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Professor Coe, Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska, has written a book which is close to being the first comprehensive treatment of Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Luther (19 n.3). In 1858 Jacob Ørum wrote the first book on Kierkegaard and Luther, showing how they both attacked the corrupt church of their day (21 n.23). But there was more to this connection than that. Kierkegaard famously said that Luther’s Ninety-five Theses could all be reduced to one in his day—namely, that Christianity did not exist because Christians did not care about dying to themselves and walking in Christ’s steps (Kierkegaard’s Writings, ed, Hongs, 23:39). Kierkegaard also liked Luther’s saucy lines about telling doubt to shut up, calling wayward theological innovations rubbish, and claiming that God burned down churches with lightning strikes because of the smugness of Christians (KW 17:190, 20:68, 247; Luther’s Works 26:228, 44:276, 75:321).
Coe takes up this comparison by focusing on what...