Goodness that Abides? Martin Luther’s Adam, for Today

Scholars frequently note Martin Luther’s powerful imaginative capacity for entering into the world of the Bible, which was nowhere more vividly displayed than in his interpretation of “the dear Genesis.” This lecture will introduce Luther’s dramatic reading of the story of Adam and Eve, exploring the powerful connections he finds between God’s goodness, human goodness (imago Dei), and the good creation. Our universe, however, is not Luther’s cosmos. And his narration of the fall was just as dramatic as the creation. Can Luther’s readings of the lost promise of our “first parents” still be useful to theology today?

Biography

Mickey L. Mattox (PhD Duke University) is Professor of Historical Theology at Marquette University. He is associate editor of Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion: Martin Luther (Oxford University Press, 2017), and edited and translated Iohannes Oecolampadius: An Exposition of Genesis (Marquette University Press, 2013).