Proclamatory Pragmatism an Investigation Into the Lutheran Logic of Law and Gospel
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Proclamatory Pragmatism An Investigation into the Lutheran Logic of Law and Gospel Scott Edward Yakimow Vancouver, Washington Master of Arts, University of Virginia, 2011 Master of Divinity, Concordia Seminary, 2004 Master of Arts, Luther Seminary, 1999 Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Valparaiso University, 1994 Christ College Scholar, Valparaiso University, 1994 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Religious Studies University of Virginia December, 2014 Abstract Contemporary American Lutheranism is experiencing a considerable number of long- term, intractable disputes, principally regarding biblical interpretation, that are resulting in an increasingly fractured denominational community. This dissertation seeks to provide the Lutheran community, and possibly others, with a set of tools that can be used to mediate such disputes regarding how Scripture should be interpreted. It does so by means of offering to Lutherans a pragmatic analysis of the logic behind the Lutheran praxis of distinguishing Law and Gospel, and it connects this praxis to the Apostle Paul’s own approach to reading Scripture. I develop this logical model, which I call “proclamatory pragmatism,” by means of an investigation of early Lutheran thought – primarily that of the Lutheran Confessions – and an analysis of Paul’s practice of reading Scripture as witnessed to in Galatians, 1 Corinthians, and Romans. It is highly indebted to and intended to be an extension of Peter Ochs’ “scriptural pragmatism” which is itself dependent upon the pragmatism developed by Charles Sanders Peirce. My primary thesis is that competing foundationalisms are present in contemporary Lutheran theology; that both claim roots in the early Lutherans and Paul; that both misunderstand the Lutheran and Pauline project in characteristically foundationalist ways (dogmatist and relativist); that the early Lutherans and Paul were primarily engaged in a reparative project; that charting the logic of both the early Lutherans’ and Paul’s reparative projects via pragmatic categories offers a normative logical structure for contemporary Lutherans that they might use to mediate the problem of competing foundationalisms; and that the model of “proclamatory pragmatism” is effective in doing so. I offer this logical model to Lutherans (and perhaps other Pauline Christians, ii though its extent is unknown) as a way forward out of the impasse which currently plagues so many theological discussions. © Scott Yakimow, 2014 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................i Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................1 Introductory Matters .............................................................................................................4 Peirce, Paul and Lutheranism: Boon Companions ................................................................ 11 Charting Contemporary Lutheran Divisions......................................................................... 17 Plan of Attack ................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter One: Introduction to Scriptural Pragmatism ............................................................. 33 Basic Definitions ............................................................................................................... 42 Three Tendencies of Reasoning.......................................................................................... 62 A Logic of Vagueness ......................................................................................................... 80 Chapter Two: Proclamatory Pragmatism – Paul’s Virtuous Scriptural Practice ........................ 93 Paul as Handyman: Reparative Logic as Endemic to Paul’s Letters ........................................ 96 Paul’s Virtuous Scriptural Practice .................................................................................... 102 Paul’s Gospel .................................................................................................................. 108 The Gospel and Paul’s Scriptural Reading Tendencies ........................................................ 123 Faith, Hope and Love: Hosting a Telic Dialog ..................................................................... 144 Specific Instances of Paul’s Scriptural Practice: Food Sacrificed to Idols .............................. 153 Romans ...................................................................................................................... 153 First Corinthians .......................................................................................................... 162 Chapter Three: Law and Gospel – Proclamatory Pragmatism in the Lutheran Tradition ........ 171 The Internalist Pole – Lutheran Spirituality as a Habitus θεόσδοτος ................................... 176 The Objectivist Pole – Doctrine as Rules for Proclamation ................................................. 204 Doctrine’s Role as Negative Rules of Christian Discourse ................................................ 217 A Reparative Rationality – Proclamatory Pragmatism as Law & Gospel ............................... 235 Conclusion: Proclamatory Pragmatism and a Lutheran Morphologie ................................... 260 A Social Statement on Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust ..................................................... 264 A Claimed Pauline Doctrine: “The Order of Creation” ........................................................ 284 Appendix A – C.F.W. Walther’s Theses on Distinguishing Law and Gospel ............................ 299 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................... 303 1 Abbreviations AC The Augsburg Confession ALC American Lutheran Church Ap The Apology to the Augsburg Confession AR Ochs, Peter. Another Reformation: Postliberal Christianity and the Jews. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. BDAG Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker, and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. BoC Book of Concord CD Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics. 14 vols. Translated by G.W. Bromily. Edited by G.W. Bromily and T.F. Torrance. New York: T&T Clark International, A Continuum Imprint, 2004. Conf Augustine. Confessions. Oxford World Classics. Translated by Henry Chadwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. CP Peirce, Charles. Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce. 8 volumes. Edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960. CWA Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America DeTrin Augustine. The Trinity: De Trinitate. The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century. Translated by Edmund Hill and edited by John E. Rotelle. Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1991. ELCA Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Ep The Epitome to the Formula of Concord EP Peirce, Charles. The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 1 (1867-1893) and Volume 2 (1893-1913). Edited by Nathan Houser, Christian Kloesel, and the Peirce Project. © Scott Yakimow, 2014 2 Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992 and 1998. FC The Formula of Concord HA The Humble Argument OCD Augustine. On Christian Doctrine. Trans. D.W. Robertson, Jr. Upper Saddles River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1958. K/W Kolb, Robert and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. L&G Law and Gospel LC Luther’s Large Catechism LCA Lutheran Church in America LCMS The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod LSJ Liddell, Henry George et al. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. LW Luther, Martin. Luther’s Works, Vols. 1-55. Eds. Jaroslav Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann. Saint Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia Publishing House and Fortress Press, 1958-1976. NA The Neglected Argument PPLS Ochs, Peter. Peirce, Pragmatism and the Logic of Scripture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. PTS Short, Thomas L. Peirce’s Theory of Signs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. PW Ochs, Peter. “Philosophic Warrants for Scriptural Reasoning.” Modern Theology 22, no. 3 (2006): 465-482. RR Ochs, Peter. “Reparative Reasoning: From Peirce’s Pragmatism to Augustine’s Scriptural Semiotic.” Modern Theology 25, no. 2 (2009): 187-215. SA The Smalcald Articles SC Luther’s Small Catechism SD The Solid Declaration to the Formula of Concord © Scott Yakimow, 2014 3 TCT Commission on Theology and Church Relations. “The Creator’s Tapestry: Scriptural Perspectives and Ecclesial Practice.” St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009. Trigl. Bente, F., ed. Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church (German-Latin- English). St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921. WIC Commission on Theology and Church Relations. “Women in the Church: Scriptural Principles and Ecclesial Practice.” St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1985. © Scott Yakimow, 2014 4 Introductory Matters This dissertation grew from long consideration of a thought that found voice for me in a 2007 paper