Editing Mortification of the flesh (section)

====Lutheranism====
The [[Augsburg Confession]] of the [[Lutheran World Federation|Lutheran Church]] supports the practice of mortification of the flesh, stating:
{{Blockquote|For they [our teachers] have always taught concerning the cross that it behooves Christians to bear afflictions. This is the true, earnest, and unfeigned mortification, to wit, to be exercised with divers afflictions, and to be crucified with Christ. Moreover, they teach that every Christian ought to train and subdue himself with bodily restraints, or bodily exercises and labors that neither satiety nor slothfulness tempt him to sin, but not that we may merit grace or make satisfaction for sins by such exercises. And such external discipline ought to be urged at all times, not only on a few and set days. So Christ commands, Luke 21:34: Take heed lest your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting; also Matt. 17:21: This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. Paul also says, 1 Cor. 9:27: I keep under my body and bring it into subjection. Here he clearly shows that he was keeping under his body, not to merit forgiveness of sins by that discipline, but to have his body in subjection and fitted for spiritual things, and for the discharge of duty according to his calling.<ref name="Neve1914">{{cite book |last=Neve |first=Juergen Ludwig |title=The Augsburg Confession: A Brief Review of Its History and an Interpretation of Its Doctrinal Articles, with Introductory Discussions on Confessional Questions |year=1914 |publisher=Lutheran Publication Society |page=[https://archive.org/details/augsburgconfessi00neve/page/150 150] |url=https://archive.org/details/augsburgconfessi00neve}}</ref>}}
In the [[Lutheran]] tradition, mortification of the flesh is not done in order to earn [[merit (Catholicism)|merit]], but instead to "keep the body in a condition such that it does not hinder one from doing what one has been commanded to do, according to one's calling ({{langx|la|juxta vocationem suam|links=no}})."<ref name="Weber2002">{{cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |title=The Protestant Ethic and the "spirit" of Capitalism and Other Writings |year=2002 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780140439212 |page=54}}</ref> In ''[[The Ninety-Five Theses]]'', [[Martin Luther]] stated that "inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh."<ref>{{cite book |title=Theses, Ninety-five, of Luther. |year=2000 |publisher=Concordia Publishing House}}</ref> He practiced mortification of the flesh through [[fasting]] and [[self-flagellation]], even sleeping in a stone cell without a blanket.<ref name="Lindberg1988">{{cite book |last=Lindberg |first=Carter |title=Martin Luther: Justified by Grace |year=1988 |publisher=Graded Press |language=en |isbn=9780939697557 |page=[https://archive.org/details/martinlutherjust0000lind/page/16 16] |url=https://archive.org/details/martinlutherjust0000lind/page/16 |quote=Luther subjected himself to long periods of fasting and self-flagellation. He spent many sleepless nights in a stone cell without a blanket to protect him from the damp cold that was characteristic of the area.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Wall |first=James T. |title=The Boundless Frontier: America from Christopher Columbus to Abraham Lincoln |publisher=[[University Press of America]] |language=en |page=103 |quote=Though he did not go to the ends that had Luther— including even self-flagellation — the methods of ritualistic observance, self-denial, and good works did not satisfy.}}</ref>