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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Luther's Reformation Gang

The Essay: Luther's Reformation Gang: Episode 1: Martin Luther

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Luther's Reformation Gang

Episode 1

Episode 1: Martin Luther

Martin Luther

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Lyndal Roper profiles the father of the Reformation, Martin Luther.

Prof Lyndal Roper profiles the brilliant and flawed father of the Reformation, Martin Luther. A complex character who made enemies easily, Luther was courageous and revolutionary.

Martin Luther is a larger than life figure, a difficult hero who escapes any pigeon-holes you might try to stuff him into. Over the last five hundred years he has been made into a nationalist hero, the founder of the German language, the original pater familias of the pious parsonage, the man who ushered in the modern era. 

He was a complex character, an angry anti-Semite who made enemies easily; he was also brilliant, courageous, and revolutionary. In the first of five essays this week which look at the most influential figures who brought about the Reformation, Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oxford University, profiles the man who has caused her so much fascination and delight and frustration.

Producer: Rosie Dawson

Part of Radio 3's Breaking Free series of programmes exploring Martin Luther's Revolution.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Discussions about Martin Luther and other people who brought about the Reformation

Series of discussions about Martin Luther and other influential people who brought about the Reformation

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