Theology

In the spring of 1509, Luther, settled in Wittenberg and beginning his career as a professor of theology and Bible, wrote a letter to Johann Braun, a priest at Eisenach whom he greatly admired. In the letter, Luther expresses his goal for his teaching and writing, noting that fundementally he wanted to pursue a theology "that would penetrate to the meat of the nut, to the very core of the wheat grain, to the marrow of the bone." It would be some time before Luther would arrive there, yet his unique methodology given his historical context clearly evidences itself in these words. Not content with his colleagues' approach, which largely consisted of rehearsing the tradition's teaching in an encyclopedic fashion, Luther longed to go deeper, to get to the heart of the matter, to get at the meat of the nut. This radical starting point led to a radical way of thinking that quickly distinguished Luther from his peers. Stephen J. Nichols, Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought, p.70