Lutheranism
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50 free Lutheranism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Lutheranism began with a university professor's protest in 1517 and grew into a family of churches with tens of millions of members around the world. Along the way it produced a much-loved catechism, a shelf of confessional writings, a rich tradition of hymns and church music, and a fair amount of gentle humor about potlucks and coffee. This quiz covers the ground a confirmation class or a church trivia night would expect: Martin Luther's life and the events of the Reformation, the Small Catechism and its chief parts, the Lutheran Confessions and the people who wrote them, Luther's Bible translation, the sacraments and central teachings, and the story of Lutheran church bodies in America, including the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). A handful of did-you-know questions cover customs, music and popular culture with Lutheran roots. It is written for confirmation students and their teachers, youth groups, adult Bible classes and anyone curious about the tradition. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the quiz works as a review sheet as well as a game.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Reformation Day, marking Luther's Ninety-five Theses of 1517, shares its date with which popular holiday?
Halloween
Halloween and Reformation Day both fall on 31 October. Some historians argue Luther picked All Hallows' Eve on purpose to catch the attention of ordinary people, though that has never been proven.
Q 02By his own account, what frightening event on a ride in 1505 made Martin Luther vow to become a monk?
A thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, with a lightning bolt striking close by, left Luther so terrified of death that he cried out his vow. He sold his books and entered an Erfurt monastery fifteen days later.
Q 03Under which first name was Martin Luther King Jr. born, before his father renamed them both in 1934?
Michael
Born Michael King, he was five when his father, an Atlanta pastor, came home from a church congress in Berlin and renamed them both after the German reformer.
Q 04Which carol, long printed as "Luther's Cradle Song", was wrongly credited to Martin Luther?
Away in a Manger
Away in a Manger surfaced in American periodicals in the 1880s, billed as a lullaby Luther composed for his own children and still sung by German mothers.
Q 05Which German toy brand made a Martin Luther figure whose first edition of 34,000 sold out in just three days?
Playmobil
Playmobil's little Martin Luther went on to become the company's fastest-selling figurine.
Q 06In a famous legend, what did Martin Luther throw at the Devil for distracting him in a castle hideout?
An inkwell
An inkwell is the missile in the legend, set in the castle where Luther turned the New Testament from Greek into German in under three months.
Q 07Which former nun, smuggled out of her convent in a herring merchant's wagon, married Martin Luther in 1525?
Katharina von Bora
Katharina von Bora escaped in 1523 with other nuns, hidden among the fish barrels. As Luther's wife she bred cattle and ran a brewery to feed the family and their student boarders.
Q 08Which holiday decoration, a long-standing custom among German Lutherans, is Luther said to have first lit with candles?
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree, long a custom in German Lutheran homes, is tied to Luther by a legend that he first set candles on an evergreen. The Vatican did not put one up until 1982.
Q 09Which fictional Minnesota town did Garrison Keillor fill with Norwegian Lutherans on A Prairie Home Companion?
Lake Wobegon
Lake Wobegon splits neatly in two: descendants of Norwegian and Swedish immigrants attend Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, while the German families are Catholic.
Q 10Which composer became Thomaskantor in Leipzig in 1723, directing music for the city's Lutheran churches?
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach got the post only after Georg Philipp Telemann and another composer turned it down. In his second year he wrote a cycle of cantatas, each built on one Lutheran hymn.
Q 11Martin Luther taught theology in which German town, where he reputedly nailed his Ninety-five Theses to a church door?
Wittenberg
Wittenberg kept Luther as a professor from 1512 for the rest of his career. The original wooden door burned during the Seven Years' War, and bronze doors inscribed with his theses now hang in its place.
Q 12Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses protested the sale of what, preached across Germany by the friar Johann Tetzel?
Indulgences
Indulgences were sold as relief from punishment for sin. Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: once the coin rang in the coffer, the soul sprang from purgatory.
Q 13In which castle near Eisenach did Martin Luther hide for ten months from 1521, disguised as a knight?
Wartburg
Q 21Which document, presented to the emperor by German princes in 1530, became Lutheranism's chief doctrinal statement?
Augsburg Confession
The Augsburg Confession was written in both German and Latin and presented by rulers and free cities rather than by theologians. Its Latin name gives it the nickname the Augustana.
Q 22Which colleague of Martin Luther, a professor of Greek, was the main author of the Lutheran statement of faith of 1530?
