Mother Mary and Martin Luther
Martin Luther (like most theologians) condemns any Christian who regards Mary as equal to Jesus or who implies that Jesus alone is somehow incomplete without a feminine expression of God by his side. This is what patriarchal training taught his mind to think.
His heart on the other hand, seems to have known that it did indeed need a heavenly mother along with its heavenly father. And so he confessed: "The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart." (Sermon, Sept. 1st 1522)
If
one
believes
Peter
Stravinskas,
it
would
seem
that
this inscription on his heart is reflected in the inscription on his tomb.
Stravinskas
published
a
generally
good
article
on
"The
Place
of
Mary
in
Classical
Fundamentalism",
at www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/fr94101.htm
but
I'm
afraid
he
made
one
pious
mistake:
He
maintains
that
the
sculpture
of the Coronation of the Virgin
and
inscription
by
Peter
Vischer
the
Younger
which
is
to
be
found
in
the
Wittenberger
Schlosskirche,
where
Luther
is
burried,
goes
with
Luther's
tomb.
I
wish
it
were
so,
but
I'm
afraid
it
belongs
to
one
of
the
other
tombs
in
the
church.
If
you
google
for
images
of
Luther's
tomb
(or
Luthers'
Grabmal),
you'll
see
that
it
is
the
simplest
little
slab
of
stone
rising
a
little
out
of
the
floor
of
the
main
church,
a
good
distance
away
from
the
walls
- no
"burial
chamber"
at
all.
The
German
tour
guide
"Baedekkers
Allianz
Reisefuehrer
Deutschland,
1991"
mentions
that
"in
the
Schlosskirche
there
is a
piece
of
art
by
Peter
Vischer
the
Younger,
who
also
created
the
tombs
of
Sir
Hans
Hundt
and
Prior
Henning
Gode."
So
if
somebody
out
there
could
go
by
the
church
and
let
us
know
to
which
tomb
this
obscure
"piece
of
art"
belongs,
I
would
much
appreciate
it.
Who
knows,
maybe
Luther
was
embarrassed
by
his
abiding
feelings
for
Mary
and
wanted
this
uncertainty
about
the
sculpture.
Presumably
there
is
an
inscription
under
it,
that
reads:
"Ad summum Regina thronum defetur in altum: Angelicis praelata choris, cui festus et ipse Filius occurens Matrem super aethera
ponit."
To the best of my knowledge this translates as: "The most high Queen is raised up on an exalted throne: With the Son himself concurring in the celebration, a band of angels places His Mother above the heavens."
Generally Luther was against any invocations of saints and against asking for their intercession. But Mother Mary, whom he was happy to call the Mother of God, was a case apart, unlike any other saint. Here is some of what he said about her:
"(She is the) highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ … She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still, honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to hurt neither Christ nor the scriptures." (Sermon, Christmas, 1531)
"It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that humanity is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is its true Mother …" (Sermon, Christmas, 1529)
"Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us, even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees… If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is we ought also to be, and all that he has ought also to be ours, and his mother is also our mother." (Sermon, Christmas 1529)
"People have crowded all her glory into a single phrase: The Mother of God. No one can say anything greater of her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the tress." (From the Commentary of the Magnificat)
"God did not receive his divinity from Mary, but it does not follow that it is therefore wrong to say that God was born of Mary, that God is Mary’s Son, and that Mary is God’s mother. … She is the true mother of God and bearer of God. … Mary suckled God, rocked God to sleep, prepared broth and soup for God, etc. For God and man are one person, one Christ, one Son, one Jesus, not two Christs… just as your son is not 2 sons… even though he has two natures, body and soul, the body from you, the soul from God alone." (On the Councils of the Church, 1539)
Luther believed in Mary’s perpetual virginity and in her Immaculate Conception. Only the latter he didn’t think should be a dogma that people are obliged to believe.
"It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary’s soul was effected without original sin; so that in the very infusion of her soul she was also purified from original sin and adorned with God’s gifts, receiving a pure soul, infused by God; thus from the first moment she began to live she was free from all sin." (Sermon, "On the Day of the Conception of the Mother of God", 1527)
"…she is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin… God’s grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil… God is with her, meaning that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her." (Luther’s Works, ed. H. Lehmann, Fortress Press, 1968, vol. 43, p.40)
"We can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given her. Second, we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect her." (Personal Prayer Book, 1522)
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