Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk

Timed to the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, DeRusha (50 Women Every Christian Should Know) paints a portrait of Katharina von Bora and Martin Luther’s marriage that is easily readable but lacks both depth and quality of research. DeRusha adopts a conversational style, interleaving her chapters with imaginative reconstructions of historical events. She proceeds in a chronological fashion, talking alternately about von Bora and Luther until their marriage; after that point, she discusses the couple and their children as a family unit. The author admits in her preface that she relied mostly on English-language sources, a particularly problematic approach given that von Bora’s life is not very well documented in any language, particularly in English. DeRusha refers freely and frequently to other historians but makes little attempt to bring their work together in a synthetic or analytic fashion. DeRusha’s book would be best read alongside more comprehensive works. (Jan.)