The Night Martin Luther Stopped Trembling

As a young Augustinian monk in Erfurt, Martin Luther lived in daily terror of God. He fasted until his body ached, confessed sins for hours at a stretch, and once told his confessor Johann von Staupitz that he could not love a God who wielded nothing but thunderbolts. Luther knew the God of Sinai — the smoking mountain, the trembling earth, the voice so dreadful that even Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."…