person with an over-emphasis on such attributes, we get to avoid the difficult task of grappling with their ideas. Run-of-the-mill biographies cheapen the subjects by stripping away that which made them famous – their ideas.
Oberman’s treatment is refreshing, as opposed to the more common loose speculation peddled to Oprah’s clientele.
RogerG