Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/17



In connection with the preparation for the celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of Luther's birth there began in the early eighties a period of research into the life of the great reformer which continues even today. In point of thoroughness, unflagging zeal, comprehensive and scientific character, this period has outdistanced every previous effort in the same direction.

This can hardly be explained by the fact that Lutheran theology and learning possesses an inherent instinct to investigate, an instinct that may lie dormant at times, only ever to be revived to greater action. A revival of this nature generally responds either to the intensification of the Christian life or to external conditions. The first can hardly be assumed at that time, and as for the second, it is just these external conditions that we have to consider. Even the anniversary of Luther's birth and the preparation for the coming jubilee of 1917 do not fully explain it. Otherwise the research into the life of Luther would have been marked by a similar intensity during the period from 1783 to 1817. We shall hardly go amiss if we assume that there were primarily two factors, working hand in hand, which made possible this period and gave it its singular character.