CO-SPONSORSHIP: Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions Unit and Religion in Europe Unit

5. The German Peasants’ War: 500 Years Later

500 years later, new historical and theological perspectives on the legacy of the German Peasants’ War of 1524-25 are needed. Scholars have begun such important work on a range of subjects and figures (E.g., Andrew Drummond’s recent The Dreadful History and Judgement of God on Thomas Müntzer, Verso 2024, and Lyndal Roper’s important Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War, Basic Books 2025). Alongside these, Martin Luther’s own complicated legacy in the historical moment—often signified by his treatise “On the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants—is ever being evaluated anew.  Luther’s own legacy often signals a complicated Luther on forms of resistance, rebellion and reformation-a connection to violence, nonviolence, mysticism, class and social order. The MLGLT Unit, for a potential co-sponsorship with the Religion in Europe Unit, calls for paper proposals that re-engage, interrogate and reimagine the historical and theological legacies of the Peasants’ War, Luther’s theological responses, and their contemporary legacies.