McNair publishes article on Martin Luther

     Dr. Bruce McNair, associate professor of history at Campbell University, has published an article on German theologian, Martin Luther. McNair’s article, titled “Martin Luther and the Pastoral Theology of the Lord’s Prayer,” has been published in the Reformation edition of the scholarly journal, “Logia: A Journal of Lutheran Theology.”
     For his research, McNair studied Luther’s writing and sermons on the Lord’s Prayer between 1517 and 1535, the crucial years of Luther’s development of Protestant theology. The article examines how Luther’s explanations of the Lord’s Prayer changed over time and how they were connected to historical events, especially Luther’s work on translating the Bible into German in the 1520s. For example, after struggling to translate the phrase “daily bread” into German, Luther began to emphasize our need for physical daily bread instead of sacramental bread. In addition, Luther’s sermons and writing show his growing concern over both Catholic and Protestant opponents and false doctrine. He also saw in the Lord’s Prayer significant theological principles such as justification by faith alone, the alien and proper work of God, the corruption of the will and the hidden quality of God.
     A graduate of Purdue University, Dr. Bruce McNair received a bachelor’s degree in European and American history in 1984. He went on to earn a master’s of European and American history and a Ph.D. in Renaissance history from Duke University.
     McNair currently teaches courses on Western Civilization, Early Modern Europe and Modern Europe at Campbell. His current research interests include the immortality of the human soul as understood during the Renaissance and Reformation and how clergy and laypeople incorporate or reject Medieval philosophical and theological traditions. Other interests include the Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation understanding of divine illumination and the history of biblical interpretation.
     McNair’s has published articles in the “Review and Expositor, “Renaissance Quarterly,” and “Rinascimento,” among others. He is the recipient of the Duke University Medieval and Renaissance Studies Scholarship and the Folger Shakespeare and Renaissance Library Seminar Grant. He holds memberships in the Renaissance Society of America and the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the Pi Gamma Mu Social Sciences Honor Society and the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society.