„Sie ist mir lieb, die werte Magd.“ Das Bild der Kirche in lutherischen Liedern des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts

Abstract Using the song “Sie ist mir lieb, die werte Magd” by Martin Luther (1535) and psalm songs from the hymnal of the Leipzig pastor Cornelius Becker (1602) as examples, this article asks about the image of the ‘church’ in Lutheran songs of the Reformation and the Confessional Age and how this image in particular developed in the 16th and 17th centuries. What Luther and Becker have in common is that their songs aimed to create a sense of belonging and an awareness of one’s own identity within the singing Protestant community. Church songs, whose themes could also be about the church, thus served not least to build up the church in the spirit of the Reformation.