Intersections

Volume 1997 | Number 2 Article 4

1997 Lutheran Tradition: Five Continuing Themes Walter R. Bouman

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Augustana Digital Commons Citation Bouman, Walter R. (1997) "Lutheran Tradition: Five Continuing Themes," Intersections: Vol. 1997: No. 2, Article 4. Available at: http://digitalcommons.augustana.edu/intersections/vol1997/iss2/4

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Walter R. Bouman

Lutherans are "a decent, humble people," says Garrison places where all threse arguments are -- or ought to be -­ Keillor, the Lutheran 's best knownapologete. And vigorously taking place. they may have much to be humble about. In the USA, Lutherans are in themiddle of the middle class, withlower I. The LutheranTr adition is Biblical average incomes than Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and members of the United Church of , higher average (1463-1546) was a monumental figure in incomes than , Pentecostals, and members of Westernhistory, larger than lifein his own life-time. He is holiness churches. Only 12% of Lutherans are college of great importance to theLutheran tradition, but he is not graduates(compared with 34% forEpiscopalians), but they the founderof a religious institution in thesense in which, have a high respectfor college education. 1 My assignment forexample, Mary Baker Eddy is thefounder of the Church is to describe the Lutheran theological tradition forcollege of Christ, Scientist. He died excommunicated,5 beforethere faculty members at colleges related to the Evangelical was a "LutheranChurch. " If there is a "foundingdate" for Lutheran Church in America. the Lutheran Church it would be the Religious Peace of Augsburg of 1555.6 The text of this agreement for the I propose to carryout my assignmentby addressing what I nearly 250 political entities which made up the German believe to be themost importanttheological commitmentsof "Holy Roman Empire" also indicates that the Augsburg the Lutheran tradition. It is impossible to tell the complex Confession,not the of MartinLuther, is normative story of theLutheran theological traditionin the course of forthe Lutheran Church. onel ecture.2 What mighthelp to makethe task manageable is Alasdair Maclntyre'sdescription of a tradition. I II II I II I I I I I I !+++++++++++++++++++++++ A living tradition then is an historically extended, When an institution -- a university, say, or farm, or socially embodied argument, and an argument, hospital-- is the bearer of a tradition of practice or preciselyin partabout the goodswhich constitute that practices, its common life will be partly, but in centrally tradition. importantway, constituted by a continuous argument as to what a universityis and ought to be or what good farming I II I I I II I I I II II I I l++++II I I I I++++++++++ is or what good medicine is, Traditions, when vital, embody Neverthelessit is instructiveto lookbriefly at the origins of continuities of conflict. . .. A living tradition then is an historically extended, socially embodied argument, and an the reformmovement which eventually became the Lutheran argument, precisely in part about the goods which Church. In 1515-16, the financialneeds of thepapacy, the constitute that tradition.3 imminent election of a new emperor, and the political ambitions of the Elector of Brandenburg combined in a 7 Albrecht of Brandenburg, newly I wantto identify five themes4 which I believe arecentral to rather sordid scheme. appointed Archbishop of Mainz, used the sale of the Lutheran theological tradition. These themes embody the"continuity of conflict"which MacIntyresays constitutes indulgencesto fmance his purchase of a papal dispensation so that, contrary to , he could occupy three a tradition. I cannottrace each of themthroughout Lutheran history. But I can indicatetheir roots in the16th centuryand bishoprics. His primary salesman was an unscrupulous something of the case that can be made for them today. Dominicanmonk, . Tetzel was not allowed to peddle his wares in Electoral These are themes about which Lutherans argue, for if is a living tradition, it is "an historically Saxony, but he came close enough to , where extended,socially embodied argument." But more thanthat, Luther was professor of at the recently founded university,so thatparishioners from St. Mary's, Wittenberg, these themes identify the Lutheran voice in that argument e which is thelarger Christian tradition. Extending this point whereLuther was alsoone of thepreach rs andconfessors, even farther, these themes are the way Lutherans are returned with documents which, they thought, involvedin the argumentabout what it meansto be human. gave themforgiveness for future as well as past sins. Luther The collegesand universities related to the ELCA arespecial denounced this outrageous distortion of the church's

