On Chastity: A Lutheran Examination of Chastity in the 21st Century

Abstract

One of the most important reforms that Martin Luther made during the Protestant Reformation was to move away from mandatory celibacy for the clergy. Instead, he proposed that all Christians should lead a chaste life — something available to everyone, no matter their office (priest, husband, wife, etc.). This went explicitly against medieval notions of grace, under which people living under vows of celibacy had ‘special grace’ that was unavailable to people who were married. However, in the intervening years, this gift that Luther gave the church has turned into law: no longer something that sets people free to love each other and be in relationship with each other, chastity has become the new celibacy. Through a historical analysis of Luther’s own writings and the Book of Concord and through a contemporary analysis of how chastity functions in both people’s lives and in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, this paper argues that Lutherans need to reclaim the original understanding of chastity as a gift. Chastity, far from its original liberatory use in Luther’s time, has instead turned into the theological underpinning of both the church’s understanding of the proper expression of human sexuality and the basis by which the church organizes its discipline for rostered ministers. No longer a gift, chastity has become law; instead of being good news that sets the faithful free to love one another, it constrains them under the fear of punishment and sin.