In modern Luther studies this has led the psychoanalyst and writer Erik Erikson to argue that Luther’s theological struggles were really a projection of his dispute with his father onto God.1 Thus, Luther ostensibly sought to be right with God when, in reality, he was seeking to be right with his earthly father. Evangelical Christians have tended to dismiss Erikson’s thesis as speculative and reductionist. In fact, while it is undoubtedly reductionist to make Luther’s theology merely a cipher for