ABSTRACT
Provides a description of Western understandings of the theological and political explanations for the rise and successes of the Ottoman Empire. Describes how the perceived Ottoman threat became entangled in the controversies in Germany surrounding the Protestant Reformation.
This chapter focuses on Martin Luther’s unique and important contributions to an understanding of the causes of the Ottoman advance. While Luther begins (and maintains this theme throughout his life) with the commonplace that the Turks are the “rod of God” to drive Christians to repentance, he soon comes to interpret the Turks primarily in an eschatological framework. I argue that both Luther’s identification of the Turks with Gog/Magog and his apocalyptic immediacy stand out sharply from medieval and contemporary Roman Catholic interpretations. Luther rejected any hope of ultimate victory within history by means of a savior-emperor or angel pope, but anticipated that the Turks would be destroyed by God himself at the soon-coming Battle of Armageddon. Luther's views were taken up by many Protestants (although not all, e.g. Calvin) and were influential as late as the end of the seventeenth century and as far afield as Jonathan Edwards in British America.
