Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (volume II)

This volume gathers Luther's most incendiary early treatises, written in the ferment of the Reformation's first years. The centerpiece is his 1519 treatise on the Blessed Sacrament, where Luther mounts a devastating critique of how Catholic brotherhoods had reduced holy communion to mere ritual and social club. He argues that the outward elements of bread and wine matter only insofar as they awaken genuine faith and union with Christ and all saints. This is Luther at his most radical: not merely disputing church practices, but redefining what it means to share in sacred community. The text pulses with his conviction that Christianity had been hollowed out by corruption, and that true fellowship demands spiritual communion rather than mere membership. Reading these pages, one encounters the mind thatplit the Western church in two wrestling directly with what it means to eat Christ's body and drink his blood. For anyone seeking to understand the intellectual origins of the Protestant Reformation, or the theological foundations of modern Christianity, this volume offers front-row access to a revolution in thought.