Martin Luther’s ‘Table Talk’: What did Luther say about sexual desire?

Martin Luther portrayed by Lucas Cranach

Luther had a great deal to say about sexual desire. Just remember the caveat of Karant-Nunn and Wiesner-Hanks (2003), considering drinking beer and the bluster among men, "Some of Luther's most colorful statements about women or sex appear in the table talk, but these may not reflect his most considered opinions."

Luther repeatedly asserted that sexual desire is God-given. “God drives man to marriage by means of sensual desire. Otherwise, if it were not for love, who would get married?” he says (in No. 566).  “The longing of a man for a woman is God's creation.” (in No. 1659) “Rather, the act which attracts sex to sex is a divine ordinance.” (in No. 4153)

Socrates (Naples National Museum) courtesy Ian Scott

A second tenet is that men dread marriage. "These are the annoyances of marriage, and on their account everybody avoids marriage. We all fear the caprice of wives, the crying of children, bad neighbors. So we want to be free, not bound...” (in No. 2867b) “…Socrates is reported to have given a good answer to a man who was contemplating marriage: Whatever you may do, you'll regret it.” (in No. 3508)

A third principle is that God blesses marriage for the godly. "It's the greatest blessing of God when love continues to flower in marriage. The first love is ardent, an intoxicated love which dazzles us and leads us on. When the intoxication has been slept off, the connubial love of the godly is genuine, while the ungodly have regrets." (in No. 3530)

St. Augustine (St Mary's in Oxford) courtesy Lawrence OP

Was celibacy good? Luther said, "When he was quite old, Augustine still complained about nocturnal pollutions. When he was goaded by desire Jerome beat his breast with stones but was unable to drive the girls out of his heart. Francis made snowballs and Benedict lay down on thorns. Bernard macerated his harassed body…” (in No. 3777)

Was sex in marriage good? Once Luther answered mildly, "When one looks back upon it, marriage isn't so bad as when one looks forward to it.” (in No. 1659) In a discussion on voluntary castration to try to eliminate desire Luther objected, “For my part I'd rather have two pair added than one pair cut off.” (in No. 2865b)

All Luther quotations from Theodore G. Tappert, ed./trans., Table Talk  V 54 of ‘Luther’s Works’ (Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1967).

Q. Does it follow that if sexual desire is satisfied outside marriage then marriage itself is less desirable?

Martin Luther’s ‘Table Talk’: What do scholars think of Table Talk as a source?

Julius Köstlin

Before 1900 Luther scholars with the exception of a few like Julius Köstlin shunned Table Talk. The existing copies of Aurifaber gave little reassurance of being original and undoctored. In the decades before and after 1900 however, scholars found more than 30 nearly contemporaneous manuscripts of Table Talks by the assorted recorders. Confidence in Table Talk increased 100-fold.

In 1963 Luther tyro Roland Bainton offered cautiously, “The trained historian looks somewhat askance at the Table Talk because it reports Luther only at second hand, and a comparison of the variant versions discloses discrepancies. Nevertheless, it is not for that reason to be rejected, but rather to be used with caution.” [Roland Bainton, In Studies on the Reformation. (Boston: Beacon Press, 1963), 67]

Theodore G. Tappert, editor/translator of 1967 Table Talk of Fortress Press (Volume 54 of Luther’s Works),xxiii, notes “…Table Talk is less reliable than writings which we have from Luther's own hand but not on this account to be dismissed as fiction.”

What about recent stalwarts?

 

Lewis Spitz

Lewis Spitz, Luther and German Humanism (Variorum: Aldershot, 1996). Spitz used Table Talk to favorably assess Luther’s appreciation of Classical authors.

Heiko Oberman, The Reformation: roots and ramifications trans. Andrew C. Gow (London: T & T Clark, 1994), 18, stated “Its (Table Talk) value as a source has up to now been unjustly underestimated.”

 

Martin Brecht

They are even more confident of a prudent use of Table Talk. And what of Martin Brecht, author of the recent definitive three-volume biography of Luther?
 

Although its transmission does leave much to be desired, the Table Talk provides a valuable glimpse into Luther's life, thought, and speech. It is thanks to Cordatus that not only theological statements were preserved, but also casual and joking comments..

[Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation 1521-1532 (Fortress Press, 1990) 432-433.]

Merry Wiesner-Hanks

In a very recent work, two Luther scholars stated:

This attention to the setting and the audience is especially important when you are reading the table talk; the comments they record were often made after people in the Luther household had all been drinking the excellent (in Luther's opinion) beer brewed by his wife, and were chatting about current events or gossip they had heard. Some of Luther's most colorful statements about women or sex appear in the table talk, but these may not reflect his most considered opinions.

[Susan C. Karant-Nunn and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Luther on Women: A Sourcebook (Cambridge Un. Press, 2003), 5]

In summary, Table Talk should be valued as a source for Martin Luther and the historical figures around him.

Q. Should Table Talk be used if the point can be made from another source, like a letter?