Saint of the Republic

Saint of the Republic explores the reception of Martin Luther in American history and culture from the colonial period to the present. As the first Protestant, Luther is among the most significant religious figures in the history of the world. After the American Revolution, Luther came to embody the ideals of the United States, especially individual rights, religious liberty, and freedom of conscience. Identifying the reformer with these civic virtues meant that many who would find the particulars of Luther's theology distasteful-including American Jews, freethinkers, and atheists-could nonetheless praise him as a proto-American, his bold stand for freedom against the perceived tyranny of the Roman Church anticipating America's divine role in the expansion of liberty. Advocates for temperance, abolitionism, woman's rights, white supremacy, nativism, racial justice, gay rights, as well as partisans for every political party could all look to Luther as an inspiration. Critics of Luther challenged this interpretation of the reformer by drawing attention to un-American elements of his life, including his anti-Semitism, misogyny, political quietism, and violence toward opponents. Nevertheless, the American Luther myth has endured through the present.