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Whatever Became of Carl Braaten?: Selective Critical Reflections on Carl Braaten's Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian Gary M

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Whatever Became of Carl Braaten?: Selective Critical Reflections on Carl Braaten's Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian Gary M Luther Seminary Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary Faculty Publications Faculty & Staff choS larship 10-2012 Whatever Became of Carl Braaten?: Selective Critical Reflections on Carl Braaten's Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian Gary M. Simpson Luther Seminary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Simpson, Gary M., "Whatever Became of Carl Braaten?: Selective Critical Reflections on Carl Braaten's Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian" (2012). Faculty Publications. 57. http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/faculty_articles/57 Published Citation Simpson, Gary M. “Whatever Became of Carl Braaten?: Selective Critical Reflections on Carl E. Braaten’s Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian.” Currents in Theology and Mission 39, no. 5 (October 2012): 374–85. https://luthersem.idm.oclc.org/ login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001933789&site=ehost-live&scope=site. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty & Staff choS larship at Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Whatever Became of Carl Braaten? Selective Critical Reflections on Carl E. Braatens Because o f Christ: Memoirs o f a Lutheran Theologian Gary M. Simpson Professor o f Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary Carl Braaten as “a Lutheran theologian” review his understanding of the vocation is one thing, but Carl Braaten as “a Lu- of a Lutheran theologian; second, I will theran theologian” is quite another! Just stipulate certain traits of each of the Carls; so, some commemorate his influence with third, I will chart the career path of the joy; others remember him less cheerfully. two Carls; and finally, I will take a deeper This situation neither surprises nor much look at the toll on others, and on Carl, that disturbs Carl— I’m going to say “Carl” one of the two Carls has exacted. because we have been friends, not bosom Memoirs, of all possible genres, de- buddies or even close personal friends, but serve especially to be read and commented friends nevertheless. He has also been for upon through a hermeneutic of respect and me an important mentor, one- or two-steps generosity, that reverential posture of first removed, so to speak. resort, ofshalom, of gratitude, even of joy. Carl candidly admits this ambivalent Only as a necessary last resort ought readers estimation and perhaps even sees it as a of memoirs observe that duty entailed in a mark of a theologian. After all, claims hermeneutic ofsuspicion to bear a posture Carl, “the idea of a noncontroversial of critique in order to protect others from theology [is] an oxymoron” (M em oirs, harm. Still, even this duty of suspicion 58)! Still, a second factor contributes to embedded in the responsibility to protect “Braaten-ambivalence,” and it resides in must meet the norm of respect. Carl himself, in the rhetorical modes and moods that he has honed. Simply put, Vocation of a Theologian, two Carls show up in his vocation as a Lutheran theologian. In order to come and Lutheran Too to grips with “the two Carls,” first, I will “The theologian’s task,” asserts Carl, “is to turn the spotlight of the gospel on the 1. Carl E. Braaten, Because o f Christ: intellectual challenges of our time and to Memoirs of a Lutheran Theologian (Fortress keep the church from crossing the line from Press, 2010) [hereafter referred to in an un- orthodoxy into heresy” M( em oirs, vii). conventional manner as M em oirs with page Having so stated this twofold assignment, numbers in parentheses in the text]. Braaten taught systematic theology for twenty-three he turns immediately to elaborate a little years at the Lutheran School of Theology at on heresy. Heresy is “debilitating.. .causes Chicago [hereafter L ST C ]. spiritual anemia... [and] substitutes ideol­ Currents in Theology and Mission 39:5 (October 2012} Simpson. W hatever Became o f Carl Braaten? 