Review of Katharina & Martin Luther

Since it is Reformation month I thought that I would read and try to write a quick review of a book on the man who began the Protestant Reformation in force. Michelle DeRusha wrote this nice little book on the marriage of the Reformer, something which is often overlooked in most Reformation history. We tend to focus on the theology and the upheaval of the Reformation, because that is important. But DeRusha does an amazing job at showing why Luther's marriage to a runaway nun was so groundbreaking at that time. This focus shows how Luther's theology is fleshed out in everyday life, and it is a great reminder that our theology (because every Christian is a theologian) needs to be fleshed out and connected with the everyday and mundane of life.

With only 8 letters of Katharina (von Bora) Luther that has come down to historians there is a hard time to figuring out important things about her early life and the day to day of their marriage. There are copious amounts of letters from Martin (and correspondence among his friends) though, and a piecing together of their lives is possible and I believe that DeRusha does a fantastic job weaving their narrative together while showing little peeks at Luther's theology as it is developing along side some very important and interesting historical bits and bobs that shed even more light on what their lives might have been like. Things like late medieval pregnancy and delivery books to how the lives of women in convents was often very socially mobile really give a glimpse into something past the big theological and political climate that we are used to reading when we read Reformation history.

They say when doing something like this to list a positive, then a negative, then a positive. Here is my "negative". I really wish that it read a bit more like a narrative. It is a fantastic book that is filled with narrative sprinkled with historical asides that are fascinating and eye opening. But when I think of narrative-style history books I think of something that reads and feels like you are  instead of looking in from the outside. I think DeRusha tries to invite you into the Black Cloister (the Luther home, awesome name isn't it?) but I think that you are left in the parlour instead of welcomed in to sit at the table to experience a dinner with Martin Luther and all of the students and politicians and theologians eating and conversing with him.

Aside from that one thing, I think this is a fantastic book that also has the potential to show all of these major players at the beginning of the Reformation in a much more human light. They were groundbreaking theologians that were working on reforming the Church and taking her back to Scripture, but just like us they faced debt, bills, deaths of children, they had problem family members and went through human problems. They weren't simply theological machines. This book shows us that these major historical and theological players in one of the greatest and most trying moments in history were real people, and in the case of Martin and Katharina Luther, a real--and radical--marriage.

You can pick up your own copy here

Review of Note To Self

This is the first book review that I'm doing for the blog. I probably won't do a very academic style book review, but keep it fairly short and sweet. I will also be taking these as an opportunity to show you guys maybe what we are reading over here and if we are able to utilize any of it in ministry. NOTE: We are not getting any sort of kick-backs from these reviews, we are not getting paid to write a review for any company and we don't get anything if you guys do decide to buy any of these books via the link provided. Thanks!

I have recently been binge-listening to the podcast Doctrine and Devotion, which is a SBC/reformed baptist pastor and a perennial elder-candidate talking about anything and everything in church life. Joe Thorn, the pastor and co-host, has written a few books, and I hope to review almost all of his here sooner or later, especially as I hope to maybe use some of them for future ministry training here in the Philippines.

Joe Thorn writes this book essentially to himself, something he says generally about his writing. He wrote this book with the discipline of preaching the Word to himself in mind.  This book is very devotional in nature, and the short chapters are perfect as short little daily devotionals in and of themselves. The point of the book is Thorn preaching to himself the Gospel over and over again in various forms, emphasizing various aspects of the Christian life, which in turn shows us a glimpse how to do that ourselves.

The 48 chapter book(let) is divided into three sections: The Gospel and God, The Gospel and Others, and The Gospel and You. Each small chapter begins with a passage of Scripture and then about a page and a half long note to Self about a specific topic like Love (Chapter 1), God Does Not Answer to you (Chapter 9), Hating Well (Chapter 28, and yes, you read that correctly), and many others. While I do wish that the chapters were a little bit longer to elaborate more on the topics and how to essentially preach them to myself, I understand that the purpose (and general writing of Joe Thorn) is to be short and to the point. In some ways that is part of what makes the book so handy. The shortness of the chapter allows you to have virtually the whole thing to mull over during the rest of your day, you don't really have to worry about forgetting a part of the chapter as you go throughout the day. You also don't have to fret about the chapter taking forever to remind why you need to love others or why you need to be reminded to hate the things that God hates.

I would highly recommend this book(let) if you are looking for a new devotional book, and are looking for something that can be challenging and shows you how to practice the art of preaching the Gospel to yourself. It is a very useful task in daily going through the task of checking your heart and testing yourself to make sure that you are indeed keeping the faith (2 Cor. 13:5). This book is a very valuable little way to help point you in a biblical direction for accomplishing such a job as checking your own heart.

You can get your own copy of the book here.