Martin Luther’s greatest book, The Bondage of the Will, was probably published on 17 January 1525, 500 years ago (there are claims to a few weeks earlier). He was 42 years of age possessing his full powers, energy, awareness of the errors of Roman sacerdotalism, grasping the all-sufficient work of Christ, and full of love for Katharina, whom he was to marry later that year.
Eight years earlier he had nailed the 95 Theses to the door of Castle Church, Wittenburg, which event is considered the starting gun of the Reformation. During the years in between, he had been translating the New Testament into German, a version that became the definitive translation in the German language.
Then in 1524, Erasmus, a sort of humanist professor, brought out a book proclaiming the free will of man. Luther answered it in this book, which he entitled literally ‘On Un-Free Will’. There are today 20 different publications of it for sale on Amazon.
