Luther's oft-recounted life made a profound impact on his contemporaries. Some revered him; some hated him. This volume provides a brief narrative of the unfolding events that took place from his birth to a young entrepreneurial family through his turbulent career as university professor and public figure to his death while on a mission to reconcile a feuding princely family. Following parts of this narrative come ""interviews"" with friends and foes of his time, taken from a variety of sixteenth-century sources that present this dominating reformer and the passions that possessed both those who found him to be God's end-time prophet and those who hated all that he stood for because they believed it was destroying their world. ""Kolb has a gift for weaving details from the most current historical research into an accessible narrative for non-specialist readers. His creative arrangement of primary sources from fourteen contemporaries of Luther into a conversational format is simply charming. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter prompt readers to connect Luther's life and the events of the Reformation to their own experience. A rich resource for personal reflection or group study.

"" --Kathryn A. Kleinhans, Dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Capital University, Columbus, Ohio ""Robert Kolb brings a lifetime of research, teaching, and reflection to this portrayal of Luther, and it shows. Kolb makes a complicated figure accessible without sacrificing a millimeter in depth. He paints Luther in vivid detail, highlighting especially the perspectives of Luther's colleagues in Wittenberg, who worked with him and with each other to build a new religious and social movement."" --Anna Marie Johnson, Associate Professor of Reformation History at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary ""The concept of this book is brilliant. Gathering together comments of supporters and opponents from Luther's lifetime, Robert Kolb masterfully weaves a picture of the Reformer that invites further study. The ease and accuracy of Kolb's connective narrative makes this work a joy to read. --Gordon L Isaac, Berkshire Professor of Church History, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary Robert Kolb is professor of systematic theology emeritus at Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis.

He is the coeditor of the translation of the Book of Concord (2000) and of the Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther's Theology (2014). He has authored Luther's Wittenberg World (2018), Martin Luther and the Enduring Word of God (2016), Luther and the Stories of God (2012), and Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith (2009).