Lutheran Theology

Contemporary political theology often defines itself against Lutheran social ethics, which is portrayed as politically disengaged and overly deferential to state power. At the same time, contemporary political theology often embraces the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an exemplary political theologian. This incongruity is generally resolved by distancing Bonhoeffer from his tradition, at least on matters of political theology. But Bonhoeffer's political theology was thoroughly Lutheran. Throughout the years of his political-theological engagement, from the Nazi rise to power in 1932-33 to the drafting of Ethics and related writing in 1940-43, he participated in ongoing conversations within Lutheran social ethics on the issues of, among others, the two kingdoms and the orders. In the process, he critically appropriated these elements of Lutheran thinking into an especially dynamic and christocentric framework that in turn informed his positions on various issues such as the church's proclamation against the Nazi state and the ecumenical church's witness for peace. Bonhoeffer is an example of Lutheran political theology, one that suggests the need to revise at least the more sweeping judgments about Lutheran theology as inherently incompatible with political engagement.

The claim in recent conversations among Lutherans and Pentecostals that the " pure gospel " and " full gospel " paradigms held respectively by each tradition represent contrasting theological principles is examined through a historical and theological study of the notion of " gospel. " The two paradigms, although not mutually exclusive, identify different hermeneutical and doctrinal commitments that suggest that the contrast between the two traditions exists not in the idea of the gospel but in its mode of expression.

The Article is about the question of the apostolic succession in the present catholic-lutheran ecumenical dialog. It tries to summarise what does the Catholic Church teach about the episcopal succession and what is the real problem in the dialog with the Lutheran communities in the question of the apostolic succession of ministers. The Article is in hungarian language.

Since the 2002 exposure of the extent of the sex abuse cover-up by elements within the Catholic Church, Catholics must come to a renewed appreciation of Augustine’s refutation of the Donatists and defence of the principle that Christ’s merits make the Church’s Sacraments efficacious, not those of her ministers.  Luther anticipated this in his own thought on the co-existence of Christ’s holiness and the subject’s personal sinfulness within the believer’s individual soul, but less well known is how he “institutionalized” this principle to apply to the public ministers of Word and Sacrament operating within the liturgical space of the Church. For Luther, this does not have to do with an indelible sacramental character imprinted on the priest’s soul, but rather on the minister’s ecclesial situation, for which reason he continued to value and defend his own Roman Catholic ordination, even in the face of rampant “Babylonian” corruption within the clergy.  This paper will analyze the history of Roman Catholicism’s interaction with Luther’s theology of ministry, from Luther’s own experience saying the Catholic Mass to the 20th century Catholic theologians whose re-assessment of Reformation theology helped shape Vatican II’s reform of the Mass, concluding with reflections on that teaching’s implications for Catholics and Christians generally trying to make sense of their mission within the world in light of the Church’s well-documented public failings.

In this essay, my aim is to extend the discussions in that seminar and to
reflect on how applying the perspectives, postures, and practices of ethnography might help academic theologians and pastors better understand the world we live in and better discern the varieties of theology and culture within our congregations, communities, and denominations. Based on my reading of the literature on “ethnographic theology” and my work as a pastor, theologian, and ethnographer of religion, I propose ethnography as theological practice helps pastors and theologians more holistically understand the diverse, overlapping, and sometimes
contradicting religious experiences and perspectives of our congregations,
communities, and church bodies. Moving beyond a focus on texts and traditions, as well as timeworn modes of thinking about the relation between theology and culture, ethnographic theology brings a fresh perspective to our theological discourse by summoning together the everyday and the academic, to create new conversations around worship and living. In the end, I suggest that to effectively discern how to navigate the “diversity and difference” of the world and the contexts we live and work in, we need to become better ethnographers.

This article deals with the missional self-understanding of the so-called Danish folk church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark). It argues that especially two important factors have hindered such a self-understanding: first, the church adherer to the Lutheran tradition, which for centuries had a weak emphasis on mission; and second, that the Danish folk church in centuries was a state church, which encompassed all citizens of the nation, and mission was therefore not a pressing issue for the church. Then, the article argues by referring to several theological statements and initiatives in the church that a new missional self-understanding seems to evolve these years. The article argues that the church seems to be adjusting to a new pluralistic societal situation, and the new missional self-understanding can be understood in light of this.

