• How does Trueman argue for the importance of studying church history?
• What are Trueman’s four arguments for the significance of Martin Luther?

• What is the significance of Luther’s medieval background and culture?
• What is the significance of Luther’s father and class migration?
• Trueman claims that real theology begins and ends with real people. How have you seen this play out, for good and for ill?
• What were Luther’s two observations from his trip to Rome?
• What were the two key themes of Gabriel Biel’s theology, and how did they impact Luther’s thinking and theology?

• How does Luther’s theology of sin shift during this period?
• What was the significance of the papal bull Unigenitus Dei filius issued by Pope Celement VI in 1343?
• What was the significance of the papal bull Salvator Noster issued by Pope Sixtus IV in 1476?
• What is the interplay between the characters Albrecht the Archbishop of Mainz, Johann Tetzel, and Frederick the Wise?
• While indulgences were not permitted in the boarders of Electoral Saxony, how did this affect the populace?
• What was the original purpose of the 95 Theses?
• What was Luther’s overriding concern with indulgences?

• What was the function of the Heidelberg Disputation for monks of the Augustinian Order?
• What was the function of Luther’s theses? What is the relationship at the disputation between Martin Luther and Leonhard Beyer?
• What is the difference between a “theologian of glory” and a “theologian of the cross”?

• What was meant by “scholasticism”? (See “The Rise of School Theology” in Carl Trueman’s course on “The Medieval Church” for more detail.)
• How did Luther defuse the work of Sylvester Mazzolini Prierias?
• What was the relationship between Luther and George Spalatin, and what was the relationship between Spalatin and Frederick the Wise?
• What two socio-political factors prevent Cardinal Cajetan from taking Luther into custody after the Diet of Augsburg?
• What do you think about Trueman’s comments about Luther doing theology in community? What dangers have you seen that stem from not doing theology in community? What are the two kinds of community that Trueman defines?
• What were the roles of Matthäus Goldhahn and Philip Melanchthon?
• What two books of the Bible did Luther revisit during this time?

• What was the reason for competition between Leipzig and Wittenberg?
• What is the role of John Eck (of Leipzig) in the debate?
• What is the role of Andreas Karlstadt in the debate?
• What is Eck’s strategy in the debate? How does it connect to the Council of Constance?
• What is Luther’s text that he preaches upon arrival in the city? What was the significance of that text and sermon?
• What is the central issue for Luther at Leipzig?

• What are the seven sacraments of the Catholic church? Which sacraments did Luther reject?
• How does Luther’s concerns about withholding the cup from the laity connect to his earlier ideas about the theologian of the cross?
• What’s the difference between an error and heresy?
• Why was the distinction between Mass as a sacrifice of the people offered to God and Mass as a sacrifice of God offered to the people important to Luther?
• Why didn’t Luther require pastors to take penance? Why did Luther still personally practice penance?

Trueman quotes from the Second Helvetic Confession of 1566, which reads: “The preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is preached, and received of the faithful; and that neither any other Word of God is to be feigned, nor to be expected from heaven: and that now the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; who, although he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God abides true and good.”

• How does this theology of preaching compare to your own?

• What is the meaning of Luther’s statement, “A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one”?
• What kind of language does Melanchthon prefer to use about justification? What kind of language does Luther prefer?
• What deficiency does Trueman see in Luther’s early ethics? How do we see weaknesses in an ethic of love today?

• Why did Luther write this work?
• How does Luther’s argument in this work connect to his earlier views of the theologian of the cross?
• What responsibilities does he believe belong to the church, and which responsibilities belong to the magistrate?
• Why does Pope Leo X only threaten Luther’s excommunication in 1520 in Exsurge Domine?
• Why does Luther insist on a council on German soil in response to the papal bull?
• How many local bishops used the papal bull to restrict Luther and his followers from taking communion?

