Martin Luther produced a partial edition first in 1516. At that time Luther thought the work might have been written by
Johannes Tauler. In 1518, he produced a more complete edition on the basis of a new manuscript that had come to his attention. It was Luther who gave the treatise its modern name; in the manuscripts it is known as
Der Franckforter (
The Frankfurter). Luther found much that was congenial to him in this
late medieval text.
Theologia Germanica proposes that
God and man can be wholly united by following a path of perfection, as exemplified by the life of
Christ, renouncing
sin and
selfishness, ultimately allowing God’s will to replace human will. Luther wrote,
Aldous Huxley assessed Luther’s view of
Theologia Germanica by describing it as “that book which Luther professed to love so much, and from which, if we may judge from his career, he learned so singularly little.” Another goal of Luther in the publication was supporting his thesis that the
German language was just as well-suited for expressing
theological ideas as the
Hebrew,
Greek, and
Latin languages. The treatise itself does not discuss or reflect on the fact that it is written in German.
Theologia Germanica gained immense cachet in the
Radical Reformation, and in later
Lutheran and
Pietist traditions. In 1528,
Ludwig Haetzer republished
Theologia Germanica with interpretive "Propositions" by the Radical Reformer
Hans Denck. Towards the end of his life (1541–42), the radical
Sebastian Franck produced a Latin paraphrase of the Haetzer version.
Sebastian Castellio published Latin (1557) and French (1558) translations, after his break with
John Calvin over the execution of
Michael Servetus (1553). Just over a decade later,
Valentin Weigel studied the work in his
Short Account and Introduction to the German Theology (1571). The mystic
Johann Arndt reedited an earlier printing based on Luther in 1597; this version was endorsed by
Philipp Jakob Spener and had over sixty later printings. In total, about two hundred editions were published between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. ==Opposing views==