A Treatise on Good Works is considered Luther’s clearest
exposition on Christian life and the relationship between faith
and good works. Contrary to the teachings of the medieval
church of his day, Luther taught that people need not perform
extraordinary acts of religious devotion to be saved, but rather
that Christ saves them by grace through faith. Neither the
church nor any other human institution can define what it
means for each individual to obey and serve God, and only
through the grace of God can people live and act faithfully
in their everyday affairs. These doctrines, foundational for
Protestantism, have shaped both Christendom and culture
at large. This essay is doubtlessly one of the most important
texts of the last 500 years.

This paper examines Martin Luther's interpretation of love in the gospel of John. It is part of a series that explores the meaning of love in Luther for the Christian life. Here Luther speaks of some expressions f love that are not prominent in some of his other writings. For example, he writes on love and friendship, on love for Christ and love as the eschatological reality. His understanding of love in this text does not fit into the sharp opposition of eros and agape that Anders Nygren used to interpret Luther.

One of the buzzwords of 20th and 21st century theology -- especially Lutheran theology -- is "theology of the cross." In the year where we mark the 500th anniversary of the Heidelberg Disputation where Martin Luther first talked about theologians of glory and theologians of the cross it is important to understand what it is to be a theologian of the cross, what that means for 21st century theology, and what incredible comfort the cross of Christ brings.

This essay especially explores four sinful tendencies that the theologian of the cross seeks to avoid: sinful speculation, attempting to tip the scales, eyeing the wrong prize, and failing to let God be God and do all the creating.

The Lutheran World Federation released Understanding the Gift
of Communion in 2014 to allow churches who hold differing views
on homosexuality to remain in fellowship with one another. This paper explores how the churches in the Global South who do not accept homosexuality are considered "colonialistic" related to socio-ethical concerns.

Published in the Journal of Lutheran Mission

Collver, Albert B. “Colonialism in the Global South: The Imperialism of Western Sexual Ethics.” Journal of Lutheran Mission 3, no. 1 (April 2016): 34–39.

http://blogs.lcms.org/2016/journal-of-lutheran-mission-april-2016

Conferencia "A 500 años. Luces y sombras de la Reforma Protestante”, conjuntamente con el Dr. Marcos Olalla y el Dr. Osvaldo López Ruiz. Organizada por las Cátedras libres “Roberto Carretero” y “Mauricio López”, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, octubre de 2017

In the last century there has been an outburst in criticism of traditional Luther research. The finnish school of research, led by Tuomo Mannermaa, has been one of the leading schools in this criticism, and provided a new view of Luther that has been called a paradigm shift in all of Luther research. Yet the new view of Luther, which is proposing that Luther had an ontological view of salvation closely related to the orthodox concept of theosis, has met resistance. One of the greatest criticisms and problems that has emerged concerning the finnish shcool is the fact that no clear motivation is given to why Luther should be read as having an ontological view of salvation. This criticism has not been met by the finnish school, but might be met in another branch of the Luther research. The results of the research dealing with Luther and mysticism is namely what I suggest that the finnish school needs as to give their own results real validity.

The combination of the finnish school and the mysticism of Martin Luther, is then providing a way of reading the theology of Luther, that I suggest is the best option.

The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Catholic Church (CC), is the most disingenuous exercise in hair-splitting I have ever had the displeasure to read. In relation to justification, this document does perhaps resolve some of the fundamental disagreements between Protestants and Catholics, but by focusing in on the trees it misses the forest, concentrating on justification and ignoring the elephant in the room: Popery.

Although it has been claimed that Dietrich Bonhoeffer's controversial 1933 essay on "The Church and the Jewish Question" is riddled with inconsistencies, I argue that the essay is entirely consistent at least on the issue of church action with respect to the state. Seeing this requires recognizing that the essay is driven by the logic of the two kingdoms, that Lutheran way of understanding God's action in two dimensions of life, the spiritual and temporal.

