Invectives as a Stylistic Device in Martin Luther’s Reformation Rhetoric

Abstract The article explores Luther’s usage of invective language. In recent years of research into Church history, it has only rarely been recognized, and often been concealed, as an indispensable part of Luther’s theology. Firstly the article presents some (relevant) passages of Luther’s invective rhetoric. In a second section, perspectives on the interpretation of this form of linguistic expression are explained. The final section concludes with the appeal to a historicizing claim essential to understanding the designs of the Reformation theology of the Wittenberg reformer.