Marriage in the Lutheran Confessional Books

Piotr Jaskóła

Abstract

The present study focuses on the topic of marriage and offers theological analysis of Lutheran Churches' confessional writings, consisting of the following books: Small Catechism, Large Catechism, The Augsburg Confession, The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Schmalkald Articles, Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope and the Formula of Concord. Lutheran confessional writings treat the topic of marriage briefly and selectively. What is essential in the confessional writings is primarily the doctrine of justification. In places where this doctrine seemed to be undermined or threatened, there one notices
not only a very critical opinion and evaluation, but also a sharp, polemical vocabulary. This is clearly visible in the criticism of the compulsory celibacy for priests, and criticism of assigning greater value to living in an unmarried state rather than married. Lutheran confessional writings concur, that marriage belongs to the order of creation. If marriage is a natural God-created institution, hence by the law of nature man has the right to marry. Marriage thus can neither be prohibited nor dissolved. The authors of the confessional books are in agreement, that marriage is not a sacrament, because it is not connected to the promise of grace. This assumption does not mean, that marriage has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, and therefore with salvation. The rejection of the sacramental character of marriage, the subordination of marriage to secular structures and the introduction of a clear division between the promises relating to life in the flesh, and the promises of grace, allows one to see whence comes human justification. A man is not justified either by marriage or by unmarried state, but only and exclusively through Jesus Christ.