Transmissions of “Luther” into Lost Worlds

To explore lost and possible futures of Lutheran theology demands an expansive view of the history of Luther’s reception. The expansive view recognizes the agency of protagonists of the tradition, but also the agency of detractors, reproducing elements of Lutheran thought or practice while trying to diminish, overwhelm, or destroy their power. The expansive view requires a dialogical method, one focused on the total play of ideas in conflict, and not merely on core concepts traveling across time. I explore a dialogical approach in three unconventional examples: 1) an immigrant silver miner tried for Lutheran heresy by the Bishop of Guadalajara in sixteenth-century Mexico, 2) the clandestine philosopher Jean Baptiste de Boyer d’Argens (d. 1737), and 3) the Protestant clergyman-critic of American imperialism, Samuel Guy Inman (d. 1965).