It's the Maxwell Institute podcast. I'm Blair Hodges. What was Martin Luther trying to accomplish

when he nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door? Would you believe he didn't intend to

start a new religious movement at all? This October marks the 500th anniversary of an iconic act

that inspired as many people as it angered.

Down the centuries, Luther's been lauded by some, lambasted by others.

Was he an amazing hero or archeretic?

Or perhaps something different altogether?

Craig Harleen is a scholar of the Reformation and a professor of history at Brigham Young University.

His latest book peels back the layers of history,

taking us directly into the friar's musty study. The book is called A World Ablaze,

The Rise of Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation from Oxford University Press.

This episode is part of a special series of interviews with scholars who will be speaking at our

upcoming conference,

the Living Reformation 500 years of Martin Luther. You can mark your calendars for September 15th,

when Harleen and seven other scholars will be here in Provo, Utah, talking about 500 years of Reformation History. For more details, you can visit MI.bYU.edu slash Luther 500. That's Luther 500.

And before we start, I also want to give a special shout out to my friend and number one fan of the Maxwell Institute podcast, Rod Olson.

Love you, buddy. You know why. And to the rest of you, you can send questions or comments about this and other episodes to MI Podcast at BYU.edu.

And as always, I invite you to let us know what you think of the show by rating it in iTunes.

And now it's Craig Harleen on the book A World Ablaze, the Rise of Martin Luther and the

Birth of the Reformation. The book's an incredible drama, one of the best things I've read in a long

time. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Craig Harleen joins us today

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