Современные традиции лютеран Санкт-Петербурга весьма разнообразны, несмотря на общую историю Реформации, начавшуюся в Германии в 1517 г. Сегодня все реже вспоминают историю, хотя в церкви,
не имеющей границ в привычном нам времени, нет истории, линейного развития, она существует в вечности, и то, что состоялось 500 лет
назад или ранее, – такая же реальность сегодня, о которой проповедуется и опыт которой используется в повседневной жизни церкви.
По мнению А.М.  Прилуцкого, терминологическая небрежность,
алогизм и отсутствие минимальной историко-теологической компетентности свойствення современным неопротестантам-харизматам.
Однако в данной статье рассматривается традиционная церковь.
Кто не знает историю Реформации, тот не поймет ее богословия.

A presente investigação visa contribuir com a temática do espaço e lugar de culto cristão, realizando uma ampla pesquisa sobre o espaço e o lugar vivencial e experiencial do ser humano no mundo que ele habita e ocupa. Esta pesquisa encontra-se ancorada dentro da área de pesquisa da teologia prática e da ciência litúrgica, a partir da qual se dará a investigação sobre a relação do ser humano com a liturgia e a arquitetura e sua influência e apreensão para dentro do culto cristão. Para tanto, partimos da discussão e da análise da evolução do conceito de espaço, sobretudo a partir da Idade Média até a atualidade. Analisamos a relação do ser humano com o espaço e o lugar que ela/ele ocupa no mundo, através dos conceitos de espaço vivenciado e experiencial. E através da teologia de Martim Lutero e da pesquisa de Mircea Eliade, sobre o sagrado e o profano, examinamos a relação sagrada e humana que ocorre no espaço sagrado. A partir dessa base, procuramos entender de que maneira ocorre a relação humana no espaço experiencial estrito da igreja (lugar de culto), averiguando de que modo acontece a relação arquiteta/o e obra arquitetônica e o modo com que ela/ele usa sua autonomia para planejar e construir o espaço litúrgico. Averiguaremos as formas com que o ser humano percebe e apreende o espaço e de que forma o corpo e a corporeidade humana relacionam-se no âmbito da igreja. Preocupados com o que se tem nomeado de não lugares, investigaremos se o lugar de culto também apresenta características de não lugar. A partir da temática sacramental e litúrgica no e com o lugar de culto, nosso foco está em entender de que forma o anúncio da Palavra de Deus e os sacramentos – batismo e eucaristia – são definidores espaciais do lugar de culto, ou seja, da nossa casa no tempo e no espaço. Por fim, analisaremos a relação entre liturgia e arquitetura. Apresentamos e definimos etapas que devem ser observadas quando uma comunidade pretende construir, reformar e/ou adaptar o seu lugar de culto. Além de definirmos princípios e critérios que as comunidades, as/os ministras/os e as/os arquitetas/as devem refletir ao longo da construção e reforma.

This paper looks at the theology of John Brine and assesses its role in staving off Unitarianism and Arminianism among the Particular Baptists of the eighteenth century. Brine's willingness to rely upon reason to argue back to doctrines that were not specifically addressed in Scripture, but that he believed were logically necessary, meant that his theology was influential in promoting "high" Calvinism and its goal of preserving the glory of God over and against human agency.

This is my third exploration into what Martin Luther says about love in the Christian life. The Luther text I look at is his Treatise on Good Works (1520). My interest here is in what he says about love for God. In a remarkable passage he makes three important affirmations: 1: Love for God is a work of the first commandment. 2) Love for God comes before or at the same time as faith in God. 3) Love for God means to be "kindly disposed toward him" because God is "favorable and kind to me."  I also look at his affirmation that love needs no teacher and his understanding that works "please" God.

While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the question of being, careful scrutiny of his texts show otherwise.  Trained at Erfurt to read Aristotle in the via moderna tradition, Luther did have ontological and semantic convictions that are displayed throughout his work, but especially in his disputations dealing with Trinitarian, Christological and soteriological issues.  While rejecting as idolatrous the human attempt to grasp the summum bonum through natural reason, Luther nonetheless assumed that God’s revelation in Christ has ontological implications. 