• What is the outcome of the meeting between Frederick the Wise and Desiderius Erasmus?
• How does Luther respond to the papal bull in 1520?
• How does John Huss form a precedent for Luther’s summons to the Diet of Worms?
• What bad advice does Luther eventually give to Philip of Hesse?
• What speculation does Trueman make regarding Luther’s response to the opening question at the Diet of Worms?
• Why does Luther begin his response at Worms in German rather than Latin?

• Why were the Spanish more vitriolic against Luther than some of the others at Worms?
• What is the Emperor Charles V’s strategy in regard to Luther?
• What was Pope Leo X’s response to the Diet of Worms in the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem?
• What was Luther’s alias while living undercover at Wartburg Castle?
• The riots that were stirred up by Justus Jonas in Wittenberg in November of 1521 (and the expanding social unrest into 1522) posed what problem for Luther?
• What was Luther’s problem with the Zwickau prophets?

• What issues does Trueman have with the question: “Did Luther contribute to the rise of Hitler?”
• What are Luther’s concerns with the Anabaptists?
• What is Luther’s view here concerning wicked civil magistrates?
• How does Luther’s view evolve over time, particularly by 1531?

• What factors contributed to the Peasants’ War of 1525?
• What were the differences between Luther and Thomas Müntzer?
• How does Luther demonstrate his lack of sensitivity to the Peasants’ War?
• How did Luther and Katharina von Bora meet and marry?
• What was the origin of the Table Talks?

• What was a “humanist” in Luther’s day?
• What was meant by the word “will” in the title of the book?
• What was Melanchthon’s opinion of Erasmus’s work?
• Trueman gave two categories of perspicuity: (1) internal, and (2) external. How do the two differ?
• Do you agree or disagree with Trueman’s assessment that the Perspicuity of Scripture is the neglected doctrine of evangelicalism? Why or why not?

• What do you think of Luther’s argument for necessity? Trueman summarizes Luther’s syllogism related to necessity as follows: (1) God is eternal and changeless. (2) That which God foreknows he most first (logically) foreordain. (3) Everything which happens, happens of necessity of God’s will.
• What is Trueman’s problem with Luther’s articulation of the hidden and revealed God?
• What are the issues that shape Zwingli versus the issues that shape Luther? How does this change the shapes of their respective Reformation efforts?
• How does the Reformation begin in Zurich?

• How did the different Reformers view their work?
• What does Trueman suggest are the five differences between Luther and Zwingli in addition to their disagreement over the Lord’s Supper?
• How does Luther connect Karlstadt and Zwingli in his mind?
• Why does Luther see Zwingli and his position as non-Christian?

• What was the purpose of the Marburg Colloquy?
• On how many of the fifteen points of discussion did Luther and Zwingli agree?
• Luther held to the direct communication of Jesus’s attributes, while Zwingli held to an indirect view. How do these views differ, and what are the issues that the proponents of each view have with the alternate position?
• How does Zwingli’s view (memorial) differ from the Reformed view (sign and seal)?
• What does Trueman say is the main point of tension between the Protestants?
• How does Luther respond to Zwingli’s death?

• Trueman begins by saying that Christians cannot begin addressing Luther and the Jews by immediately taking the issue off the table for debate. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
• Trueman explains the background of anti-Jewish sentiment and cultural implications of blood libel and the Judensau. How do these elements that predate Luther play into Luther’s beliefs about the Jews?
• How does Trueman interpret the debate between Johannes Pfefferkorn and Johann Reuchlin? What impact might this issue have on Luther?
• Trueman says that, from a historian’s vantage point, it is not the conventional that needs to be explained, but the unconventional. Do you agree with his application of this principle to Luther? What other historical issues might this principle apply to?
• What is the significance of Luther’s shift from his kind tone toward the Jews in his work That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew in 1523 (see his accompanying letter to Bernard, a converted Jew) and his harsh tone in On the Jews and Their Lies and the untranslated Vom Schem Hamphoras both written in 1543?
• Why does Trueman not appropriate the language of “anti-Semitism” to Luther, but rather, “anti-Jewish”?
• What is Trueman’s summary of Luther’s relationship to the holocaust?