Luther's Aesop by Springer Carl P. E

Author:Springer, Carl P. E. [Carl P. E. Springer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Literature
ISBN: 9781612480688
Publisher: Truman State University
Published: 2011-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Man between God and Animal

Why do fables so often feature animals? It may be that the stories about them are all the more credible in their application to the human condition insofar as they emerge from an alternative world that is similar to our own, yet clearly not the same. Humans do make occasional appearances in fables, but not with the same predictable frequency as animals. The wisdom gained from the world of the animals and applied to the human realm may be so effective precisely because it has not been easily acquired. The necessary work of translation from one domain to the other is an important part of what makes the fable such a powerful educational tool. Plants also appear in fables, but only rarely. It may be that they are too far removed from human experience and behavior to elicit the fable readers’ fullest sympathy.14

Luther notices characteristics and features of animals, such as the loyalty of the dog and the keen eyes of the bird, but his interest in these and other animals is plainly not zoologically oriented or motivated, but rather focused on what they might be able to teach humans. While playing with his pet dog, for example, he observes:

The dog is a very faithful animal and is held in high esteem if he isn’t too ordinary. Our Lord God has made the best gifts most common. The preeminent gift given to all living things is the eye. Small birds have very bright eyes, like little stars, and can see a fly a room-length away. But we don’t acknowledge such everyday gifts. We are stupid clods. In the future life we’ll see them, however; there we ourselves will make birds with pretty, shining eyes.15

Luther enjoys the company of animals, notices with appreciation their attributes and behavior, but he rarely makes such observations without application to human beings, their habits, their virtues and vices, nearly always from a theological perspective.16 He imagines a conversation, for instance, with a tuneful bird in which the carefree animal rebukes the hardworking human who does not trust God sufficiently:

If you say, “Hey, birdie, why are you so gay? You have no cook, no cellar,” he will answer, “I do not sow, I do not reap, I do not gather into barns. But I have a cook, and his name is Heavenly Father. Fool, shame on you. You do not sing. You work all day and cannot sleep for worry. I sing as if I had a thousand throats.”17

Luther’s tendency to represent elements in the natural world around him in human terms will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his incarnational theology. Indeed, one could describe all of Luther’s theology as anthropomorphic insofar as it is built on the fundamental Christian principle that God himself took on the form of a man.18 The word of God became human flesh, according to the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Hebrews 1:3 describes Christ as “the express image of the person” of God the Father.

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