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Martin Luther. By Martin Marty. Penguin Lives Series. New York: Viking Penguin, 2004. xv + 199 pp. $19.95 (paper).
It is no surprise that the biography series Penguin Lives devotes a volume to Martin Luther. It is surprising, however, that such a small volume could be so deftly composed. The task of writing a brief account of the Wittenberg reformer's life and work is gargantuan; rarely has more been written about any other person, and seldom have more divergent versions of a person's life been argued. Nonetheless, Marty negotiates the dense forest of Reformation history, theology, politics, and ecclesiology, providing an accessible and eminently readable short biography of Martin Luther.
The book contains only four chapters. Wisely, Marty focuses each chapter on a chronological period of Luther's life and an overarching theme that binds it together. In the preface, Marty argues that Luther "makes most sense as a wrestler with God, indeed, as a...