Lutheran Church

The Lutheran Church appears in Freud’s discussion as a Christian tradition that calls the commandment to honour one’s parents the Fourth Commandment. Its numbering places it alongside the Catholic Church and contrasts it with traditions that count the same commandment as the fifth.

Numbering the Commandments

The distinction concerns the arrangement of the commandments, not a different instruction: the Lutheran Church numbers “Honour thy father and thy mother” fourth. Freud connects that numbering with the division established by St Augustine, which is also followed by the Catholic Church.

Contrast with Other Traditions

The Reformed churches and the Church of England instead count the commandment as the fifth. Their numbering follows the sequence in Exodus 20 rather than the sequence in Deuteronomy 5. The Lutheran Church’s place in Freud’s account therefore helps illustrate how religious traditions can assign different ordinal positions to the same parental duty while retaining its wording and substance.