In dem Anfang war das Wort

Albrecht Beutel analyzes a text which is highly important for the understanding of Luther's concept of language: his sermon on the prologue to the Gospel of John in the 'Wartburgpostille' (1522). This sermon is made accessible to the interpretation by a thorough analysis of the text with due regard to the exegetical tradition. Parallel to this textual commentary, the systematic structure of Luther's concept of language, which pervades the whole of his theological thinking, is elaborated. In this way, a main field of Luther-research is comprehensively structured and thus made accessible to further detailed studies.