In Cicero in Heaven: The Roman Rhetor and Lutherâs Reformation, Carl Springer traces the historical outlines of Ciceroâs rhetorical legacy, paying special attention to the momentous impact that he had on Luther, his colleagues at the University of Wittenberg, and later Lutherans. While the revival of interest in Ciceroâs rhetoric is more often associated with the Renaissance than with the Reformation, it would be a mistake to overlook the important role that Luther and other reformers played in securing Ciceroâs place in the curricula of schools in modern Europe (and America). Lutherâs attitude towards Cicero was complex, and the final chapter of the book discusses negative reactions to Cicero in the Reformation and the centuries that followed.
Carl P.E. Springer, Ph.D. (1984, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is SunTrust Chair of Excellence in the Humanities at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga. He has written extensively on the relationship between Martin Luther and the Classics, including Lutherâs Aesop (Kirksville, 2011).
âFinely tuned and sensitively presented insights like those in the authorâs treatment of rhetorical elements in church music appear throughout the book. Its elegant prose is eminently readable; the wide variety of tidbits of information offered is pleasantly surprising as well as entertaining. As far as Luther is concerned, the book also dazzles with a copious selection of quotations which will be useful for the future researcher. The educated public as well as the specialist reader will find enlightenment and entertainment in this book.â
Johann Ramminger, in: Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2018.07.03.
âlearned and engagingâ
Neal Leroux, University of Minnesota. In: Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Summer 2019), pp. 231-233.
Preface Prolegomena List of Abbreviations
1 Cicero and Christian Latin Eloquence
â1âNon Hominis Nomen Sed Eloquentiae
â2ââSpoiling The Egyptiansâ
â3âRenaissance Humanism
â4âReformation Latin
2 âThe Real German Ciceroâ
â1ââI Love Ciceroâ
â2âOptimus Philosophus
â3âParrhesiastics
3 Cicero and Wittenberg Education
â1âHumanist Educationand Cicero
â2âLutherâs Latin House of Learning
â3âPraeceptor Germaniae
4 âCicero Refused to Dieâ
â1âJohann Sturm and The Ratio Studiorum
â2âThe Teacher of Modern Europe
â3âBach, the Latin Teacher
â4âCicero, Illinois
5 Lutheranism and anti-Ciceronianism
â1âThe Vernacular Reformation
â2ââOne word of Paulâs likely has three ciceronian orations in itâ
â3âAnti-Ciceronianism, Flacius, and Bengel
â4âCicero in Hell
â5âCicero Americanus and the American Adam
Epilogue Works Cited
Classicists, church historians, theologians, intellectual and cultural historians, historians of education and rhetoric, as well as educated laypersons interested in the relationship between Christianity and the Classics in general.