The 38th Annual Reformation Heritage Lectures
October 27-29, 2026
Lecturer: Volker Leppin
Horace Tracy Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology, Yale Divinity School

Leppin is the author of 20 monographs, most of them in German. His biography of Martin Luther, Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life, (Baker Academic, 2017) is also available in English. He has provided several critical text editions, e.g. William of Ockham, Dialogus. Part 2. Part 3, Tract 1, ed. with John Kilcullen, John Scott and Jan Ballweg (Oxford, 2011). In addition, he is the editor or co-editor of 67 books, and the author of more than 400 scholarly articles and chapters, altogether covering a broad range of interests from antiquity to the modern area.
Leppin’s scholarship is particularly interested in medieval and Reformation studies. He argues that the Reformation should be understood as a transformation of the medieval world rather than a stark rupture, as can be seen in his recent volume, Sola. His work also focuses on the history of spirituality, mainly in mysticism. Accordingly, among his recent books is a history of Christian mysticism from the Bible to the 20th century: Ruhen in Gott (Rest in God). His most recent book is a biography of Francis of Assisi, published by Yale University Press.
Worship Service
Signs of the End"
Lectures
"An Apocalyptic Age: Europe Between 1300 and 1600"
Oct. 28, 11 a.m.-12 p.m. | N101
"Luther's Last Battles: Pope, Peasants, Turks, and Jews"
Oct. 29, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. | N101
About the Reformation Heritage Lectures
Each year, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University sponsors the Reformation Heritage Lectures during Reformation Week. The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century was a tremendous movement of spiritual and ecclesial renewal, which called the church back to its biblical and evangelical roots. Previous lecturers include Ronald Rittgers, Mickey Mattox, Carl Trueman, Ian McFarland, Kelly Kapic, Kevin Vanhoozer, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson, John Piper and Mark Dever.
We desire to be not merely a church once and for all reformed, but a church reformed and always reforming: Ecclesia semper reformanda! We respect the warranted wisdom of the past, for only from it can we learn to be faithful shapers of the future under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Services are open to the public free of charge.