The Finnish School of Luther interpretation, founded by Tuomo Mannermaa, has done a great service for Luther research by highlighting the motifs in Luther of Christ’s real presence in the justified believer and the presence of God’s love in faith.  Although the Aristotelian categories available to Luther were inadequate for conceiving the paradoxical presence of the infinite in the finite, Luther did not thereby adopt a relational ontology more characteristic of the late nineteenth century than his own time.  Instead he simply regarded as true what his philosophical categories could not fully conceive: Just as God became a human being while remaining God, so too do humans become God while remaining human.  While the Finnish scholarship highlights Luther’s use of participatio in speaking of the presence of the divine in the justified believer, Luther did not mean thereby that human beings are essentially transformed into God, but rather they are in faith profoundly interpenetrated by the divine. 

Luther’s discussion of the nova lingua of theology connects to the “real-ontic” presence of Christ in the believer.  As a good nominalist, Luther understood that sentential truth presupposes ontology.  While everyday language, the language of philosophy generally, has truth conditions that can be articulated in terms of the existence of particular substances and their particular qualities, things are not so clear for the language of theology that speaks of the Trinity, incarnation, and the presence of God in the world and particularly in the life of the believer.  How is this language constituted so that the real presence of the divine can be spoken with meaning and truth?  While Luther assumes the extensionalism of nominalism when speaking philosophically, it is not clear that this is the case when he speaks theologically.  Luther understands that language itself must be profoundly changed in order to grasp and state the reality of the infinite in the finite.  Whether this change can be understood on the horizon of an extensionalist semantics is an open question.

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writings, Martin Luther is ubiquitous. Too often, however, Bonhoeffer's Lutheranism has been set aside with much less argumentative work than is appropriate in light of his sustained engagement with Luther. As a result, Luther remains a largely untouched hermeneutic key in Bonhoeffer interpretation. In Bonhoeffer's Reception of Luther, Michael P. DeJonge presents Bonhoeffer's Lutheran theology of justification focused on the interpersonal presence of Christ in word, sacrament, and church. The bridge between this theology and Bonhoeffer's ethical-political reflections is his two-kingdoms thinking. Arguing that the widespread failure to connect Bonhoeffer with the Lutheran two-kingdoms tradition has presented a serious obstacle in interpretation, DeJonge shows how this tradition informs Bonhoeffer's reflections on war and peace, as well as his understanding of resistance to political authority. In all of this, DeJonge argues that an appreciation of Luther's ubiquity in Bonhoeffer's corpus sheds light on his thinking, lends it coherence, and makes sense of otherwise difficult interpretive problems. What might otherwise appear as disparate, even contradictory moments or themes in Bonhoeffer's theology can often be read in terms of a consistent commitment to a basic Lutheran theological framework deployed according to dramatically changing circumstances.

Table of Contents
0. Introduction: An Argument for Bonhoeffer Interpretation
-Taking Luther’s Ubiquity Seriously
-What is ‘Lutheran’? Issues of Definition and Method
-Arguing for the Lutheran Character of Bonhoeffer’s Thinking

1. On the Way toward Christocentrism
--Karl Holl: Luther’s Religion of Conscience
--Christ or the Conscience?
--Conscience against Conscience
--Meager Christology
--Justification as the Unconditional, Effective Word of Christ’s Personal Presence as the Church

2. Christology in Conversation with Barth and the Lutheran Tradition
-Once more, Barth and Bonhoeffer on whether the Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-The History and Pre-History of the (in)capax Phrases
---This Man Is God
---This Is My Body
---The Finite is Capable of the Infinite
-Barth’s Rejection of the capax and the Majestic Genus
---The Finite is Not Capable of the Infinite
---The Common Actualization of Divine and Human Essences in Christ
-“The is may not be interpreted any further”: Bonhoeffer’s Christology

3. Caricatures of the Two Kingdoms
-Denials of Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-From Luther’s Two Kingdoms to the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---The Two Kingdoms in Luther’s Theology
---Church and State from a Lutheran Confessional Perspective
---Church and State in Confessional Comparison
---The Twentieth-Century Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms
---Troeltsch and the Niebuhrs

