Understanding Martin Luther’s Demonological Rhetoric in His Treatise against the Heavenly Prophets (1525): How What Luther Speaks is Essential to What Luther Says

"Whereas Luther’s violent rhetoric has long been dismissed by a multitude of scholars as a merely accidental quality expressive of the late-medieval political environment in which Luther engaged, this exciting argument persuades the reader step by careful step that Luther’s rhetoric is inextricably bound up with the inner, substantial core of his argument on virtually all questions of theological significance. By virtue of his extensive and discerning re-thinking of the relevance of Luther’s rhetoric to the interpretation of the subtle contours of his theology, Harold Ristau has made a highly constructive contribution to Luther scholarship, one well deserving of correspondingly careful study and attention." - Dr. Torrance Kirby, McGill University

“Harold Ristau achieves a stunning feat. With a post-modern concern for the performative, constituative function of the spoken word, he manages to explain and to some extent, even commend this polemical text . . .” – Dr. John W. Kleinig, Australian Lutheran College