The Aspen Grove

The Three Estates

2 min read

🌱Seed 😁Strongly-Agree 🟢Conviction 🔥Doctrine-Poetry-Story

The Big Idea

How does God set up authority in the world?

  1. Government
    • Governor and Governed
  2. Family
    • Parents and Children
  3. Church
    • Pastor and Laity

In each estate there exists a set of hierarchically structured relationships that organize human life under God’s care. At the top of each hierarchy stands God himself who endows those ruling and governing in the given hierarchy with their given authority. The basic premise of all hierarchies is that the authority that subsists in each is finally divine.

Thus the state consists of rulers and the ruled. The household consists of parents and children. And the church consists of clergy and laity.

Brief Article Explaining the estates

Citations from Luther’s Writing

  • Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 37: Word and Sacrament III, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 37 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 364–365.
  • Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 41: Church and Ministry III, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 41 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 176–178.
  • Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 46: The Christian in Society III, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 46 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 176-178, 178-179, 181–182.
  • Martin Luther’s House Postils, Volume 3 (J. A. Schulze, Columbus, OH, 1884) 170-171, Google Book Link
  • Martin Luther, Commentary on Psalm 111:6 (1530)
  • Martin Luther on Genesis 1:16-17 (1535)
  • Martin Luther, Table Talk (1542-1543)
  • Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis 43:1-5
  • Martin Luther, Commentary on John 3:20
  • Martin Luther on Genesis 4:1
  • Martin Luther On Baptism (from the Large Catechism, IV.19-20)
  • Martin Luther on Genesis 27:28 (LW 5.139)
  • Martin Luther introducing Genesis 29 (LW 5:268-269)

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