Does Sexual Ethics Need a Lutheran Critique of Free Will? Luther and the Problem of Consent

ABSTRACT In recent decades, consent has become a central ethical guideline for navigating sex in a diverse and imperfect world. Increasingly, however, many feminists are charging that consent cannot carry the weight we have asked it to carry. A critical legal criterion, consent has fallen short as an ethic. But what would a sexual ethics beyond consent look like? This paper suggests that the writings of Martin Luther might have something to offer contemporary feminist debates over consent and desire, and, conversely, that contemporary debates in sexual ethics might have something to offer Luther studies. In this paper, I develop a Lutheran critique of consent‐based ethics and advocate for a turn from an ethic of choice to an ethic of attention.