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Holy Absolution in the Theology of Martin Luther and Philipp Jacob Spener a Comparative Study Gerald Krispin Concordia Seminary, St

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Holy Absolution in the Theology of Martin Luther and Philipp Jacob Spener a Comparative Study Gerald Krispin Concordia Seminary, St Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Doctor of Theology Dissertation Concordia Seminary Scholarship 5-1-1992 Propter Absolutionem: Holy Absolution in the Theology of Martin Luther and Philipp Jacob Spener A Comparative Study Gerald Krispin Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.csl.edu/thd Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Krispin, Gerald, "Propter Absolutionem: Holy Absolution in the Theology of Martin Luther and Philipp Jacob Spener A Comparative Study" (1992). Doctor of Theology Dissertation. 13. http://scholar.csl.edu/thd/13 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Concordia Seminary Scholarship at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Theology Dissertation by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. For Helen, Daniel, Benjamin, Rebecca, and Elizabeth TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1 PART I. MARTIN LUTHER'S THEOLOGY OF HOLY ABSOLUTION Chapter I. LUTHER'S EARLY THEOLOGY OF HOLY ABSOLUTION 1514 - 1517 11 Luther's Longing For a Gracious God . 15 Die sieben BuBpsalmen (1516/17) 20 Indulgences and Holy Absolution 26 Sermon on Indulgences (1516) 27 The Ninety-Five Theses (1517) 29 II. HOLY ABSOLUTION AND FAITH IN LUTHER'S THEOLOGY 1517- 1521 33 Sermo de poenitentia (1518) 33 Sermon von dem Sacrament der BuBe (1519) 36 Kurze Unterweisung, wie man beichten soil (1519) 48 Resolutiones disputationum de indulgentiarum (1518) and Pro veritate inquirenda et timoratis consientiis consolandis conclusiones (1518) 50 Confitendi Ratio (1520) 56 III. THE PROMISSIO OF HOLY ABSOLUTION IN THE THEOLOGY OF LUTHER DURING THE YEAR 1521 60 Unterricht an die Beichtkinder (1521) . 61 Von der Beichte, ob die der Pabst Macht habe zu gebieten (1521) 66 IV. LUTHER'S CONFESSION OF HOLY ABSOLUTION 1521-1529 91 Von der Beicht (1522) 92 Formula Missae et communionis (1523) . 99 Sermon vom Sakrament des Leibes and Blutes wider die Schwarmgeister (1526) 107 The Large Catechism (1529 ) 114 The Small Catechism (1531) 123 iii V. HOLY ABSOLUTION AND HEILSGEWIBHEIT 1530-1537 . 126 Von den Schlusseln (1530) 126 Private Absolution and the Nurnberg Absolutionsstreit (1533) 142 The Smalcald Articles (1537) 148 PART II. PHILIPP JAKOB SPENER'S THEOLOGY OF HOLY ABSOLUTION I. SPENER'S YOUTH AND EARLY THEOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT • 158 Spener as Theologian and Pastor 162 The Pia Desideria 164 Spener and His Teaching About Wiedergeburt ▪ 172 II. BEICHTE AND BUI3E IN THE THEOLOGY OF SPENER . • 179 Wahre BuBe 184 BuBe and Divine Order 198 III. HOLY ABSOLUTION AND THE CERTAINTY OF FORGIVENESS • 202 Holy Absolution and Faith 206 Holy Absolution and the Forgiveness of Sins . 213 Holy Absolution and the Verba Christi • • • 217 IV. HOLY ABSOLUTION AND THE REGENERATE PENITENT • . 224 Theological Summary 232 CONCLUSION 242 APPENDIX A 245 APPENDIX B 248 BIBLIOGRAPHY 250 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BSLK Die Bekentnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 7th ed. (GOttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1976) LTB Philipp Jacob Spener. Schriften. Edited by Erich Beyreuther. Letzte Theologische Bedencken. Vol. 1-3 (1711). Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1987. PD Philipp Jakob Spener. Pia Desideria. 2d ed. Edited by Kurt Aland. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter and Co. , 1955. PDT Philipp Jakob Spener. Pia Desideria. Edited and translated by Theodore G. Tappert. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1964. SL D. Martin Luthers sammtliche Schriften, Johann Georg Walch, ed.; re-edited and published in modern German, 23 vols. in 25 (St. Louis, 1880-1910). TB, I Philipp Jakob Spener. Theologische Bedenken. Vol. 1. Halle: Im Verlage des Weysenhauses, 1700. TB, 113 Philipp Jakob Spener. Theologische Bedenken. 3d ed. Vol. 2. Halle: Im Verlage des Weysenhauses, 1716. WA D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar, 1883-). WA Br D. Martin Luthers Werke. Briefwechsel (Weimar, 1930-1978). WA Tr D. Martin Luthers Werke. Tischreden (Weimar, 1912- 1921). v INTRODUCTION In the context of Lutheran theology much attention has been given to Luther's confession of the sacraments, specifically Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar. And for good reason: for Luther the certainty of salvation (Heilsgewissheit) rested upon the certainty of the Lord who was there (extra nos) "for us" (pro nobis). The sacraments are the sure locatedness of this Lord and his giving out the gifts he says he is there giving out. Luther did not permit anything to erode this certainty. He thereby did not allow the "living voice of the Gospel," (the viva vox evangelii) which bestowed life and salvation, to be silenced. This viva vox for Luther comes from the mouth of the one who proclaimed, both from the