People seem to blatantly trust whatever an AI search spits out. For instance, during the initial stages of the takeover of Artificial Itelligence, I had a hostile interaction with a Roman Catholic on Martin Luther and Polygamy. Despite the hostility and the negativity, this defender of Rome was inadvertently positively helpful in showing me early on how AI searches are not necessarily accurate. Here was the AI screenshot he provided to prove his claims:
Martin Luther deplored divorce (only permitting it in the cases of adultery and the Pauline privilege) and taught that polygamy was allowed in Scripture, citing positive examples of it from the biblical patriarchs; as such in 1521, he granted the approval for a man to take a second wife, and again in 1539 for Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse to take a second wife.[68][69]
[68] Sorensen, Rob (7 July 2016). Martin Luther and the German Reformation. Anthem Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-1-78308-441-8.
[69] Cole, William Graham (6 November 2015). Sex in Christianity and Psychoanalysis. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-35977-7. Luther's preference for bigamy to divorce appeared again in the case of Philipp of Hesse. Luther insisted that whatever was not specifically forbidden by Scripture was an option for the Christian, and not only is there no Biblical ban on polygamy, there are positive examples of it, in the patriarchs. In January of 1521, long before the affair of either Philipp or Henry, Luther had written to a friend whose marital life was wholly asexual owing to the illness of his wife and who had asked whether he might take a second wife. At that time Luther had responded that he could raise no objection if a man wished to take several wives, since Holy Scripture does not forbid it.
Wikipedia says it's a 1521 letter in which Luther "granted the approval for a man to take a second wife." Let's try and track Wiki's information down and see if it is accurate (spoiler: it isn't). Secondarily, we'll see that Martin Luther was not an unrestrained supporter of polygamy. He had a complex view, sometimes approving of it and sometimes disapproving of it depending on the reason or the context.
Documentation
Luther’s preference for bigamy to divorce appeared again in the case of Philip of Hesse. Luther insisted that whatever was not specifically forbidden by Scripture was optional for the Christian, and not only is there no Biblical ban on polygamy, there are positive examples of it, in the patriarchs. In January of 1521, long before the affair of either Philipp or Henry, Luther had written to a friend whose marital life was wholly asexual owing to the illness of his wife and who had asked whether he might take a second wife. At that time Luther had responded that he could raise no objection if a man wished to take several wives, since Holy Scripture does not forbid it. Still, he went on to say, he would not like to see the practice become general, for Christians ought not to seize greedily upon anything to which their freedom gives them the right. This is very characteristic of Luther. He refused to legalize, he insisted on the liberty of the Christian man, but he wanted all believers to exercise their freedom with great care as to its effect upon others. He would only give advice and opinion, not command. Each man must, in the light of his own conscience, work out his course of action. Luther had been a confessor and he always displayed serious pastoral concern for those who turned to him in trouble. This was his attitude toward Philip of Hesse, who sought Luther’s help. Philip was saddled with a homely and frigid wife. He was infatuated with a younger woman who responded to his ardor with warmth. Divorce was beyond his reach, and he wrote to ask Luther if he might take a second wife. Luther strongly urged him to try to bear his cross with patience and courage, but when it became apparent that Philipp could not do this, that it was a second wife or a mistress, the pastor gave his approval to the former course of action, telling Philipp, however, that the whole matter must be kept secret. Luther was not alone in his views on polygamy, incidentally, as they were shared by no less a person than Cardinal Cajetan of the Roman curia, who advised the Pope to grant a dispensation to Henry VIII to take Anne Boleyn as a second wife. Luther was convinced that some sort of sex life is essential to all men, and in special cases of necessity, he regarded bigamy as a lesser evil than fornication or adultery.
William Graham Cole does not document his assertions. He claims the following:
1. Luther wrote a letter to a friend in January 1521.2. That friend had written to Luther that he had a "marital life... wholly asexual owing to the illness of his wife" and "asked whether he might take a second wife."
