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“BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MINDS”: CHRISTIAN WORSHIP AS THE ROOT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ETHICAL FORMATION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Gifford Andrew Grobien _________________________________ Gerald P. McKenny, Director Graduate Program in Theology Notre Dame, Indiana July 2011 © Copyright by Gifford Andrew Grobien 2011 All rights reserved “BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MINDS”: CHRISTIAN WORSHIP AS THE ROOT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ETHICAL FORMATION Abstract by Gifford Andrew Grobien This dissertation offers an alternative to the common but misleading criticism that Lutheranism is unable to provide a sustained account of ethical formation. The dialectic of law and gospel has suggested to some that forgiveness and the advocacy of ethical norms are in contention with each other. However, by grounding them in the single righteousness of Christ, this dissertation argues that forgiveness and ethics complement rather than oppose each other. Stanley Hauerwas suggested that the dichotomy between freedom in divine grace and ethical rigor is overcome through a community narrative integrating forgiveness with holy living. Joel Biermann adapts Hauerwas’ model with Luther’s Gifford Andrew Grobien concept of the two kinds of righteousness to suggest a framework of ethical formation centered on instruction and a creedal narrative. Yet Biermann’s model does not adequately treat the conceptual roots of the question: that Christian righteousness is both imputed and imparted, and that a Christian receives and works with righteousness through Christian worship. Justification as forgiveness includes conversion, by which God grants a believer a new character. Traditional Lutheran anthropology says that this regeneration is God granting to a believer a new nature in mystical union with Jesus Christ. By critically exploring the work of the Finnish Luther School led by Tuomo Mannermaa, this dissertation explains how union with Christ imparts righteousness and the corresponding new character to the believer. Justification and the call to works of love are not dialectical opposites, but they are both rooted in Christ’s righteousness. Furthermore, as the means of grace are held in the Reformation heritage to bestow grace to the believer, the Word and sacraments are the means of establishing union with Christ and of nurturing the new character. Considering Louis-Marie Chauvet’s “symbolic order” and Bernd Wannenwetsch’s understanding of worship as Christianity’s unique “form of life,” this dissertation argues that worship practices are the foundational and determinative context in which grace is offered and in which the distinctively Christian ethos develops virtues consistent with Christian character. This understanding is also compared with Hauerwas’ narrative ethics and the traditional Lutheran practice of ethical instruction by the Ten Commandments. CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS............................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..................................................................................................... vi CHAPTER ONE: THE PROBLEM OF ETHICAL FORMATION IN THE LUTHERAN TRADITION ..1 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................1 1.2 Law, Gospel, and Righteousness .....................................................................9 1.3 Righteousness and Justification in the Lutheran Confessions........................22 1.4 Luther on the Two Kinds of Righteousness ...................................................26 1.5 Justification and Ethical Progress ..................................................................40 CHAPTER TWO: CHARACTER AND CHRISTIAN FORMATION ............................................45 2.1 Introduction: Stanley Hauerwas, Virtue Ethics, and the Lutheran Tradition ..45 2.2 Character and Agency ..................................................................................51 2.3 Character and the Christian Life ...................................................................60 2.4 Narrative and Practice ..................................................................................74 2.5 Implications for the Lutheran Position ..........................................................82 CHAPTER THREE: THE ONTOLOGY OF JUSTIFICATION: NEW CHARACTER AS RELATION AND UNION ..................................................................................................89 3.1 Character and the Finnish School of Luther Studies ......................................89 3.2 Communication and the Blessed Exchange ...................................................92 3.3 Christ the form of faith ................................................................................95 3.4 Contemporary Questions of Union and Communication............................. 115 ii 3.5 A Critical Consideration of the Finnish School and the Poignancy of Union . 126 CHAPTER FOUR: A BELIEVER’S UNION WITH CHRIST: PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................. 134 4.1 The Meaning of Union ................................................................................ 134 4.2 Models of Union ......................................................................................... 148 4.2.1 Recent Proposals for Thinking about Union ................................. 148 4.2.2 Perichoresis and Adoption ........................................................... 154 4.3 A Systematic Approach to Describing Union with Christ ............................. 156 4.3.1 A Distinct Category of Union ........................................................ 156 4.3.2 Personhood and Union ................................................................ 160 4.3.3 Being in Faith ............................................................................... 166 4.3.4 The Two Natures of the Human Person: Reflections on Romans 7-8 ................................................................... 168 CHAPTER FIVE: CHRISTIAN WORSHIP AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS...................................... 173 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 173 5.2 The Linguistic Basis of Christian Worship .................................................... 176 5.2.1 Chauvet’s Symbolic Order ............................................................ 176 5.2.2 Forms of Life ................................................................................ 181 5.3 “Political” Worship ..................................................................................... 185 5.3.1 The Language of the Church......................................................... 185 5.3.2 Activity or Institution? The Church and the Mediation of God ..... 188 5.4 Christian Ritual and Ethical Formation ........................................................ 199 5.4.1 The Holy Spirit and the Word ....................................................... 202 5.4.2 Presence, Location, and Mercy .................................................... 205 5.4.3 Describing Worship and Ethics Phenomenologically .................... 207 5.5 Disposession - Gift and Return.................................................................... 208 5.5.1 Possession, Dispossession, Offering, and Charity ......................... 208 5.5.2 The Significance of Those in Need ................................................ 210 5.6 Sacramental Efficacy and the Inscription of the Holy Spirit ......................... 211 5.6.1 Revealers and Operators of Grace................................................ 212 5.6.2 Spiritual Inscription and Verification ............................................ 216 5.7 Worship, Communion, and Ethics in Luther and the Confessions ............... 220 5.7.1 Luther and The Blessed Sacrament .............................................. 220 5.7.2 The Meaning of Eucharistic Sacrifice ............................................ 233 iii CHAPTER SIX: THE HOLY SPIRIT, VIRTUE, AND THE LAW IN THE ETHICAL LIFE OF THE BELIEVER ..................................................................................................................... 241 6.1 Introduction - Sketching Christian Ethics .................................................... 241 6.2 The Holy Spirit and New Character ............................................................. 243 6.2.1 Grace and Narrative in Formation ................................................ 243 6.2.2 “The Transposing Power of the Spirit” ......................................... 244 6.3 Particular Christian Virtues: Faith, Self-Sacrifice & Charity .......................... 246 6.3.1 Faith: Fear, Trust, Love, and Knowledge of God ........................... 247 6.3.2 Self-Sacrifice ................................................................................ 250 6.3.2.1 Recent Research on Christian Sacrifice .......................... 250 6.3.2.2 Romans 12 .................................................................... 252 6.3.2.3 Hebrews 13 ................................................................... 253 6.3.2.4 1 Peter 2 ........................................................................ 255 6.3.2.5 Sacrifice for Creation and for the Neighbor ................... 257 6.3.3 Charity