Contemporaries who gathered around Luther in the family circle at the Black Monastery were fascinated by the power of his candid yet subtle speech. Soon, they began to write down the words of the Reformer: his own life journey, experiences of God and encounters with the devil, conflicts with the Pope, fanatics, and peasants, biblical interpretation, economics, life lessons, and even the last things—these were Luther's themes. Luther himself had a pessimistic outlook, predicting that after his death, only the shell would remain, yet his table talks continue to lead to the heart of his theology and personality to this day. Christian Lehnert has made a concentrated selection from the multitude of table talks and has elucidated them with notes and an afterword. Michael Triegel complements Luther's words with twelve images created specifically for this book.