Both of these assertions are false. He does though present correct information:
1. Luther did not positively advocate for polygamy ("...he would not like to see the practice become general..."
2. Luther did not want to legalize polygamy "He refused to legalize, he insisted on the liberty of the Christian man, but he wanted all believers to exercise their freedom with great care as to its effect upon others..."
I know of no letter from Martin Luther written to a friend from January 1521 addressing these issues. Based on what William Graham Cole wrote, I suspect he's actually referring to Luther's letter from January 13, 1524 to Chancellor Gregory Brück possibly mixed in with Luther's comments from his treatise, The Estate of Marriage (1522). I conclude this because in that 1524 Letter Luther stated almost the exact sentiment Cole mentions: "For it is very unbecoming to Christians, eagerly to pursue, for their own comfort, their liberty to its last consequences and yet to neglect the common and necessary duties of charity." Compare this to what Cole summarizes: "For Christians ought not to sieze greedily to anything to which their freedom gives them the right."
The Chancellor had written to Luther asking for advice as to what to do about Luther's former colleague, Andreas Carlstadt. Carlstadt was using the Mosaic law to allow those people following him to have multiple wives. The letter had nothing to do with Luther writing to a friend about his asexual sick wife and wanting to take a second wife. In the 1524 letter, Luther does say that he cannot discount the practice of polygamy based on the Bible, but he goes on to say much more. Notice all the caveats Luther mentions about polygamy, entirely left out of Cole's presentation:
As for me, I truly admit that I cannot prohibit it if someone wishes to marry several wives, nor is it repugnant to the Sacred Scriptures: in truth, however, I would not want such an example introduced among Christians in the first place, among whom it is proper to abstain even from things that are allowed, in order to avoid scandal, and for the integrity of life, which everywhere Paul requires (Luther's Authentic Voice on Polygamy, p. 17). For it is very unbecoming to Christians, eagerly to pursue, for their own comfort, their liberty to its last consequences and yet to neglect the common and necessary duties of charity. Therefore I have not in my preaching opened this window, and I hardly believe, a Christian can be so far abandoned by God, that a man who by God's action is hindered (from the use of conjugal rights) should be unable to contain himself. But let things go where they go. Perhaps they will even introduce circumcision at Orlamünde and will become Jews entirely (Luther, An Historical Portrait, p. 313.
Original text: Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere,si quis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis:verum tamen apud Christianos id exempli nollem primo introduci,apud quos decet etiam ea intermittere, quae licita sunt,pro vitando scandalo, et pro honestate vitae, quam ubiquePaulus exigit. Vehementer enim dedecet Christianos, summaet novissima libertatis tam anxie pro suis commodis sectari,et tamen vulgaria illa et necessaria charitatis negligere. Ideoin sermone meo nolui hanc fenestram aperire, et vix credo,sic desertum a Deo Christianum, ut non queat continere conjux divinitus impedita Curiositas, metuo, in causa sit. Verumsinitote ire, quo it, forte etiam adhuc circumcidentur Orlamundae, et toti Mosaici futuri sunt (WA Br 3:231).
Conclusion
The main lesson here is to not necessarily trust every bit of AI information spit back from an inquiry. Go the extra mile: look things up! Challenge dates and facts put forth by AI. Don't be surprised to discover Wikipedia as a main AI source. I asked ChatGPT directly: Does ChatGPT utilize Wikipedia as a reliable source for information? It replied:
Yes — ChatGPT may use information that also appears on Wikipedia, and Wikipedia content was likely part of the broad public internet data used during training... In practice: Wikipedia is often reasonably accurate for general topics. ChatGPT can reflect information commonly found there. But ChatGPT can also reproduce Wikipedia’s errors, omissions, or editorial biases.
