Newswise — MILWAUKEE _ This year is the 500th anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther’s famous “95 Theses,” considered by many to be the event that triggered the Reformation. Merry Wiesner-Hanks, UW-Milwaukee distinguished professor of history, has written extensively about Luther, the Reformation and modern Europe, and has translated a number of writings by Luther and accounts of Luther by his contemporaries.

Wiesner-Hanks is an internationally recognized scholar on Luther and early modern Europe, especially on issues of gender and the Protestant and Catholic Reformations. She recently appeared in the Luther documentary "Luther: An Idea that Changed the World," shown on PBS last month.

Among her many publications isLuther on Women: A Sourcebook,” a collection of Luther’s writings selected and translated by Wiesner-Hanks and Susan Karant-Nunn, a professor of history at the University of Arizona. The collection includes a number of the so-called “Table Talks,” notes by friends and students on informal discussions with Luther at his dinner table, which was a popular gathering spot for students and intellectuals.

“You can’t talk about the Reformation without talking about gender,” Wiesner-Hanks says.

Luther had a complex view of women, Wiesner-Hanks points out. He was opposed to a celibate clergy, maintaining that sex was natural. Yet, he viewed original sin as largely sexual in character. He was as chauvinistic as most men of his era, yet had a loving relationship with his wife, Katharina von Bora, a former nun of noble birth.

“I ended up having a more positive view of Luther than I expected,” Wiesner-Hanks says of her examination of his home life and views of women.

Wiesner-Hanks points out that Luther’s moment was smiled upon by fortune: He lived in a region that was not directly controlled by a king, and was protected by the Elector of Saxony, whose support was needed by the Holy Roman Emperor.

Another fortunate circumstance was the recent development of the printing press, which allowed Luther’s writings to be broadly disseminated.

Consequently, she says, Lutheranism spread with astonishing speed: Within 10 years it was adopted in Scandinavia and a number of German principalities and cities.

Wiesner-Hanks is being honored at the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference this month, along with frequent collaborator Karant-Nunn.