Deimos
Banned
Well to be fair, the original title of that book is "de servo arbitrio" although the English title quite accurately foregoes the conclusion of Luther's views. Another factor why Lutheranism could become so distinct lies in the nature of Luther's work. It remained unsystematic and allowed for those following him to pick and choose to a greater degree. For example, Luther claims that not only Jesus but God Himself died on the cross. Early critcs of Luther noted this as approaching the heretical teachings of miaphysitism and later Lutherans no longer emphasised that particular aspect due to its problematic nature.It is interesting that Lutheranism really has become so much different than Calvinism, as Luther probably wrote more on the subject of Monergism than Calvin (heck, he wrote a book countering Erasamus' views on freedom of the will called Bondage of the Will.) [...]
So really, the differences between most Christianity on "Calvinist" doctrines is really quite negligible, other than the issue of limited/unlimited atonement, which is a real battleground among the two. [...]
Speaking as an actual "Calvinist", I must politely disagree on this. Apart from the scope of atonement, there is also a marked difference in how it actually affect humans. For Luther, the crucifixion made men into hybrid beings who were both in possession of a saved soul and a sinful body and therefore simultaneously saved and condemned. He believed to have found he same sarx - pneuma dichotomy in the Pauline epistles and also based his views on the Old Testament on that.
In Calvinist tradition atonement does not make men any less sinful and does not really transform them. Atonement is more comparable to Christ giving the elected amnesty in regards to God's rightful damnation of them. Calvinism also usually holds the Old Testament in higher esteem than Lutheranism does.
If there can be a distinction between different traditions of the Reformation period, then it would be safe to say that Lutheranism is very focused on Christ and salvation. Calvin obviously built on that but it can be argued that his focus was more on God (indeed, la gloire de dieu is a one of the most distinct and repeated phrases of Calvin's writings).