ABSTRACT
In the present chapter, we shall consider Luther’s increasing engagement with German society and its problems in the period following the Diet of Worms in 1521. We shall review the aftermath of the Diet, focusing on Luther’s voluntary detention between May 1521 and March 1522 in the Wartburg Castle, where he continued an extensive course of writing and completed a translation of the New Testament into German. We shall go on to consider the way he responded to the radicalisation, in Wittenberg, of his own proposed religious reforms. After that, we shall review Luther’s unfolding involvement in politics, including a milestone in the evolution of his political thought, his work ‘On Secular Authority’ (1523). This treatment will be followed by a study of Luther’s attitude to the Jewish people in the work ‘That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew’ (1523).