Philip Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon did most of the drafting, and Luther made no secret that he found the tone too gentle. The surname is a Greek rendering of his family name Schwartzerdt, black earth.
Q 23Which 1580 volume gathers Luther's catechisms and other Lutheran doctrinal standards into one collection?
Wartburg Castle sheltered Luther from May 1521 to March 1522 under the alias Junker Jörg. Masked horsemen posing as highway robbers had seized him on his own prince's orders.
Q 14Martin Luther refused to recant his writings before the emperor at an imperial diet held in 1521 in which German city?
Worms
Worms hosted the hearing in April 1521, where Luther said it was neither safe nor right to go against conscience. The edict that followed branded him a notorious heretic.
Q 15Which flower sits at the center of Martin Luther's personal seal, now a widely recognized symbol of Lutheranism?
A rose
A rose, white to show that faith gives joy, comfort and peace, surrounds the heart of the seal. It was designed for Luther in 1530 at the request of a Saxon prince.
Q 16Which hymn by Martin Luther, based on Psalm 46, has been called the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation"?
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God dates from around 1529, with words and melody both by Luther. The poet Heinrich Heine called it the Marseillaise of the Reformation.
Q 17Which seasonal countdown did Lutheran pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern build from a cartwheel and candles in 1839?
Advent wreath
The Advent wreath began as an old cartwheel set with 24 small candles and four large ones, made for impatient children at Wichern's Hamburg mission school. Churches later shrank it to four or five candles.
Q 18Which canned soup is nicknamed "Lutheran binder" for its place in the hotdish recipes of Midwestern church cookbooks?
Cream of mushroom
Cream of mushroom soup holds together hotdish, the one-pan casserole of starch, meat and vegetables that turns up at Minnesota family reunions and church suppers.
Q 19Besides Holy Communion, which rite does Luther's Small Catechism call a sacrament?
Baptism
Baptism and Holy Communion are the two sacraments Luther names at the start of his Large Catechism. Confirmation, ordination and matrimony are kept as rites rather than sacraments.
Q 20Which German Lutheran pastor, author of The Cost of Discipleship, was hanged by the Nazis in April 1945?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hanged at Flossenbürg concentration camp on 9 April 1945, as the Nazi regime collapsed. He had been a founding member of the Confessing Church.
Book of Concord
The Book of Concord was published in Dresden on 25 June 1580, fifty years to the day after Lutheran princes laid their beliefs before the emperor. It holds ten documents.
Q 24Which short question is repeated throughout Luther's Small Catechism, right before each of its explanations?
What does this mean?
Luther's refrain "What does this mean?" turns each line into a lesson. After the opening words of the Lord's Prayer, the answer is that believers may ask as dear children ask their dear father.
Q 25Which ancient statement of faith does Luther's Small Catechism split into creation, redemption and sanctification?
Apostles' Creed
The Apostles' Creed is the catechism's second chief part. Luther's note on its third section says nobody can come to faith by their own reason or strength, only by the Holy Spirit's call.
Q 26Which chief part opens Luther's Small Catechism, its explanations beginning "We should fear and love God"?
The Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments open the catechism, and Luther's preface tells preachers to dwell on whichever one their own people neglect most, such as the ban on stealing among merchants.
Q 27Which doctrine, Article IV of Lutheranism's 1530 statement of faith, is said to be where the church stands or falls?
Justification
Justification by faith mattered so much to Luther that he added the word alone to Romans 3:28 in his German Bible, a word the Greek text does not have.
Q 28Luther said that mastering the distinction between which two things makes someone a true doctor of Holy Scripture?
Law and Gospel
Law and Gospel, command and promise, must be kept apart with great diligence, the Lutheran standards of 1580 insist. A 19th-century Missouri Synod president gave 39 evening lectures on the skill.
Q 29Which paired description did Martin Luther say fits every Christian at the same time, throughout this life?
Saint and sinner
Saint and sinner at the same time is how Lutherans describe a Christian: holy in God's eyes for Christ's sake, yet still sinning until death. The Latin tag is simul justus et peccator.
Q 30Which pope, a son of Lorenzo de' Medici, excommunicated Martin Luther in January 1521?
Leo X
Leo X had warned Luther in 1520 with the bull Exsurge Domine, which condemned forty-one propositions drawn from his teachings. The final break came on 3 January 1521.