A Definitive Statement on Luther's View of the Canon of Sacred Scripture

There are necessary things Christians must know. Martin Luther's view of the canon of Sacred Scripture isn't on the list. Yes, Luther's view is interesting, maybe even meaningful depending on the context, but it isn't of the essence of the faith. I say it is absolutely possible for a Christian to live their entire life without ever hearing about Luther's views on the canon. Your Christian life subsists on the Gospel. It is necessary! One doesn't need any information on Luther and the canon to either embrace the Gospel or grow daily in sanctification. I've experienced this empirically: I've known good Christian people that have lived and died with no knowledge of Luther's views on canonicity. Christians before Luther lived and died without knowledge of his views, the same is true of those Christians who came after him.

The twenty-first century church seems to implicitly understand this. Pick any local church in your area, stand outside the door on a Sunday morning and ask parishioners what they think of Luther's concept of the canon of Scripture. The majority of responses will probably be, "what???" There will even be a percentage of parishioners which cannot distinguish Martin Luther from Martin Luther King. Nor have I ever heard of a Christian college or seminary offering a specific class in Martin Luther's view of the canon. A seminary has never had the caveat, "Unless you pass this specific class on Martin Luther's view of the canon, you will not graduate." This wasn't even a stipulation at Luther's own school in Wittenberg. Nor do I know of any Christian denomination that follows Luther's view on the canon. Even Lutherans do not follow Luther's view of the canon. The church implicitly understands Luther and the canon: it isn't something necessary!

In my years of delving into Luther's writings, I've concluded his view on the canon don't even seem all that necessary to him. Sure, he mentions his views in a reader friendly way in various prefaces to his German Bible. This appears to be the major source in which he explained himself. I see it as more of a simple explanation written to a layman rather than a long fleshed out theological treatise for theologians. Scan through the rest of his writings, and one will find scattered comments about this or that book of the Bible and maybe a tidbit or two on canonicity, but I've never found him dedicating an entire treatise to this issue (like he did other theological subjects). When I've looked through the writings of Luther's friends, colleagues, and fellow Reformers, I have not found extensive treatises in which they triumphantly either defend or reject Luther's view of the canon. Did they even care? I'm not sure.

Perhaps the most relevant proof that Luther's views on the canon weren't originally all that necessary comes from the testimony of his enemies. Over the years I've collected books written during Luther's lifetime by a group of people known as the Catholic controversialists. These were people that experienced Luther firsthand and wrote against him. Yes, they sometimes do mention Luther's view of the canon, but it is typically not the first thing mentioned (or even the second or third). I've yet to come across any of them making an extensive detailed case against Luther on this issue in an entire treatise. They seem to be more concerned about such things as Luther's views on papal authority, indulgences, the sacramental system, and religious orders. These were the issues that were often front and center! Contrary to this, when I first began engaging Rome's defenders in the early 2000's, it was not uncommon to find Luther's view of the canon as one of their first arguments against Protestantism. This is fascinating to me since their sixteenth century compatriots began their attack elsewhere and did not use canon arguments as their major firepower.

After dealing with Rome's defenders now for over twenty years, I think my definitive response to their Luther and the canon conundrum is... "who cares?" Luther's view is not a necessary issue. No one (I know of!) follows Luther's view of the canon and the majority of Christians have no knowledge about it.  It wasn't a central issue to Luther, his fellow reformers, or even his enemies.  As I see it, the only reason the Internet buzzes about it is because those dedicated to Roman Catholicism keep bringing it up. Ironically, it isn't Protestants primarily keeping the memory of Luther alive: it's Roman Catholics.