Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience by Laura Jurgens

Abstract

Reviewed by: Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience by Laura Jurgens Mary Elizabeth Anderson Martin Luther and Women: Theology and Lived Experience. By Laura Jurgens. New York: Peter Lang, 2020. 161 pp. This is a thoroughly researched account of Martin Luther's views on women, arguing convincingly that the complexity of his understanding is revealed only when one considers his interactions with women alongside his writings. To provide context, the book begins with an overview of the common beliefs on the place and standing of women in early modern Europe, as well the influences of classical and medieval thought on these convictions. As the author summarizes, "They believed that women were physically weak, less intellectually capable, and less competent at controlling their emotions" (7). The author then explores Luther's commentaries referencing biblical women, particularly Eve, but also Tamar and Sarah. Mary was not considered because Jurgens questionably asserts Luther did not think Mary was "involved in this temporal life" (42). The author shows Luther's ideas were consistent with those of his time, save for some development in his discussion of Eve in the later lectures on Genesis. Even here, while the mature Luther acknowledged aspects of Eve's equality with Adam, he simultaneously maintained traditional claims of her inferiority (35). Jurgens next considers Luther's general understanding of women's nature. Again, he did not deviate from the thinking of his day, viewing women as weaker and intellectually inferior to men. Likewise, Luther's conception of the ideal woman as an obedient wife, mother, and homemaker was not unique. While these conclusions are not surprising, the author's quotations from Luther are taken from numerous writings but provide no context and no sense of a particular order, chronological, genre, or otherwise. One is left to wonder if context could have provided additional insights. Next the author investigates Luther's communication with actual women, and it is here that Jurgens finds a more complex picture. She first addresses Luther's relationships with his mother, Margarethe Luther, and his wife, Katharina von Bora. Jurgens then looks at his correspondence with two female reformers, Argula von Grumbach and Katharina Schütz Zell. In all these encounters, which we only [End Page 197] know of primarily through Luther's letters, Jurgens sees that Luther treated the women as intellectually capable and did not reprimand them for transgressing the ideal female roles. Similarly, a survey of Luther's pastoral letters reveals that his pastoral advice to women differed little from that offered to men. Jurgens concludes that Luther's actions, consequently, did not fit with his "strict theological convictions" about women (84, 110, 140). While there is no reason to argue with the author's thesis, there are some questionable assumptions within the analysis including noting that Martin Brecht's Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation, 1483–1521 does not even mention Katharina von Bora (83), whom Luther did not know until 1523. The author also asserts that Argula von Grumbach was the first to employ the printing press to support the Protestant message (92), although Luther and others clearly did this previously. The most striking, however, is the notion that if Luther's beliefs about women were consistent, his pastoral care to women would somehow be different than that to men because he considered women more emotional and less intelligent. Yet Luther's "strict theological convictions" ultimately are about the gospel and care of souls, not anthropology. A true theological evaluation must take the core of his theology under consideration. This work will prove valuable to researchers and experts with its numerous quotations from Luther's writings and frequent references to other scholarship. The price of the book and the literature review style of the writing in portions of the text, however, will make it inaccessible to others. Nonetheless, the author's conviction that Luther's actions as revealed in his correspondence should be considered alongside his treatises and biblical commentaries is significant for all. [End Page 198] Mary Elizabeth Anderson Loras College Dubuque, Iowa Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.