A Booklet of Comfort for the Sick, &: On the Christian Knight

Confronting death--as God's judgment on sin and as God's doorway to eternal life--and struggling as a "Christian Knight" against the devil, the world, and human desires: these two topics gave Johann Spangenberg, a close friend and devoted adherent of Martin Luther, the basis for one of the most popular pieces of devotional literature in the early years of the German Reformation. In this pamphlet published in the early 1540s, readers encounter an instrument designed to cultivate the piety of the Wittenberg Reformation among the common people, a piety that prepared for death (and thus for daily life!) through daily repentance, casting away sin, casting oneself upon Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection, and then sharing his love with the neighbor. Using a wealth of biblical illustrations and ideas, Spangenberg's brief treatise teaches his readers how to use Scripture and how to live enlivened by its message. Includes the German Text and English Translation of Ein new Trost Bu[e]chlin fur die Krancken vnd/Vom Christlichen Ritter by Johannes Spangenberg (1484-1550).