Windows on life—women after the Reformation

Currents in Theology and Mission, Dec, 2002 by Ute Mennecke-Haustein

Historically it was not seen as a problem when the male partner more often than not dominated the union of marriage. Things are different today, although in many cases the concern is less with overcoming this imbalance and establishing true partnership than with the validity of the ideal itself. It has been replaced by a concept of personal autonomy. The idea of marriage no longer satisfies the striving for personal independence. Marriage as a mutual engagement with the other, and with the other sex, almost seems to have become an unattainable thought. Occasionally this is pushed so far that medieval monastic life as a form of communal life of independent individuals of the same sex can be regarded as a serious alternative to marriage (although in fact monasteries and convents today don't enjoy much popularity). What this tells us as church historians is how remote the era of the Reformation has become for us--its understanding of human life, of human sexuality, of human self-realization. However, just as his tory does not simply offer models for identification, it is not simply a target of criticism, either. The best we can do is to ask the question, or rather to confront the question: Is what we are doing now any better?

(1.) See the account in Andreas Osiander, Gesamtausgabe, ed. Gerhard Muller (Gutersloh: Mohn, 1975ff.), vol. 1, 464-70.

(2.) The Judgment of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows, LW 44:251-400, and the dedicatory letter in LW 48:329-36 (=WA 8:573-669); Ursache und Antwort, da[beta] Jungfrauen Kloster gottlich verlassen mogen (A treatise showing that women are divinely permitted to leave a convent), WA 11:394-400.

(3.) A Story of how God rescued an honorable Nun, accompanied by a Letter of Martin Luther to the Counts of Mansfeld, LW 43:85-96 (=WA 15:86-94), 86-87 (=87).

(4.) Christliche Ursach des verlassen Klosters zu Freiberg (Christian reasons for leaving the convent at Freiberg), the epilogue in WA 26:628-33, the full text in Luther's Works, ed. Johann Georg Walch, 2nd ed. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1880ff.), 19:1694-1723, 1700. The passage referred to includes an allusion to Hos 2:20.

(5.) Die "Denkwurdigkeiten" der Caritas Pirckheimer aus den Jahren 1524-1528, ed. Josef Pfanner (Landshut: Solanus-Druck, 1962), 11, 21-24.

(6.) Ayn Sendbrieff/vonn ainer Andaechtigen Frumen klosterfrawen von Marienstayn/ an yren bruoder Endris vonn wegen der Lutherischen ler. [Augsburg] 1524, 1; quoted from Flugschriften des Fruhen 16. Jahrhunderts auf Microfiche, ed. Hans-Joachim Kohler (Zug: Inter Documentation Co., 1979ff.), fiche 843 no. 2115.

(7.) As in Osiander (n. 1).

(8.) In contrast, a disastrous story of a nun who left her Convent and got married is discussed in Hans-Christoph Rublack,... hat die Nonne den Pfarrer gekusst? Aus dem Alltag der Refonnationszeit (Gutersloh: Mohn, 1991), 108-18.

(9.) LW 45:17--49 (=WA 10/2:275-304).

(10.) A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage, LW 44:7--14 (=WA 2:166--71), 11 (= 169).

(11.) See Luther's The Babylonian Captivity of the Church of 1520, LW 36:11-126, esp. 92-96 (=WA 6:497-573, esp. 550-53).