Matt Tully adapted this post from an excerpt from Carl Trueman's book, Luther on the Christian Life, a book I'm very much looking forward to reading. In honor of amazing, godly fathers everywhere, here is a glimpse at a loving father from church history.
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Martin Luther loved children.
Indeed, one might say that he himself retained a somewhat childlike quality, as demonstrated in his sense of humor. Certainly, he regarded being childlike as an extremely important characteristic in the Christian when it came to matters of faith. He spoke of the basic catechetical faith as something he never fully mastered, of being like a little child in terms of his need of instruction, and of learning with his own children when he prayed with them each day. This was a point he made in the introduction to his Large Catechism: “I must still read and study the Catechism daily, yet I cannot master it as I wish, but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and I do it gladly.”
When it came to the rearing of actual children, Luther had plenty of advice. Childbearing is a deeply honorable task and one to be understood within the context of a loving home. Indeed, Luther actually criticized the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:14–15 for using the impersonal term “woman” rather than the familial “mother.”
Children are part of families, and families are grounded in the love of man and wife. Thus, the context for childrearing is one of familial love. Indeed, when it came to discipline, even in the rather brutal times in which Luther lived, this was to be tempered by loving restraint: he thought that parents must not whip their children too severely, lest the children come to resent them. That may seem hard by our standards, but one can still appreciate the underlying sentiment.
On the spiritual side, Luther appears to have had devotions every day with his children, focused, as we might expect, on the basic elements of catechetical Christianity: the Ten Commandments, the creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Again, typical of Luther, he saw this exercise not so much as a hierarchical one where he, the adult, taught the children, but as one where they all learned together, for he was in as much need of understanding what he prayed through with them as they themselves were.
Indeed, the spiritual education and health of the family was so important that, if the emperor himself were to try to inhibit or prevent it, the Christian would have an absolute duty to resist him— which, given Luther’s respect for the office of magistrate, speaks eloquently of his passion in this matter.
Indeed, one might say that he himself retained a somewhat childlike quality, as demonstrated in his sense of humor. Certainly, he regarded being childlike as an extremely important characteristic in the Christian when it came to matters of faith. He spoke of the basic catechetical faith as something he never fully mastered, of being like a little child in terms of his need of instruction, and of learning with his own children when he prayed with them each day. This was a point he made in the introduction to his Large Catechism: “I must still read and study the Catechism daily, yet I cannot master it as I wish, but must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and I do it gladly.”
When it came to the rearing of actual children, Luther had plenty of advice. Childbearing is a deeply honorable task and one to be understood within the context of a loving home. Indeed, Luther actually criticized the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 2:14–15 for using the impersonal term “woman” rather than the familial “mother.”
Children are part of families, and families are grounded in the love of man and wife. Thus, the context for childrearing is one of familial love. Indeed, when it came to discipline, even in the rather brutal times in which Luther lived, this was to be tempered by loving restraint: he thought that parents must not whip their children too severely, lest the children come to resent them. That may seem hard by our standards, but one can still appreciate the underlying sentiment.
On the spiritual side, Luther appears to have had devotions every day with his children, focused, as we might expect, on the basic elements of catechetical Christianity: the Ten Commandments, the creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Again, typical of Luther, he saw this exercise not so much as a hierarchical one where he, the adult, taught the children, but as one where they all learned together, for he was in as much need of understanding what he prayed through with them as they themselves were.
Indeed, the spiritual education and health of the family was so important that, if the emperor himself were to try to inhibit or prevent it, the Christian would have an absolute duty to resist him— which, given Luther’s respect for the office of magistrate, speaks eloquently of his passion in this matter.