CHAPTER XXXIV

. END OF LUTHER’S LITERARY LABOURS. THE

WHOLE REVIEWED _pages_ 432-556

1. TOWARDS A CHRISTIANITY VOID OF DOGMA. PROTESTANT OPINIONS.

Harnack, etc., on Luther’s abandonment of individual points of Christian doctrine and destruction of the older idea of faith: The Canon and true interpretation of Scripture; speculative theology. Luther’s own admissions that Christian doctrine is a chain the rupture of any link of which involves the rupture of the whole. Luther’s inconsistencies in matters of doctrine as instanced by Protestant theologians: Original sin and unfreedom; Law and Gospel; Penance; Justification and good works; his teaching on merit, on the sacraments and the supper; on the Church and Divine worship _pages_ 432-469

2. LUTHER AS A POPULAR RELIGIOUS WRITER. THE CATECHISM.

Collected works: Luther’s preface to the Latin and German Collections. The Church-postils and Home-postils; advantages and shortcomings of his popular works; his silence regarding self-denial. Origin and character of the Larger and Smaller Catechisms. His Catechisms compared with the older catechetic works _pages_ 470-494

3. THE GERMAN BIBLE.

The work of translation completed in 1534; how it was launched on the public and the extent of its success. The various revisions of the work and the notes of the meetings held under Luther’s presidency. His anxiety to use only the best German; “Chancery German.” The language of the German Bible, its scholarship; its inaccuracies; Luther’s “Sendbrieff” to defend his addition of the word “alone” in Romans iii. 28. The corrections of Emser the Dresden “scribbler.” How Luther belittled certain books of Scripture. Some side-lights into the psychology of Luther’s translation. The Bible in earlier ages; the “Bible in chains.” Luther’s indebtedness to earlier German translators _pages_ 494-546

4. LUTHER’S HYMNS.

His efforts to interest his friends in the making of hymns. His best-known hymn, “A safe stronghold our God is still.” Other hymns; their character and musical setting. The “Hymn for the Out-driving of Antichrist” once falsely ascribed to Luther _pages_ 546-556

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