MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewMetaxas’ relentless hyping of the world-shaking significance of Luther and of each and every aspect of his Reformation is often closer to sermonizing than to the dispassionate tone one would expect from a historian. As a result, the book’s two components should be evaluated individually … Since this is a book aimed at a general audience, its hyperbole and hagiographic bent are understandable, at least to some extent. Complexity, ambiguity and paradox may be sweet nectar for historians, but not necessarily for a broad public that tends to prefer grand generalizations, sound bites and contemporary categories into which to shoehorn historical figures … In brief, of the two distinct but inseparable strands that constitute this book, one is instructive and engaging, the other highly subjective and distracting. The contrast between the two is perplexing but, ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter.
