If you were to ask someone, particularly a Lutheran, to name a woman involved in the Reformation, Katharine von Bora Luther is probably going to be the woman named. While far from being the only woman involved in the Reformation, as Martin Luther’s wife, she stands out as an influential and intriguing figure. Which is why last June, I picked up the book The Mother of the Reformation: The Amazing Life and Story of Katharine Luther and intended to read it once I had some time to spare . . . Fast forward to winter, and I still hadn’t gotten around to it. So, when I was considering which book to review, it seemed like the perfect time to read this one.

The Mother of the Reformation, an English translation by Rev. Mark. E. DeGarmeaux, is a thorough biography on Katie Luther. It was originally written in German in 1906 by Ernst Kroker, who sought to separate fact from fiction where Katie was concerned. With little source material from Katie herself, Kroker compiled a great deal of information using a wide array of sources from those around Katie in order to give readers a more complete understanding of who she was and what her life was like.

I really appreciated that this biography was not just dry facts. It took the information about a woman who could have easily been reduced to being just a name or caricature of someone associated with the Reformation and Martin Luther, and revealed her to be so much more. Kroker comments that “she was a woman with strong emotions, and she knew how to love and how to hate” (269). Kroker does his best to show her to be a real person, with strengths and weaknesses, and with her own struggles that she faced throughout her life.

The author does an amazing job of piecing together Katie’s life before she married Martin Luther, while they were married, and after he had died. Through it, we get to see a woman who was strong and determined (as well as proud and stubborn) in her own right. Kroker says that she was “a woman who carried through on what she really wanted” (p.97), whether it concerned who she would marry or how she managed her household and property. This book not only gives you a good representation of the facts that can be known surrounding Katie Luther’s life, but also gives you a chance to get to know the woman behind them.

Diane Brubakken
AFLC Parish Education Administrative Assistant
Plymouth, MN

Order your copy here: Ambassador Publications Online Store