Sini Mikkola examines sixteenth-century reformer Martin Luther's view of the human being from the perspectives of bodiliness, gender, sexuality, and power. Luther's construction of femininity, masculinity, and the gender system are investigated by considering both his theoretical and practical viewpoints.
Sini Mikkola examines Martin Luther's (1483-1546) view of the human being during a decade of ecclesiastical, social, and political turmoil, the 1520s, from the perspectives of bodiliness, gendered way of being, sexuality, and power. Luther's way to construct norms, ideals, and expectations vis-à-vis body, femininity, and masculinity are investigated in changing historical and different textual contexts, also via his self-narratives and interaction with contemporary women and men. The author demonstrates that Luther idealized and standardized the gender system, along with its hierarchies, in a very similar fashion throughout the 1520s. However, in addition to driving forward the gender system - based on his stance on the gendered body -, Luther's way to discuss and construct gender was also open to adaptations and developments.
Table of contents:
I Introduction
1. The aim and context of the study - 2. Gender, gender system, and power - 3. Sources - 4. A note on translations
II Life in the Flesh-A Premise for All Human Beings
1. Diversity of Luther's body-talk - 2. Luther's body politics: Bodily needs and the ideal of social control
III Female Body and Femininity
1. Lived bodiliness: Created for subordination - 2. Mission larger than life: Motherhood - 3. Luther in favor of elite women and female activists
IV Male Body and Masculinity
1. Man as the paragon of the human race - 2. Unstable male bodies: Redefining ideals through depictions of male sexuality
V Bodiliness and the Reconstruction of Gender in Luther's Marriage
1. Manhood in transition: The beginning of the Luther marriage - 2. From otherness to dominance: Katharina von Bora - 3. Luther the father, von Bora the bearer
VI Because of or Despite the Gendered Body? Rules and Exceptions Among Luther's Contemporaries
1. Little wife and counseling husband: Elisabeth and Johann Agricola - 2. »The Scripture becomes fulfilled in our body«: Katharina and Justus Jonas - 3. Gender system endangered: Ursula and Stephan Roth
VII The Gender System Rooted In and Beyond the Body: Conclusions 
