Theology: Academic and Vernacular > Theology in German
![Eyn Deutsch Theologia das is Eyn edles Büchleyn, von rechtem vorstandt, was Adam vnd Christus sey, vnd wie Adam yn vns sterben, vn[d] Christ ersteen sall; Title page recto](https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/files/original/86d13a26886c72447e7f659475fda3ee.jpg)
A German Theology, That is a Noble Booklet, That Rightly Understands What Adam and Christ Are, and How Adam Should Die and Christ Should Arise in Us
Wittenberg: Rhau-Grunenberg, 1520
Burke Tower 03-B1951
Luther edited and wrote the preface to the Theologia Germanica. This anonymous 14th century mystical work enjoined union with God and self-renunciation and was a favorite of Luther’s. In addition to its theology, the fact that it was written in German energized Luther’s view that vernacular language could be a suitable medium for the transcendent. From the preface:
“...I will have every one warned who reads this little book, that he should not take offence, to his own hurt, at its bad German, or its crabbed and uncouth words. For this noble book, though it be poor and rude in words, is so much the richer and more precious in knowledge and divine wisdom…Let as many as will, read this little book, and then say whether theology is a new or an old thing among us; for this book is not new. But if they say as before, that we are but German theologians, we will not deny it. I thank God, that I have heard and found my God in the German tongue, as neither I nor they have yet found Him in the Latin, Greek, or Hebrew tongue. God grant that this book may be spread abroad, then we shall find that the German theologians are without doubt the best theologians.”