Schneider, Carolyn M., 1963-

I am a Christian : the nun, the Devil, and Martin Luther / Nun, the Devil, and Martin Luther Carolyn M. Schneider. - Minneapolis : Fortress Press, c2010. - vii, 184 p. ; 24 cm. - Studies in Lutheran history and theology . - Studies in Lutheran history and theology. .

Includes bibliographical references (p. 167-174) and indexes.

"Inspired by a bold nun, on nearly twenty occasions over the course of his ministry Martin Luther invoked her way of warding off the devil and the temptation to despair. 'I am a Christian,' she would say to the Tempter, and Luther's admiration for her becomes an entre to the whole religious world of the middle ages and Luther's time. Schneider's fascinating journey goes in search, first, of the meaning that this story had for Luther and his theological world but then of the nun's identity and the whole role of the devil, guilt, sin, and temptation in the medieval worldview. Finally, Schneider turns to today and people's struggles with despair, sickness, addiction, and death. She shows the strange but undeniable pertinence of the whole idea of the devil, Christian community as a bulwark against evil, and how Luther's battles illumine our own. Schneider's work brightly models a historical theology that is as pastorally pertinent as it is historically engrossing" -- Publisher description.

9780800697327 (alk. paper) 0800697324 (alk. paper)


Luther, Martin, 1483-1546.
Mechthild, of Magdeburg, approximately 1212-approximately 1282.
Mechthild, of Hackeborn, 1241 or 1242-1299?


Spiritual warfare.
Struggle--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Faith.
Christian life.

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