Intersections/Winter 1997 4 traditional teaching on indulgence in an eloquent reformed. All of this was done in the name of the authority earlyin 1517. Seven monthslater, on October 31, he posted of the Bible versus the teaching authority of certain 95 Latin thesesfor debate in theacademic communityon the institutions in the church. trueteaching about repentance, confession, and . By theend of thecentury and the beginningof what came to The 95 Theses arenot a declarationof independence. Luther be known as the "Age of Orthodoxy" (I prefer the term proposed debate on them "out of love and zeal for the truth "" to "Orthodoxy"), the authority of the Bible and the desire to bring it to light,. 118 Luther was a complex came to be regarded as foundational and essential to the person, and we know more about his thoughts than we do intellectual defense of . It was supported by about any other pre-modem historical figure. 9 But his the (non-Biblical) doctrine of the Bible's direct inspiration concern for "the truth" about Christian teaching, worship, by Godthe . Its divine origin was contrasted with and life is a constant throughout his long and stormy career. all othersources of knowledge and information,which were said to be of humanorigin. Because the Bible was regarded to be of divine origin, its literal statements were held to be It was this concernfor "the truth" which led him to challenge infallible, inerrant,on all matters about which it spoke. "No many developments in medieval doctrine and piety, error, even in unimportant matters,no defect of memory, not especially if these developments seemed to be in conflict to say untruth, can have any place in all the Holy withwhat Lutherbelieved to be the apostolic . It was Scriptures. "10 not long before Luther, in a 1519 debate with , one of his most severe critics, found himself asserting the The idea that Holy Scripture was inspired and inerrant was primacy of the Bible over against the teaching authority of common groundfor Lutherans, Roman Catholics, Calvinists, and councils. and Anabaptists. They argued over interpretation. All regarded the theological interpreters of Holy Scripture as Luther did not claim, as did some of his reforming having primacy on university faculties. Theology was contemporaries,that only what is Biblical can be regarded as "Queen of the Sciences," remembering that scientia is Christian. He had a healthy regard and appreciation for simplythe Latin term for knowledge. But the claim that the many developments in Christian history, for the and Bible was inerrant in matters of history, geography, the dogmatic formulations of the ancient church, for music, naturalsciences, languages, and indeed any area of learning hymnody, and , for the memory and example of the was a claimwaiting to be challenged. Making the claim led , forthe sacramental power of the , , to the dissolution of the age of scholasticism and its Confession, and Ordination, for the visual arts and replacement by the Enlightenment at the beginning of the iconography of the church. 18th century.

But he did claim that these developments could not be I I I I I I I I I I I I II!+++++++++++++++++++++++ uncriticallyaccepted on thebasis of the teaching authority of Can the Lutheran tradition still carry on an argument thepopes and thecouncils. Only those developments which about authority, especially the authority of the Bible? were not opposed to could be accepted. By the ++I I I I I I I I I I I!++++++++++++++++++++++++ middle of the next decade serious reforms were introduced inthe churches of various German principalities and cities, But "replacement" is too mild a term. The scholastic reformswhich soon spread to other parts of Europe, largely doctrine of the Bible was used by the theologians to mount because of Wittenberg University. fierceopposition to anynew discoveries and learningswhich seemed to disagree with Biblical information. The was celebrated inthe vernacular language. The consequence was thatalmost all of the new disciplines in the was restored to the at communion. The prayers which natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities made theMass anoffering to Godinstead of a gift from cameinto existencenot in conversation withtheology but in were eliminated. Priests were allowed to marry. themilitant determination to be liberated fromthe hegemony Monasteries and convents as places of cultivating superior and obscurantism of theology. The universities founded virtues designed to placate God's wrath were dissolved and after the Enlightenment often no longer had theological themonks and nuns were released fromtheir vows. Legends faculties. The Lutheran and Christian argument was no about many saints and relics were subjected to critical longer partof thehuman argument. Church related colleges scrutiny, and the piety which sought saving help fromthem and universities in the USA came to be suspect in their was rejected. The practice of confession and was

