The year 2025 marks the 500th anniversary year of Martin and Katie Luther’s marriage. Luther’s embrace of married life ushered in a new and joyful way of thinking about marriage and family in the 16th century and helped restore married life to its rightful place in the world. In this workshop led by Dr. Jason Lane, associate professor of Historical Theology, participants will study Martin Luther’s view of marriage and married life to deepen their understanding of God’s will for marriage, children and domestic life today.
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Biblical Foundations of Marriage and Vocation Part 1
Jason Lane
Dr. Lane presents a biblical foundation of marriage and the perspective of Martin Luther on marriage. Dr. Lane also emphasizes that the Word of God must dictate the Christian understanding of marriage, warning against allowing it to "bend and to flex" according to the times. Finally, the lecture introduces Luther's framework of the three estates noting that Luther moved marriage away from its medieval status as a sacrament and placed it predominantly within the political/civil realm to ensure the state would hold the wickedness of mankind in check and preserve the created order of marriage due to the presence of sin.
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Biblical Foundations of Marriage and Vocation Part 2
Jason Lane
Dr. Lane explores the theology and life of Martin Luther, focusing heavily on his rejection of the Roman Catholic sacramental system and his embrace of marriage as a holy estate ordained by God. Luther contrasts marriage as a picture of the greater, eternal union between Christ (the Bridegroom) and the Church (the Bride), where faith is the "wedding band" conferring Christ's righteousness and gifts to the believer, providing confidence against sin, death, and the devil. Finally, Luther addresses divorce, asserting that Moses allowed it only due to the Jews' "hardness of heart" (to prevent worse sin) and that Christ reaffirms the creation ordinance that marriage is fundamentally indissoluble.