375 ogy for real theology... [having] stricken along with well-known theologians from large segments of Christianity in Europe” numerous Protestant seminaries and divin- [Memoirs, vii-viii). He then notes: ity schools, nearly all senior white males. But I am not interested in pinning the He notes that “the conversation changed label "heretic" or "apostate" on any so drastically” when younger scholars, theologian. Oh, well, there may be a who were “mostly liberationist, feminist, few such, especially those in outright postmodern, post-Christian, and pro the denial of the divinity of Christ or the LGBT ideology,” were invited in for the resurrection of Jesus. Memoirs( , viii) second phase of the project. The entire experience for me was an eye- W ill This Predicted opener. It became unmistakably clear Temperance Hold or Not? to me that liberal Protestant theology had come to a dead end, and that for Commendably, Carl tells us that Christo- Christian theology in America to have centricity has always been “the center of a future, it would need to move in an my existence as a Christian theologian” entirely different direction. (Memoirs, (M em oirs, viii). He finds this in Martin 116) Luther’s memorable “was Christum treibt” (“what conveys Christ”) and in the Lu- As we will see, this experience played a theran Confessions’ “ propter Christum ’ crucial role in the emergence of “the two (“because of Christ”), the main title of Carls.” Carl points out that several peer Memoirs. Theologians are called to stand Lutheran theologians, some of whom he on the shoulders of the great theological himself had mentored, have taken leave traditions. It is not their task “to invent a of their Lutheran confession and become new Christianity out of his or her religious Roman Catholic precisely because of the experience and imagination.” Already in contamination of American Lutheranism the Preface he begins to excoriate “radical by liberal Protestantism. Still, “I have never theological feminists” for doing the latter been able to imagine myself as other than {Memoirs, ix). Lutheran under the existing conditions of Carl notes, “These memoirs relate church division” M( em oirs, ix). my struggle to reclaim the original intent of the Lutheran Reformation...[that is,] to summon the church to become Tlie Two Carls: Treatiser truly evangelical, catholic, and orthodox” and Tractator {Memoirs, xi). In point of fact, his own self-understanding is: “ evangelicalviixhowt W ho are the two Carls? There is Carl-the- being Protestant, catholic without being treatiser and Carl-the-tractator. 2A treatiser Roman, and orthodox without being writes treatises; a tractator writes tracts. Eastern” {Memoirs, xi). As he progresses Carl-treatiser writes and edits quite won- through Memoirs, “Protestantism” increas- derful books as well as articles in journals ingly becomes more and more his favorite and chapters in books edited by himself pejorative, especially when coupled with and others, many of which 1 myself have “liberal.” In M emoirs at least he more assigned as required reading in my classes. often caricatures “liberal Protestantism” than analyzes it {Memoirs, 166-171). 2. I use these now archaic English In the mid-1970s Carl participated in nouns; see Oxford English Dictionary On- a Vanderbilt University writing project line at: http://www.oed.com/. Simpson. Whatever Became o f Carl Braaten? 376 Carl-tractator writes editorials, delivers as well as when comparing and contrast- conference speeches, composes short es- ing different theologians ( M emoirs, xiii). says and pithy, indeed, fiery letters. And For instance, Carl-treatiser examines yes, Carl-tractator shows up prominently the deficiencies of someone’s particular throughout Memoirs. theological claim (the N on) and likewise W hat is a treatise and what is a tract? highlights the strengths and soundness The classic 1897 American Encyclopedic also entailed within a claim (the Sic). He D ictionary notes that a treatise “may then regularly takes up in like fashion describe a composition of any length...” someone else’s related claim. This sets up and then cites William Gilpin’s succinct rich, textured, evenhanded, and fruitful description: “W hen we write a treatise, contrasts and comparisons that promote we consider the subject throughout. We the educational appeal of a treatise to strengthen it with arguments— we clear “consider the subject throughout,” as it of objections— we enter into details— Gilpin classically put it. “So it went,” for and, in short, we leave nothing unsaid that example, “ I could not come down hard on properly appertains to the subject.”3 This one side and ignore the other. In modern describes a significant portion of Carl’s theology there was Kahler against Ritschl, and I learned from both” (M emoirs, xiii). Vintage Carl-treatiser! é é Τ'could not come Paul Tillich was Carl’s dissertation adviser, and his influence shows up A down hard on especially in Carl-treatiser’s Sic-et-Non approach ( M emoirs, 27-41). I myself, as one side and ignore a young pastor and aspiring theologian, learned a ton from Carl’s many treatises, the other. In modern both the book-length and the essay-length ones. I learned not only the breadth of theology there was theological content and the depth of a Gospel-grounded analysis, but also I Kähler against Ritschl, came to appreciate evermore deeply the Sic-et-Non mode and mood of theologi- and I learned from cal inquiry and rhetoric— a dialectically serious and critical, yet careful, generous, both” {Memoirs, xiii). reverential and flourishing discovery of the evangelical “because of Christ”! Trea- tises generally embody a kind of social- emotional mood, a poise that respects, published work, though surely not its even reverences, the potential fruitfulness entirety.
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