LUTHER'S TABLE TALK

In 1517, Martin Luther's 95 Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation by challenging the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and the authority of the pope. Many of Luther's books were ordered to be burned as a result of Luther's dissent. Despite this fact, a copy of Martin Luther's Table Talk (then entitled Divine Discourses) was found preserved under the foundations of a German citizen's home in 1626. Table Talk contains a series of informal conversations Luther shared with his students and colleagues in his home. The topics of these conversations range from religious doctrine and history to instructions regarding government, church, and the academic university. Throughout this text, Luther presents his beliefs boldly, and at times, his opinions may seem extremely biased. While the ethical implications of Luther's views are highly debated, Table Talk provides an uncensored look at Luther's influential ideas.

BOOK OF BOOKS

 

That the Bible is God’s Word and book I prove thus: All things that have been, and are, in the world, and the manner of their being, are described in the first book of Moses on the creation; even as God made and shaped the world, so does it stand to this day. Infinite potentates have raged against this book, and sought to destroy and uproot it—king Alexander the Great, the princes of Egypt and of Babylon, the monarchs of Persia, of Greece, and of Rome, the emperors Julius and Augustus—but they nothing prevailed; they are all gone and vanished, while the book remains, and will remain for ever and ever, perfect and entire, as it was declared at first.

 Who has thus helped it—who has thus protected it against such mighty forces? No one, surely, but God himself, who is the master of all things. And `tis no small miracle how God has so long preserved and protected this book; for the devil and the world are sore foes to it. I believe that the devil has destroyed many good books of the church, as, aforetime, he killed and crushed many holy persons, the memory of whom has now passed away; but the Bible he was fain to leave subsisting...  God, with singular strength, has upheld these things; let us, then, baptize, administer the sacrament, and preach, fearless of impediment.

 Homer, Virgil, and other noble, fine, and profitable writers, have left us books of great antiquity, but they are naught to the Bible.