Earlier this month, someone posted a photo on Instagram of Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas. The first part of the subtitle seemed a bit over the top to me, but seeing as I loved his Bonhoeffer bio, and this October 31st marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, I thought I’d give it a try. One of the things I find hard to fathom is that not even most of the monks at that time really studied the Bible itself, just commentaries on it. Luther and his mentor Staupitz were two of the few who really took God’s Word seriously. Metaxas writes:
Staupitz saw that for Luther the Bible was not a book like Aristotle’s Ethics or like a volume of Livy or Cicero. It was something entirely apart from every book in the world. It was the living Word of God and therefore could not be read like any other book. It was inspired by God, and when one read it, one must do so in such a way – with such closeness and intimacy – that one fully intended to feel and smell the breezes of heaven. If one missed this aspect, one missed the whole point.
It’s break week here, and I’m hoping to get in lots of reading. 😉 I’ll probably be sharing another quote or two from this book before the series ends.
