Table-Talk
by Martin Luther · Tischreden
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- recorded 1531-1544; published 1566
- Era
- Renaissance
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- German
- Length
- Medium · 300 pp120 to 300 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendLuther's Works, Volume 54: Table TalkFortress PressTheodore Tappert's selection, arranged by date, is the readable standard in English.
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Not a book Luther wrote but one his students made. From 1531 the young men boarding in his house at Wittenberg took notes on what he said over supper, and the collections were gathered and printed after his death. The result is thousands of short entries, in a mixture of German and Latin, on scripture and predestination, on the papacy and the Turks, on music, marriage, his own melancholy and bowels, his enemies and his children. It is loose, funny, coarse and unguarded, and it is the closest thing we have to hearing him talk.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Table-Talk are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
