Music drives away the Devil

Martin Luther had intended to prepare a treatise on music but the only evidence discovered of his intentions was an outline he prepared setting forth five points. The title of this piece was point 3 on the outline. About the same time that he prepared this outline, he wrote the following to a composer friend:

“For we know that music, too, is odious and unbearable to the demons. Indeed I plainly judge, and do not hesitate to affirm, that except for theology there is no art that could be put to the same level with music, since except for theology [music] alone produces what otherwise only theology can do, namely a calm and joyful disposition. Manifest proof [of this is the fact] that the devil, the creator of saddening cares and disquieting worries, take flight at the sound of music almost as he takes flight at the word of theology.”

The importance of music to Martin Luther can not be underestimated. It permeates his thinking and influences his theology. Therefore it is necessary to consider the implications of “the sound of music” in analyzing whether or not Luther has adopted the victory motif as asserted by Gustaf Aulen.

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Gospel of Luke