A Lutheran Plague: Murdering to Die in the Eighteenth Century Murdering to Die in the Eighteenth Century

Suicide murders - i.e., killings in order to be executed - were alarmingly frequent in eighteenth-century Lutheran Europe. The book traces the murderers motives - an investigation that leads to the Pietist care for death convicts, into central elements of Lutheran soteriology and to the idea of capital punishment as being divinely ordained. At draebe nogen alene for at blive henrettet!. Sadanne mord var alarmerende hyppige i 1700-tallets lutherske Europa. Bogen eftersporer mordernes motiver - en undersogelse der forer til den pietistiske omsorg for dodsdomte, til centrale dele af den lutherske frelseforstaelse og til forestillingen om, at dodsstraffene var direkte beordrede af Gud.