# Martin Luther — The Varieties of Religious Experience character guide

> Martin Luther in The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Luther, Martin Luther, Martin

**First appearance:** 0011-lecture-viii-the-divided-self-and-the-process-of-its-unification

## Snapshot

The reformer whose agonized conscience and pessimistic cast of feeling James cites as the template for Protestantism's distinctive emotional weather.

## Who they are

Luther hovers over James's contrast between once-born souls who grow straight and natural and the sick-souled who must be born again through crisis. His struggles set the fashion of feeling that later Protestantism inherited, a decidedly pessimistic order against which Emerson and Parker stand out as exceptions. He matters because he embodies the divided self whose unification the lectures keep trying to explain.

## In the story

### [Lectures VI and VII: The Sick Soul](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/chapters/lectures-vi-and-vii-the-sick-soul)

Cited for his healthy-minded ideas on repentance, contrasting with his own struggles with sin.

### [Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/chapters/lectures-xiv-and-xv-the-value-of-saintliness)

Praised for sweeping away the notion of a debit-credit account with God.

### [Lectures XVI and XVII: Mysticism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/chapters/lectures-xvi-and-xvii-mysticism)

Recounted a moment of sudden insight upon hearing the Creed, feeling born anew.

### [Lecture XIX: Other Characteristics](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/chapters/lecture-xix-other-characteristics)

Listed among Christian saints and heresiarchs who had visions, voices, and rapt conditions.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/characters/martin_luther
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_varieties_of_religious_experience_se/characters