Luther was in no way a literalist in the sense, that he simply took the Bible and believed everything in it. Actually he had a very personal taste and strong opinion about the different parts.
Here are some Luther-quotes:
Quote:
"I am such an enemy to the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist, for it Judaizes too much."
"The history of Jonah is so monstrous that it is absolutely incredible."
"Therefore St. James’ epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it"
"About this book of the Revelation of John, I leave everyone free to hold his own opinions. I would not have anyone bound to my opinion or judgment. I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic…I can in no way detect that the Holy Spirit produced it. Moreover he seems to me to be going much too far when he commends his own book so highly-indeed, more than any of the other sacred books do, though they are much more important-and threatens that if anyone takes away anything from it, God will take away from him, etc. Again, they are supposed to be blessed who keep what is written in this book; and yet no one knows what that is, to say nothing of keeping it. This is just the same as if we did not have the book at all. And there are many far better books available for us to keep…My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me this is reason enough not to think highly of it: Christ is neither taught nor known in it. But to teach Christ, this is the thing which an apostle is bound above all else to do; as Christ says in Acts 1, ‘You shall be my witnesses.’ Therefore I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely"
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The dogmatic approach, that everything in the Bible is scientific or historic fact is a genuine American invention and in my view a defense mechanism and strategy of survival against the sceptical and materialist mood in the late 19th / early 20th century, when suddenly everything was put into question.
Unfortunately it leads into countless contradictions and worse: intolerance, war, misery.
A more serious approach of course makes a difference between God (infallible) and man-made scriptures and attempts in general.
There are countless hints in the Bible, that one must read it in a spiritual way, searching for the meaning behind the words and in the end for the abstract meaning itself.
This is far from simple, there is no simple rule of thumb: one text is a metaphor another one a clear commandment etc.
If people are now dicussing the Genesis as a materialist or scientific description, they are in danger to miss or downplay the spiritual meaning of the text.
