RT Article
T1 Parents, Authorities, and Disobedience in Sixteenth-Century Lutheran Sermons
JF Lutheran quarterly
VO 33
IS 4
SP 386
OP 398
A1 Haemig, Mary Jane
LA English
PB The Johns Hopkins University Press
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1689232471
AB The Lutheran Reformation is often portrayed as being slavishly obedient to secular rulers. This article examines printed Lutheran postil sermons on the Fourth Commandment, which was the Lutheran justification for obedience to secular rulers, between the momentous years 1530 and 1580. Postil sermons were model sermons intended to guide pastors in their creation of sermons and were also often read outright both in Lutheran pulpits and during worship services in the home. This article shows that these sermons universally commanded a conditional obedience to rulers and many even demanded disobedience in certain situations. Furthermore, obedience to rulers was a secondary matter after obedience to parents. Rulers were parents' helpers, not vice versa.
DO 10.1353/lut.2019.0078