No other German has shaped the history of early-modern Europe more than Martin Luther. In this comprehensive and balanced biography we see Luther as a rebel, but not as a lone hero; as a soldier in a mighty struggle for the universal reform of Christianity and its role in the world. The foundation of Protestantism changed the religious landscape of Europe, and subsequently the world, but the author chooses to show not simply as a reformer, but as an individual. In his study of the Wittenberg monk, Heinz Schilling - one of Germany's leading social and political historians - gives the reader a rounded view of a difficult, contradictory character, who changed the world by virtue of his immense will.

Heinz Schilling was Professor of Early Modern History at the Humboldt University, Berlin until his retirement in 2010. His main areas of research are in early modern European history, including studies in religion, politics, migration studies, foreign policy, and social and cultural history.

• Prologue: Living in an Age of Faith and an Age in Transition
• PART ONE: Childhood, Education, and the First Years as a Monk, 1483-1511
• 1: 1484 - New Departures for Christendom
• 2: Childhood and Youth
• 3: Crisis and Flight to the Monastery
• PART TWO: Wittenberg and the Beginnings of the Reformation, 1511-1525
• 4: Wittenberg
• 5: Eleutherios - The Birth of a Free Man
• 6: The Reformer - Standing His Ground before Church, Emperor, and Empire
• 7: Beginning to Labour for the Cause
• 8: Contesting Interpretation within the Evangelical Camp
• 9: Arrived in the World -Marriage, Family, and a Large Household
• PART THREE: Prophetic Confidence, but Temporal Failure, 1525-1546
• 10: Evangelical Renewal of Church and Society
• 11: "But We Christians Are Part of a Different Struggle" - Facing the Demands of the World
• 12: Conflicted Emotions: God-Given Joy and Apocalyptic Fear
• 13: Dying in Christ - "We Are All Beggars, That is True"
• Epilogue: Failure and Success: Luther and the Modern World