I also asked ChatGPT: Why would ChatGPT utilize Wikipedia as a source if the authors of Wikipedia entries are anonymous and biased? It responded in part:
Because large language models are trained on enormous amounts of publicly available text, and Wikipedia is one of the largest and most heavily linked knowledge repositories on the internet. Ignoring it entirely would remove a substantial amount of commonly referenced factual material... Your concern about anonymity and bias is still valid, especially in controversial fields...Those issues are more serious in: theology, politics, history, philosophy, ethics, disputed scientific or social questions. That is why historically rigorous work should not stop at Wikipedia. For example, when discussing Martin Luther, relying only on Wikipedia instead of primary texts and scholarly editions can easily produce oversimplifications or inaccurate claims.
I understand the scope of Wikipedia and why AI would use it... but I see a fundamental flaw in utilizing anonymous non-vetted sources! It doesn't add up. One other thing to realize is that AI models are set to gravitate to certain places on the Internet, determined by higher traffic. For instance, I asked the AI program Claude the following question: Do AI searches utilize Beggars All, Reformation and Apologetics? It responded: "Possibly, but unreliably and not by default." It then informed me that it tends to downplay Blogspot and WordPress content in favor of "institutional websites (.edu, .org, established news outlets)" because the former have "lower domain authority scores." Claude also stated:
AI searches like mine are not neutral. They reflect the biases of the search engines they rely on, which in turn reflect the biases of who gets to build authoritative web presences. A blog like Beggar's All Reformation... would almost certainly offer a more nuanced and theologically grounded critique than several of the sources I actually used. The fact that it doesn't surface is a flaw in the tool, not a judgment on the quality of the content.
It is relatively easy to select isolated quotations from Luther’s writings that make him appear to be completely inconsistent, at times approving, and at times disapproving, of polygamy. When Luther’s statements are examined together, one can see that his teaching about polygamy was for the most part consistent, though quite complex: he both approved and disapproved of polygamy, but for different reasons and in different contexts.
Eventually I think Luther experienced the problem of leaving the door open for polygamy. After the Philipp of Hesse debacle, Luther wrote:
Anyone following this fellow [Philipp of Hesse] and his book and takes more than one wife, and thinks that this is right, the devil will prepare for him a bath in the depths of hell (Brecht 3:214).
Original text: Wer diesen Buben vnd buch folgete, vnd darauff mher denn eine Ehefrawen nimpt, vnd wil, das es ein Recht sein sol, dem gesegen der Teufel das bad in abgrund der hellen, Amen (WA 53:195-196).
The Roman Catholic caricature that Martin Luther unabashedly supported polygamy can be easily refuted by asking this basic question: how many wives did Martin Luther have? Answer: he had but one whom he was faithfully devoted to. Something doesn't add up with the Roman Catholic caricature: if Luther was such a devout supporter of polygamy, why didn't he himself have many wives? As I've experienced researching polygamy, those advocating for it practice it themselves and create biblical justification.
Addendum #1 Resources for Martin Luther's View of Polygamy
The topic of Martin Luther and polygamy is complicated. In Roman Catholic citations of Luther on polygamy, one pictures Luther flagrantly teaching and allowing polygamy, as if he and all his associates at Wittenberg had multiple wives. They did not! It is historically inaccurate to say Martin Luther supported or encouraged polygamy. Luther's dabbling in the theological basis for polygamy was hypothetical, cautioned, and sometimes outright denied.
Here are two helpful resources for this topic:
Luther's Connection with the Divorce of Henry VIII of England and the Bigamy of Philip of Hessen. What's useful about this article is it points out all the issues of polygamy the Roman Catholic Church has encountered.
Luther's Authentic Voice on Polygamy: This article is a goldmine of citations from Luther on Polygamy.