4. The Twofold Form of Christ: Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking
-Early Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“The Nature of the Church”
---“Lectures on Christology”
---“Thy Kingdom Come!”
---“The Church and the Jewish Question”
-The Two Kingdoms in Discipleship
-Late Two-Kingdoms Thinking
---“Protestantism without Reformation”
---“Heritage and Decay”
---Green, Rasmussen, Hauerwas
---“Ultimate and Penultimate Things”

5. Anabaptists and Peace
-Bonhoeffer’s Non-Commitment to Nonviolence
-The Doubly Curious Association of Bonhoeffer with Anabaptism through Yoder
---Yoder on Bonhoeffer
---Bonhoeffer on Anabaptists
-Bonhoeffer on Peace
--Peace and Preservation
--Orders of Preservation
--The Sermon on the Mount as Concrete Commandment
-Peace in Bonhoeffer and Anabaptists
-Interpreting Bonhoeffer on Peace
-Ecumenical Lutheranism and Lutheran Ecumenism

6. Lutheran Resistance Resources
-Luther to Hitler
-Lutheran Subservience and Bonhoeffer’s Resistance
-Luther on Resistance to Authority
-The Interims, Flacius, and the Magdeburg Confession
-Formula of Concord X
-Bonhoeffer and Lutheran Resistance Resources

7. Struggle and Resistance
-Resistance through the Confession of the Ecumenical Church
---Status confessionis
---Threats to the Gospel from outside: The State that Disregards its Mandate
---Threats to the Gospel from Inside: Heretical Legalism
---Confession, ‘the Jews,’ and Race
-Resistance through the Suffering Obedience of the Discipleship Community
---The Second Battle of the Church Struggle
---Cheap and Costly Grace
---Justification
-Resistance through the Responsible Action of the Individual
---Between Compromise and Radicalism
---Active Resistance
-Conclusion: A Lutheran Theology in Accord with Reality

Recent scholarship has contributed to the production of an intricate and complicated picture of theology and Wissenschaft during Germany's long nineteenth century. Yet an area that remains underresearched is the understanding of theological Wissenschaft among theologians who objected to the accommodating approaches represented by figures such as Baur and the Tübingen School, Ritschl and the Ritschlean School, or the various mediating theologians such as Philipp Marheineke or Karl Rudolph Hagenbach. More specifically, scant attention has been given to the nineteenth-century confessional Neo-Lutheran revival (Neulutherthum). The essay addresses this lacuna in nineteenth-century German scholarship by examining the critical response to academic theological Wissenschaft by August Christian Friedrich Vilmar (1800–1868).

It is clear that the Lutheran Reformation greatly contributed to changes in theological and legal ideas – but what was the extent of its impact on the field of contract law? Historians have extensively studied the contract doctrines developed by Roman Catholic theologians and canonists; however, they have largely neglected Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, Johann Aepinus, Martin Chemnitz, Friedrich Balduin and many other reformers. This book focuses on those neglected voices of the Reformation, exploring their role in the history of contract law. These men mapped out general principles to counter commercial fraud and dictated norms to regulate standard economic transactions. The most learned jurists, such as Matthias Coler, Peter Height, Benedict Carpzov, and Samuel Stryk, among others, studied these theological teachings and implemented them in legal tenets. Theologians and jurists thus cooperated in resolving contract law problems, especially those concerning interest and usury.

