Conclusion

Abstract

The Conclusion draws together key insights from the preceding chapters and describes the 1525 conflict between Luther and the peasants as a collision of two distinct religious worlds, based on differing epistemological foundations and finding expression in mutually incomprehensible ways. It recapitulates the peasants’ largely nonverbal, ritually based, and communal religious world and contrasts it with Luther’s interiorized and heavily verbal intellectualism. Where the peasants more typically communicated their commitments through actions, including communal organization, mobilization, and restraint from violence, Luther sought to address the events with theological conceptuality. It concludes by summarizing the preceding chapters’ analysis of what happens in the ensuing conflict, outlining the main features of this historic miscommunication and offering new insights into Luther’s personal and intellectual crisis as he faced the limits of his religious language.