Luther drank wine daily

Martin Luther embraced wine as a divine gift meant to bring joy and comfort when consumed responsibly, rejecting ascetic abstinence as spiritually harmful.

Wine as Daily Practice and Theology

Luther drank wine daily[1], and he was paid in wine for various services, including his preaching[1]. Rather than viewing wine with suspicion, Luther believed that wine was a wonderful gift of God and could bring a great sense of joy and comfort if drunk in moderation[2]. He composed his famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” while enjoying Rhine wine[1], demonstrating that wine and spiritual creativity coexisted naturally in his life.

Rejecting Prohibitionist Arguments

When voices emerged during the Reformation suggesting Christians should abstain entirely from wine to avoid abuse, Luther vehemently rejected this idea, proclaiming: “Wine and women bring sorrow and heartbreak, they make a fool of many and bring madness, ought we therefore to pour away the wine and kill all the women? Not so. Gold and silver, money and possessions bring much evil among the people, should we therefore throw it all away? If we want to eliminate our closest enemy, the one that is most harmful to us, we would have to kill ourselves. We have no more harmful enemy than our own heart.”[1] Luther’s pastoral insight was significant: he realized the problem does not lie with wine itself but with those who abuse God’s good gifts.[2]

Wine and Christian Freedom

Luther’s desire was to see Christians set free so they could enjoy both God and the gifts that he gives so freely to his children, including wine. He thought that an overemphasis on asceticism and fasting could weaken a human spirit that is already tortured by guilt and shame.[1] Luther insisted that every believer should receive wine in the Lord’s Supper and enjoy it freely as a gift from God.[1] This stance flowed from his conviction that freedom can come only when one knows oneself to be forgiven and loved unconditionally by a merciful God.[1]

[1] Gisela H. Kreglinger, Cup Overflowing: Wine’s Place in Faith, Feasting, and Fellowship (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2024). [See here, here, here, here, here, here, here.]
[2] Gisela H. Kreglinger, The Spirituality of Wine (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 53–54.