Katharina and Martin Luther
The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Their revolutionary marriage was arguably one of the most scandalous and intriguing in history. Yet five centuries later, we still know little about Martin and Katharina Luther's life as husband and wife. Until now.
Against all odds, the unlikely union worked, over time blossoming into the most tender of love stories. This unique biography tells the riveting story of two extraordinary people and their extraordinary relationship, offering refreshing insights into Christian history and illuminating the Luthers' profound impact on the institution of marriage, the effects of which still reverberate today. By the time they turn the last page, readers will have a deeper understanding of Luther as a husband and father and will come to love and admire Katharina, a woman who, in spite of her pivotal role, has been largely forgotten by history.
Together, this legendary couple experienced joy and grief, triumph and travail. This book brings their private lives and their love story into the spotlight and offers powerful insights into our own twenty-first-century understanding of marriage.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Timed to the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, DeRusha (50 Women Every Christian Should Know) paints a portrait of Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther's marriage that is easily readable but lacks both depth and quality of research. DeRusha adopts a conversational style, interleaving her chapters with imaginative reconstructions of historical events. She proceeds in a chronological fashion, talking alternately about von Bora and Luther until their marriage; after that point, she discusses the couple and their children as a family unit. The author admits in her preface that she relied mostly on English-language sources, a particularly problematic approach given that von Bora's life is not very well documented in any language, particularly in English. DeRusha refers freely and frequently to other historians but makes little attempt to bring their work together in a synthetic or analytic fashion. DeRusha's book would be best read alongside more comprehensive works.
