Luther and Women

Luther lit the match that started the fire that became the reformation. He held straight- forward positions on most doctrines. Searching through his various theological writings and sermons can discover his position towards women.
Christian theology breaks down its worldview into different doctrines, and the one of the most crucial is theological anthropology. Theological anthropology is the study of man and his relation to God and to his fellow men, and women.
When considering the human condition and all of its good and evil, Luther and Calvin drew off of the doctrine of Original sin and developed it to encompass a doctrine that the later Synod of Dort would call Total Depravity. These two doctrines not only answered the most important question of mankind’s position before God, but also the very essence of what it is to be human. Encompassed in this also the questions concerning the differences between men and women were answered.
Luther based his thoughts concerning women and men on the idea of the imago dei, which is found in Genesis 3, which was developed by later thinkers and expanded upon. Essential to the imago dei is the belief that man is created in the image of God, meaning that man was given certain faculties such that in a limited way he reflects God’s attributes. This for the reformers was foundational, and unless critics are willing to deal with this part of the Reformers thought then any critique of their supposed sexism fails. Luther believed that Adam, the head of fallen humanity, was along with his wife perfect in their original creation. In this state of bliss man and woman would have known God intimately, there would have been no malice human beings, and the intellect would not have been fallen. The fall or original disobedience of Adam and Eve ruined God’s good creation. (Pg. 117 Women and Redemption)
Luther sees a difference of role in men and women, but the image of God is the same. He says, “ …for the woman appears to be somewhat
When Adam an Eve fell God instituted specific punishments that would fit their crime adequately. Before the fall Adam and Eve would have shared the God given dominion in perfect harmony and love that had been bestowed upon them, but instead they chose to disobey God and with that comes punishment As Rosemary Radford Ruether says, “In the fallen world into which Adam and Eve were expelled, they and the whole creation have lost their former perfection. Every power given by God is now hideously deformed. Adam is punished by hard labor in a thorny earth, while Eve experiences great suffering in what was her primary expression of blessing childbearing. She now falls under the domination of her husband… even in paradise, the punishment of domination means that what was formerly an acceptable companionship of greater and lesser now becomes a burdensome servitude.” (Rutheford pg. 119) Whether or not Rutheford’s interpretation of Luther as believing that Eve was ontologically inferior is correct, it is still true that companionship was denigrated into domination.
Luther considered the domination of men over women was Eve’s punishment because of the fall. Luther says that “The rule remains with the husband, and the wife is compelled to obey him by God’s command. He rules the home, and the state, wages war, defends his possession, tills the soil, and plants. The wife, on the other hand, is like a nail driven into the wall, she sits at home…” (Luther quoted in Women and Redemption pg. 120). It also follows from this and other passages that Luther believes that men are to rule in the church also. Women are not to speak, and to remain quiet in church gatherings. (Women and Redemption pg. 121)
Luther has much to say in the household, and this is where one may assume is teachings had impact for the good. Luther in his writings on marriage and the household is rather candid in his declaration that the authority of the husband is not to be abused, but also that the place of the woman is in the home. Luther, believing that believers are new creations, thought that Christian men should treat their wives differently than the pagan. He also believes that marriage had one purpose before the fall, but two after. Before the fall marriage was for companionship, but afterwards it is for companionship, and to restrain the lustfulness of the human heart. (LW 632-633) An articulated view of marriage can be seen in much of Luther’s writings when He says, “Therefore a married man should have regard for such a sacrament, honor it as sacred, and behave properly in marital obligations, so that those things which originate in the lust of the flesh do not occur as they do in the world of brute beasts.” (Pg. 633 Luther’s Works) He also says, “man should realize that by giving himself to his wife completely, and her to him that the man is not to “make a filthy sow’s sty of one’s marriage.”
Luther believed that a woman had a proper function in life where she would work best, and that place was in the home, he says, “What was said about the estate of marriage, however, should also be applied to widows and unmarried women, for they also belong to the domestic sphere.” (Confession Concerning Christ’s Supper LW pg. 55)
Luther’s views maybe summarized as men rule the world outside the home, as well as inside, but the woman was to raise the child, and support the husband or be his helper. This state of affairs was not what the world was supposed to be but through the fall the woman lost her right to rule with the husband, and now is punished by being in subjection to her husband. Luther also was against any abuse of the man’s power he often quotes Paul’s language in Ephesians that men should not be harsh with their wives. Modern readers may find Luther sexist or chauvinistic, but it must be kept in mind that Luther is as much a part of his time period as we are, and this must be said for the next theologian that is to be examined, John Calvin.