Martin Luther and Musically Expressed Theology

Abstract

This paper seeks a reappraisal of Martin Luther’s complex understanding of theology’s place in the social and political reformation of 16th–century Germany. Here I seek to reintroduce an element of that theology that has been largely absent from mainstream scholarship: music. Building on Robin Leaver’s influential 2007 work, Luther’s Liturgical Music, wherein he argues that Luther’s liturgical song–writing ought to be understood theologically, I will demonstrate how the reformer sought to use a musically expressed theology to build a foundation of faith among the German laity– a prerequisite, he believed, to a successful reformation of Christian religion and society. Luther’s answer to the failures of the early evangelical Reformation was an educational programme centred on teaching a theology of the Psalms through music.