LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

FRANCISCO: POLEMICAL WORKS AGAINST ISLAM, 1529-43 45
emphases between Catholic and Protestant writers. 21 Catholics encouraged,
and mandated in some cases, various spiritual and liturgical disciplines with
hopes to gain God’s favour for both the protection and propagation of
Christendom as well as the successes of the military in warding off and
capturing the enemy. Lutherans also urged spiritual responses, but as a
means to a different end. They exhorted all Christians to prayer and
repentance for the mere survival of Christendom. Following Luther’s lead in
his Army Sermon against the Turk, the Habsburg-Ottoman war was viewed
as an eschatological struggle between the true church—submitted to Christ
and the scriptures—and the false church—led by delusions introduced by
Satan (Turks, Papists, Anabaptists, etc). 22 The Turks, although they were
powerful, could only be externally successful. They could conquer Europe,
as Scripture seemed to suggest, and even enslave (or kill) its Christian
peoples, but they could not take individual Christian souls. Therefore, the
“best weapon”, read an anonymous protestant broadsheet from 1531, is for
Christians to “hope in God alone”, “trust in his word”, and “build entirely
upon Christ, who has overcome the world. Though him [Christians] would
be victorious and in the end obtain salvation.” 23
On account of the apocalyptic motifs thought to be behind current events,
Protestants were generally pessimistic about the near future. The decline of
Turkish power seemed a long way off. Thus, conquest seemed imminent.
What this meant at the basic pastoral level was that Islam would eventually
make its way into Europe and seduce its Christians into apostasy. Luther
wrote,
Now that we have the Turk and his religion in our vicinity we must warn our
people in case that they are moved by the splendour of their religion and the
appearances of their customs—or offended by the simplicity of our faith and
deficiencies in our customs—and they reject their Christ and follow
Muhammad …. There is danger that many of us will become Muslims. 24
According to Luther’s estimation it was imperative that Christians learn
about Islam so that they could respond to Muslims should the occasion arise.
21 See Miller, “Holy War”, 253-59.
22 Eine Heerpredigt widder den Türcken is located in WA 30.2:160-97. Luther set the
Turkish war in terms of Daniel’s vision of four world empires (esp. chapter 7). Following this
publication the Lutherans began consistently identifying the Turks (alongside the papacy) as
enemies of Christ and the embodiment of prophetic figures signifying the beginning of the
apocalypse. See Kenneth Setton, “Lutheranism and the Turkish Peril”, Balkan Studies 3
(1962), 152-54; Bohnstedt, “The Infidel Scourge”, 12.
23 Ein spruch wie man dem Türcken macht widerstehen auch wie sich die Christen solcher
nott sollen halten (n.p., 1531).
24 Luther, Libellus de ritu et moribus turcorum (Wittenberg: Lufft, 1530), 3-4. Also in WA
30.2:207. I’ve translated “Turci” here as “Muslim” for in this case the terms are synonymous.