pulpit and privatim: "I absolve you." This is indeed how the absolution was confessed in the Confessio Augustana (especially in articles 11, 12 and 25), which confesses joyfully the blessings which confession and absolution bestow and notably places these articles between Holy Baptism (AC 9), the Lord's Supper (AC 10) and the proper use of the sacraments (AC 13). The reason is une- quivocal: in absolution the words of Christ have their locatedness as they do in the sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Lord's Supper. They are to be found in the mouth of the 1 2 father confessor. Luther himself, therefore, consistently pointed not only to the absolution which the sacraments distribute, but to the viva vox Christi, who in the abso- lution proclaimed and distributed pro me the forgiveness of sins. He remained near to this voice his entire life. One might indeed venture to say that that which is called the "Reformational discovery" is in itself the fruit of Luther's evangelical confession (Bekenntnis) of confes- sion (Beichte) and absolution.1 Indulgences, after all, assaulted the one place where Luther thought one could find hope that God will accept the sinner: in confession and absolution. Sacrosancti salvatori, the Jubilee Indulgence of Leo X, thus assaulted the very heart of Luther's sole source of consolation in the midst of his Anfechtungen: repentance 1This is indeed what Theodor Kliefoth, "Die Beichte und Absolution," Liturgische Abhandlungen (Schwerin: Verlag der Stiller'schen HofBuchhandlung, 1865), argues when he writes, "Die lutherische Reformation -- kann man sagen ist aus dem Artikel von der Beichte und Absolution herausgeboren, denn innerlich ward Luther zum Reformator in jener Stunde gemacht, als jener Manch ihn in der Zelle, 'mit der heiligen Absolution trostete', und auBerlich hub sie ja mit der Bekampfung des pabstlichen Ablasses an." Kliefoth, 255. Indeed, Kliefoth can go as far as saying that the Reformation was fundamentally a restoration of confession and absolution. Kliefoth, 125. See also Fred L. Precht, "Changing Theologies of Private and Public Confession and Absolution" (Th.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, 1965), 73. Precht refers to Melanchthon's judgment of Luther's contribution to the subject of penance in WA 8, 311, 31-34: "So du fragist, was nutzs Luther der kirchen than hat, das hastu hie ynn der summa. Er hat eyn rechte weyB der puB geleret und antzeygt den rechten brauch der sacrament: das betzeugen myr vieler gewissen." Cf. Emil Fischer, Zur Geschichte der evangelischen Beichte, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Dieterisch'sche Verlags-Buchhandlung, 1902), 1. 3 which expresses itself in confession as a reflection of his humilitas. No repentance, no confession, no absolution. When Luther thus challenged the sale of these indulgences, he did so because they displaced the necessary contrite confession upon which alone the priest was able to speak the words of absolution. As he therefore held to his theologia crucis, Luther saw in contrition and the absolution which followed that which may in no circumstances be obscured or silenced. Indeed, the Ninety-Five Theses made clear that no one may abrogate this basis for absolution, and thereby repackage the sacrament of penance in any other form. According to Luther, the sale of indulgences distorted and ultimately precluded that the penitent could be given the absolution which Christ, with his words, has placed in the mouth of the priest as the location of forgiveness for the church. Yet moving beyond contritio, Luther looked to faith in the words of absolution themselves as the certain locus of forgive- ness. For there where the verba Christi are proclaimed, there certain forgiveness has been given. Luther never tired of connecting absolution with the Gospel, Christ, the Sac- raments, and the sermon. In consequence, he was compelled to argue against the duress with which the Roman church com- manded confession as a matter of law. Nor did he regard the words of absolution to be limited to the mouth of the priest, but as Christ's gift to the church; the Gospel was to be heard everywhere, certainly also in the mouth of the 4 Christian brother and neighbor. As Gospel and gift, confes- sion and absolution, specifically absolution as the chief part, could not be forced nor limited. For grace is resist- able, and the absolution is indeed grace, Christ, given to faith. Luther thus extolled absolution which is given to the penitent who has confessed his sin privatim. And it is this particular locus, that is, Luther's confession of absolution as the verba Christi, spoken in statu Christi to the penitent who has made his confession, which calls for further examination. The approach to Luther's theological development which will be taken here is a chronological one. This is in no small part due to the character of Luther's writings themselves, many of which are occasional in nature and therefore inherently reflect Luther's theological develop- ment. It is therefore imperative that the time of writing and the occasion of a quotation must always be taken into account.
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