Mathison highlights classics like Roland Bainton’s Here I Stand, substantial works like Martin Brecht’s three-volume set, and more recent accessible titles by authors such as Scott Hendrix, Eric Metaxas, and Herman Selderhuis.

There are probably more books written about Martin Luther than any other prominent figure of the Reformation. In 2017, the anniversary of the posting of the 95 theses, several more biographies were added to the already intimidating list. It occurred to me a while back that I have ten biographies of Luther on my bookshelves, and given that ten is a nice round number, I thought it might make good material for a blog post.

The original idea was to rank the biographies I own in a “Top Ten” list and then nail them to the door of a church. I quickly gave up on the idea of nailing these to a church door when I couldn’t find my hammer. But even the task of ranking the biographies proved to be quite difficult since most of these books are really good, and each has something unique to contribute. There is only one of them that I do not find particularly helpful, so designating the number 10 spot was the only easy task. Number 9 was also fairly easy. The next easiest task was the Top 3. I am pretty comfortable standing by these choices. Slots 4–8, however, are almost interchangeable. In order to add the necessary amount of tension and drama, we will begin with number 10.

10

Martin Marty—Martin Luther: A Life (2004)

Like Roland Bainton’s well-known biography of Luther, Marty’s is short, but, of the two, Bainton’s is much, much better. Bainton gets into details and quotes Luther—extensively at times. Marty’s biography is akin to trudging through a Reader’s Digest version of a great novel. It’s not very detailed, and the reader finds only a surface level engagement with Luther’s ideas. Did not care for this one.

9

Peter Stanford—Martin Luther: Catholic Dissident (2017)

This biography is a popular level work written by an ecumenically minded Roman Catholic. Stanford is enthusiastic about recent efforts at rapprochement between Roman Catholics and Lutherans. There is nothing really new here that cannot be found in other biographies, but I must say that the author does write in a very easy to read style.

8

Herman Selderhuis—Martin Luther: A Spiritual Biography (2017)

This is where the ranking gets difficult. I had a very tough time placing the biographies found ranked here from 4 through 8 in any order. I love all of Selderhuis’s works that I have read, and his biography of Luther is among those. It is an “intermediate” level biography that would be suitable for any high school or college class on the Reformation. There’s a strong personal focus, as the subtitle indicates, on the spiritual journey of Martin Luther. Very well written.

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