A Sixteenth-Century Scandal: The Radical Marriage of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora

The new issue of Credo Magazine is here: The Reformation of the Family.

One of its feature articles, “A Sixteenth-Century Scandal: The Radical Marriage of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora,” is written by Michelle DeRusha. She is the author of Katharina and Martin Luther: The Radical Marriage of a Runaway Nun and a Renegade Monk, as well as Spiritual Misfit: A Memoir of Uneasy Faith, and 50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Heroines of the Faith. She also writes a monthly religion and spirituality column for the Lincoln Journal Star. Michelle lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband and their two boys. You can connect with her at www.MichelleDeRusha.com

The article begins:

When Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora married on June 13, 1525, neither was in love with the other. “I do not love my wife, but I appreciate her,” Luther declared in a letter to a friend a few weeks after celebrating his nuptials. In fact, just months before his wedding day, Luther had written to another friend that he had no intention of marrying: “Not that I am insensible to the emotions of the flesh, being neither wood nor stone, but because I have no desire to, and daily expect to die a heretic’s death.” It was not that he didn’t experience physical desire—“emotions of the flesh”—Luther assured his friend, but that he simply was not interested in marrying.

As for Katharina, we cannot know for sure what she thought about marriage—either personally or in general—because only eight of her letters have survived, all of which were related to financial and estate concerns in the wake of Luther’s death. However, we do know that as a single woman and a former nun living in sixteenth-century Germany, Katharina’s options were limited. Survival, rather than romantic love, was undoubtedly her foremost concern.

Nearly five hundred years after they said, “I do,” we esteem Katharina and Martin Luther as one of Christian history’s most legendary and inspirational couples. Yet how did two people so obviously reluctant to marry come not only to enjoy a fruitful, loving, mutually fulfilling union, but also to have such a profound impact on the institution of marriage during their own time and as we understand it today?  …

Read the rest of this interview today in the new issue of Credo Magazine: “The Reformation of the Family”