appeared in its original form shortly after the First World War,
was considerably modified by the experience of the Hitler
régime and the Second World War. It remains true that Luther
reflected to a very high degree the German character and left
his own imprint on it, but the fact has become less important.
What emerges from our present-day view of him is above all an
impression of enormous power of faith and in his dealings with
men an astonishing fearlessness, all springing from his true
reverence for God.

This impression has for some time no longer been confined
merely to Lutheran circles. To-day it is to a far greater extent
shared by Roman Catholic theologians; never in the past four
hundred years of Catholic church history has the question of the
Lutheran Reformation been considered with such absence of
hatred and prejudice as to-day. This is true not only of Germany.
The oecumenical movement of churches and religious com-
munities, which has shown such a powerful upsurge since 1945,
has paved the way in the Anglo-American world to an under-
standing of Luther. In the U.S.A. Lutheran studies are already
intensive and widespread. An English edition of his collected
works is being prepared (St. Louis), whilst the periodical
Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, which is under my supervision
and which since 1951 has been directed by a mixed body of
editors, appears in several languages and has served to link in the
closest possible way the study of Luther in both lands. My friend
and fellow-editor Roland H. Bainton ( New Haven) has pub-
lished a widely read, new biography of Luther which in
many respects accords with my own. In England, too, James
MacKinnon's older and comprehensive work on Luther ( 1925-
30; four volumes) has now been joined and supplemented by
the work, conducted with great zeal, of younger church
historians, such as Gordon Rupp and Philip Watson. It seems,
therefore, that an advance company of deeply experienced
people, which has originated in the oecumenical movement and

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