Free (DRM-free PDF) Martin Luther om verdslig øvrighed [Danish & German Text w/Notes]

[ATDrake]

Martin Luther: Om verdslig øvrighed by Protestant Reformation kickstarter Martin Luther (Wikipedia) is an academic bilingual annotated Danish-language version with original facing-page German of his assorted writings about secular authority (apparently dealing with the relationship between Christianity and politics, according to Google Translate of the blurb), translated by Svend Anderson, a professor of the School of Culture and Society's Theology department at Aarhus University in Denmark, with an additional (Danish) introduction by Thorkild C. Lyby, who seems to be some sort of occasional guest lecturer there, free courtesy of Aarhus University Press.

This was their Danish-language free e-book selection of the month of September, and should still be available for the rest of the day. (In case you were wondering, you didn't miss any over the past few months since the last one, since apparently the program shuts down over the summer holidays.)

In addition to the actual text translation, apparently there are a couple of explanatory philosophical/historical backgrounder essays included to provide greater context.

Currently free, probably just until whoever's in charge of the program wakes up tomorrow and rotates it directly @ the university press' website (DRM-free PDF available worldwide).

Beskrivning på dansk
Om verdslig øvrighed er Martin Luthers vigtigste skrift om forholdet mellem kristendom og politik. Her fremstiller han sin berømte sondring mellem de to regimenter, det åndelige og det verdslige. Dermed lægger han op til en klar opdeling mellem kirke og stat.

Toregimentelæren betyder dog ikke en fuldstændig adskillelse af religion og politik for Luther. Tværtimod har den kristne i sin tro et særligt grundlag for at involvere sig i det politiske, fordi den kristnes virke er præget af næstekærlighed og dermed er orienteret mod det menneskelige fællesskab. Luthers opfattelse er, at politik ikke kan bruges til at gøre mennesker kristne med, men kristne mennesker bruger politik til at gavne andre.

Bogen rummer foruden Luthers tyske tekst og den nye danske oversættelse også en historisk introduktion og en indføring i selve tankegangen, og den giver således et godt grundlag for at forstå den aktuelle diskussion om forholdet mellem religion og politik i et land med luthersk tradition.