Addendum #2 Martin Luther's Letter to Gregory Brück, January 13, 1524
Gratia et pax. Viro, qui secundam uxorem consilio Carlstadiipetit, optime Domine Doctor, sic respondeat Princeps:Oportere ipsum maritum sua propria conscientia esse firmumac certum per verbum Dei, sibi haec licere. Eos ergo requirat,qui verbo Dei eum tutum reddant: si is Carlstadius, velalius fuerit, nihil ad Principem. Neque enim si alioqui incertusest, per Principis consensum tutus esse poterit, cujus inhac re non sit quicquam decernere, et sacerdotum sit respondereverbum Dei, ex cujus ore requirent legem Domini, ut Zacharias dicit. Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere,si quis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis:verum tamen apud Christianos id exempli nollem primo introduci,apud quos decet etiam ea intermittere, quae licita sunt,pro vitando scandalo, et pro honestate vitae, quam ubiquePaulus exigit. Vehementer enim dedecet Christianos, summaet novissima libertatis tam anxie pro suis commodis sectari,et tamen vulgaria illa et necessaria charitatis negligere. Ideoin sermone meo nolui hanc fenestram aperire, et vix credo,sic desertum a Deo Christianum, ut non queat continere conjuxdivinitus impedita Curiositas, metuo, in causa sit. Verumsinitote ire, quo it, forte etiam adhuc circumcidentur Orlamundae, et toti Mosaici futuri sunt.
Scripsi et antea de alio casu, nescio, an literas reddiderit,qui accepit. Caeterum praedicatores pro Olsnizen duoshabeo. Sed unus, quem maxime vellem in hoc ministerioservire, uxorculam habet: alioquin omnibus dotibus pollet,quae evangelistam decent, modestia, eruditione, pietate etmorum honestate simul cum uxorcula insignis. Nam plusduobus annis inculpate ac magna cum laude vivit apud nos.Is est parochus Cranachio ab episcopopo Bambergensi pulsusob conjugium, cui tolerabilis fuisset, si scortator et adulteresse voluisset, id quod ei concessum ac permissum erat. Siis placet vel non placet, aut ferri vel non ferri potest, significaripeto. Nam eum in nostris regionibus teneri velim, ut est rarus talium virorum vultus, alioqui jam extra terras aliovocatur. Vale, et Principibus me commenda. Wittembergae MDXXIV. feria 4. post Pauli. T. Martinus Luther (WA Br 3:231).
Grace and peace. To the man who, on Carlstadt's advice, seeks a second wife, Your Excellency, Doctor, the Prince should reply as follows: That he, the husband, must be firm and certain in his own conscience by the word of God that it is lawful for him to do this. Therefore let him consult those who will make him secure by the word of God: whether he is Carlstadt or someone else, it matters nothing to the Prince. For even if he is otherwise uncertain, he cannot be made secure by the Prince's consent, since the Prince has nothing to decide in this matter, and it is for the priests to respond with the word of God, from whose mouth they will seek the law of the Lord, as Zechariah says. I, for my part, confess that I cannot forbid anyone from taking more than one wife, if it does not contradict the Holy Scriptures; yet I would not want such a practice to be first introduced among Christians, among whom it is fitting to forgo even lawful things to avoid scandal and for the sake of the integrity of life that Paul demands everywhere. For it is exceedingly shameful for Christians to pursue the highest and newest freedoms so anxiously for their own convenience, and yet to neglect those common and necessary acts of charity. For this reason, in my sermon I did not want to open this window, and I can hardly believe that a Christian, so deserted by God, could not contain a wife divinely provided. I fear curiosity is the cause. But let him go where he is going; perhaps the Orlamunds are still being circumcised, and are to be entirely Mosaic.
I wrote before about another case; I don't know whether the recipient has returned the letters. However, I have two preachers for Olsnizen. But one, whom I would most like to have serve in this ministry, has a little wife; otherwise he possesses all the gifts befitting an evangelist—modesty, learning, piety, and an honorable character—and is distinguished even with his little wife. For he has lived among us for more than two years without reproach and with great praise. He is the pastor who was driven out of Cranach by the Bishop of Bamberg because of his marriage, which would have been tolerable if he had wanted to be a fornicator and adulterer, which had been granted and permitted to him. If it pleases or displeases you, or can or cannot be borne, I ask for a sign. For I would like him to remain in our regions, since such men are a rare sight; otherwise, he is already being called away abroad. Farewell, and commend me to the Princes. Wittenberg, 1524. Wednesday after [the Conversion of] Paul. Your Martin Luther.
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