Book excerpt: Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings has become the gold standard for use in seminary and college environments. It not only offers all of Luther's most influential, noted, and important writings in the modern translations but also includes excerpts of his sermons and letters that shed light on Luther's own religious and theological development. The volume takes the reader straight to Luther the man, to his controversial Reformation insights, to his strongest convictions about God and Scripture and the life of the church, and most valuably to his theology—a still-exciting encounter with the meaning of Jesus Christ for each age.