The Problems of Luther’s ‘Tower-Experience’ and its Place in his Intellectual Development

Abstract

The problem of the date and significance of Luther’s so-called ‘tower-experience’ (Turmerlebnis)—the moment of illumination at which he came to his new understanding of Romans 1:17—is one of the longstanding cruces of modern Luther-scholarship. Since the problem was first raised in its modern form by German scholars at the beginning of the present century probably no aspect of Luther’s biography has attracted so much attention or has been the subject of so much controversy: and even to-day, although the nature of the debate has changed considerably in recent years as new arguments and new solutions have been put forward, it still remains one of the central issues in all discussions of Luther’s early intellectual development, not only because it presents the irresistible fascination of an unresolved conundrum but also because in traditional historiography it has always been closely identified with the complex question of when and how Luther arrived at his reformation theology.