Öz 18. yüzyılda yaşayan Alman Yahudi filozof Moses Mendelssohn Yahudi dinine yönelik bir modernizasyon görüşü geliştirerek, Avrupa Yahudi tarihinde yeni bir dönem başlatmıştır. Mendelssohn modernizasyonu önünde engel olarak gördüğü dini otorite ve onun dayandığı dini literatüre yönelik eleştirilerde bulunmuştur. Bu sebeple Mendelssohn ve hareketinin geleneksel Yahudilik çizgisinden ayrılarak reformist bir karaktere büründüğü iddia edilmiş ve Heinrich Heine gibi bazıları da Mendelssohn'u Hıristiyan reform hareketini başlatan Martin Luther'e benzetmiştir. Çalışma, dini otoriteye karşı sergilenen tutum ve Kutsal Kitab'a yapılan vurgu noktasında iki şahsiyetin benzer yönlerine dikkat çekerken, önemli farklılıkları da ihmal etmeyerek böyle bir karşılaştırmanın ne derece isabetli olduğunu ortaya koymaya çalışmaktadır. Abstract German Jewish Philosopher Mendelssohn, who lived in the 18th century developing a vision for the modernization of jewish religious, ushered in a new age in European Jewish History. Seen as an obstacle to Mendelssohn's modernization criticized religious authority and literature which it is based. For his reason, has been claimed that Mendelssohn and his movement separated from the line of traditional Judaism has taken a reformist character and have compared some people also like Heinrich Heine Mendelssohn to Luther, who started Christian reform movement. The study while taking care of the two figure's similar aspects in point of attitudes towards religious authority and the emphasis on the Bible, by not neglecting to important differences is trying to reveal how accurate such a comparison to be made between two figures.

This conference paper examines Article XXI of the Augsburg Confession.  It contends that this article continues be relevant to the modern church since the prominence of Roman Catholic veneration and invocation of the saints has only increased since the Reformation.  In addition, the paper encourages believers to find a proper place for the saints in evangelical faith and piety.

Partiendo del principio protestante del "sacerdocio de todos los creyentes", que propuso Lutero , se plantean las implicaciones teológicas y eclesiales de este "sacerdocio universal", como la confesión de la "sanctorum communio". Se hace una intersección con la salud mental, en cuanto la comunidad cristiana responde, desde una ética del dolor, a las experiencias de sufrimiento psíquico. Se plantean las miradas de comprensión de dicho sufrimiento desde la psicopatología y los abordajes psicoterapéuticos, así como se plantean las formas de intervención desde las comunidades de fe para el crecimiento y la curación.

Heidegger's ambition was to become a new Luther. His whole oeuvre is an attempt to repeat and radicalize the reformer's gesture. Although Heidegger's published works rarely quote Luther literally, many features and assumptions of his philosophy stem directly from this predecessor. Most importantly the idea to recover the essence of original Christianity by means of performing the destruction of tradition that obfuscates the primordial root. Heidegger repeats this attempt of recovery with full awareness of Luther's role in the formation of modern philosophy, which he planned to describe in the unwritten essay on "The Ontological Foundations of Late Medieval Anthropology and the Early Theology of Luther", reconstructed here on the basis of early Freiburg and Marburg courses.

In sharp contrast with what are seen as the vibrant and creative years of the Reformation, the post-Reformation "Age of Orthodoxy" is often viewed as dead, rigid, and sterile and its theologians as overly concerned with dogmatic formulas and indifferent to the needs of the everyday parishioner. This study takes a new look at this often neglected "Age of Orthodoxy" by examining the homiletic advice of a Lutheran theologian by the name of Johann Gerhard (1582-1637). In his instructions on preaching, Gerhard makes it clear that a significant part of the preacher's (and theologian's) task is to apply Scripture to the needs of his parishioners using different "modes of application" - by instructing and reproving them toward the truth, by training and correcting them toward doing good, and by consoling them during adversity. In fact, interestingly, it seems that Gerhard's wide array of published writings can also be divided into these three "modes of application."  This means that Gerhard's multi-volume "Loci Theologici", often decried as tediously unconcerned with pastoral care, are actually "applications" of the scriptural texts written out of deep pastoral care and concern. Learning how one prominent post-Reformation theologian viewed the multi-faceted pastoral care of his ministry may lead us to reconsider the rather disparaging view that many have of this often overlooked "Age of Orthodoxy."

Two protestant and two catholic theologians, two exegetes and two ethicists rediscover the state for theology. Democracy needs a theology that supports rather than deconstructs the power of the state. My contribution deals with Rm 13:1–7 (pp. 103–138).

I attach the preface and a flyer from the publisher.