chapter of this book to assess Luther's historical significance
from the new viewpoint of our own day. It is sufficient here
to indicate briefly just why and in what way the picture of
Luther to-day differs from the former image.

In substance, of the writers on Luther before the First World
War, by far the majority recognised him only as a campaigner
against Rome and the founder of German state churches.
Often, and particularly in the case of non-German writers, they
were acquainted with only a very limited portion of Luther's
writings. During the first decades of this century highly inten-
sive research originated in Germany, and is to-day keenly
pursued in nearly all Protestant countries; this study has been
supported in its original premises by new and important manu-
script discoveries and has succeeded in penetrating to the
innermost structure of Luther's thought.

In spite of the many paradoxes and contradictions contained
in his writings, and his own at times inconsistent behaviour,
what emerges from this work is the final, magnificent unity of
Luther's theology--and this, moreover, a unity rooted in
religious experience of quite exceptional depth and power.
Luther is a religious prophet: his public acts, his militancy, his
efforts as organiser of church life--all stem from this. Only
those who view Luther in this light can hope to arrive at any
understanding of his essential character.

Such an understanding was only partially attainable in the
age of religious liberalism. To-day, in a world which has
become godless, Europe has had experience of devils so frightful
as to render doubtful in her eyes any belief in the steady forward
progress of humanity; on the other hand the religious concerns
which exercised Luther, the agonising question of the 'secret'
and invisible aspects of God, have all been brought sharply back
into focus. Upon us Germans, at any rate, his spiritual world
has dawned anew, and the author of this book has to acknow-
ledge the fact that the basic attitude of his own work, which

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