Source Material for “A Mighty Fortress”
I had intended to post several weeks ago this bibliography of the research sources I used when I wrote A Mighty Fortress (1988). In 1991 when we premiered it (after fairly aggressive editing), I created some supplemental material for congregations to have ahead of our performance for their information: namely, the list of source material, and a fact sheet of historic people and terms.
But then I misplaced my last remaining copy of the source material list. I was sad about that, since this was typed many computers ago, and I had no way of reconstructing the list. After 25 years, I have only vague memories of which books I used when doing the original research.
But in doing a deep clean of my living room after the show closed, lo and behold! I found what I had been seeking, buried on top of the piano, under some copies of music from Prisoner of Joy. So I am putting it here, in memoriam…and I need never again worry about it being lost!
SOURCE MATERIAL
Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York: Abingdon Press, 1950. (This is a fantastic biography, and was my primary source.)
Brokering, Herbert and Roland Bainton. A Pilgrimage to Luther’s Germany. Minneapolis: Winston Press, 1983. (mostly photos)
Gritsch, Eric W. Martin–God’s Court Jester. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.
Kerr, Hugh Thomson, Jr., ed. A Compend of Luther’s Theology. London: Westminster Press, 1943.
Luther, Martin. Three Treatises from the American Edition of Luther’s Works. (“To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”‘; “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church”; and “The Freedom of a Christian”.) Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976 (7th printing)
Olivier, Daniel. The Trial of Luther. Translated by John Tonkin. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1978.
Rupp, Gordon E. Luther’s Progress to the Diet of Worms. New York: Harper & Row (Harper Torchbooks), 1964.
FOR FURTHER READING
Dickens, A.G. Reformation and Society in Sixteenth Century Europe. Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1966.
Tim Dowley, ed., Eerdman’s Handbook to the History of Christianity. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1977.
Grun, Bernard, ed. The TImetables of History, a Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. New York: Simon & Schuster (Touchstone Books), 1982 edition.
Luther, Martin. The Bondage of the Will. Translated by J.I. Packer and O.R. Johnston. Old Tappan, NY: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1957.
———————. Commentary on Romans. Translated by J. Theodore Mueller. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishing, 1988 (12th printing).
———————. The Place of Trust. Translated by Jaroslav Pelikan; Martin E. Marty, ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1983.