Intersections/Winter 1997 5 learning if therewas toomuch conversation with theologyor in their theology if there was too much conversation with IL The LutheranT radition is learning. The term "catholic" is here intended to referto two things: (1) theLutheran tradition's commitment to the continuity of Theologywas discredited in terms of having anything to do thefaith; and(2) the Lutheran tradition's commitmentto the with truth. This situation was exacerbated by the terrible creedsof theancient church as the content of the . The religious warsof the17th century. The "denomination" was Lutherantradition recognizes thatwe have received the faith born when in a society like the United States persons fromour Christian ancestors, that we confess the faith with stopped murdering each other in the name of religion. and to our contemporaries, and that we have the Denominationscame to recognize the more or less Christian responsibilityto transmitthe faithto our children. Just this characterof eachother. Religion became a matter of choice, continuity cannot be taken for granted in Protestant and preference, taste, rather than a matter of truth. pluralist America. No one who knows the history of Deconstructionismwas thecoup d'grace. Claims were to be Protestantismin Americacan doubt the factthat it has often evaluatedin terms of perspective, not in terms of truth. been actively hostile to the of the church. The challengeto theLutheran tradition in a context where it is a Can theLutheran tradition still carryon an argument about minorityis whetherand how it preserves its commitment to authority, especially the authority of theBible? The very catholic continuity. question evokes for academics visions of religious inquisitors, of censorship rather than academic freedom, of The of 15 80 contains the content of the monologue rather than conversation. catholic faith: the confessional documents to which the clergy,congregations, , and the ELCA arepledged by But the Lutheran tradition has within it resources for constitution and ordination. These are the Augsburg acknowledging a non-oppressive authority for the Bible. Confession of 1530, the Apology (or defense) of the TheLutheran tradition as ks the question about the authority Augsburg Confessionof 1531, theSmalcald Articles and the of the Bible in terms of the Christian gospel. The Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the of 1537, relationship between Bible and gospel can be formulated as Martin Luther's Large and Small of 1529, and follows: Only the gospel gives the Bible its authentic the of 1577. The conclusion of the authority, and only the Bible gives the church normative doctrinalsection of the states: access to the gospel. The church's gospel is that of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah. He is disclosed to be This is about the sum of our teaching. As can be seen, such by his from the dead. Our access to this there is nothing here that departs from the &riptures or �vent in history comes throughthe documentswhich make the or the church of Rome, in so faras the theprophetic and apostolic Scriptures, the Bible. These ancient church is knownto us from its writers. Since this ents are the norm or standard by which the is so, those who insist that our teachers are to be regarded thfulness, the authenticity, of the church's proclamation as heretics judge too harshly.11 the gospel is judged. The church's truthful or authentic oclamation of the gospel in turn gives authority to the In point of fact, the opponents of the reform movement urch's Bible. contestedonly a fewof thedoctrinal articles of theAugsburg Confession, andthe Lutheran- dialogues of e argument about the authority of the Bible is currently the past 30 years are demonstrating that even these few evidentin thedebate on matters of sexuality, especially differences can eventually be reconciled. question as to the church's position on the sexual ression of homosexuality. Many, perhaps most, Preceding these documents which grew out of the reform therans think that the authority of the Bible is being movement of the16th century are the threeancient creeds, Dde:rmi·n,edor rejectedif the ELCA ordainssexually active the Apostles' , theNicene Creed, and theAthanasian mosexuals or blesses the committed relationships of Creed. There hasbeen no great argument about the creeds osexuals. Other Lutherans argue thatthe ELCA must in the Lutheran tradition. There are, however, some very iuuatechange or its condemnationof homosexual sexual importantLutheran "twists" to the essential contentof these sion because of the gospel. There is no resolution of creeds, thatis, to the confession thatJesus is God and that · s debate on the horizon. So the argument appropriately God is theHoly , Father, Son, and HolySpirit. These Lutheran "twists" surfaced in the creative theological fennentof the16th century, and they have resurfaced in the

Intersections/Winter1 997 6 last fifty years of this century. really your God.

The medieval out of which the Lutheran reform Luther here defines "god"as whatever drives us, animates movement emerged inherited an approach to the doctrine of us, functions as the center or focusof our existence. Since God which can be traced back to Plato and in every human has such a focus, all are "religious." The Greek philosophy/theology and which received powerful question now arises as to whether our center or focus is expression in the writings of St. authentic or inauthentic,that is, whether our "god" is true or (1033-1109) and St. (1225-1274). This false! approach held that God is a being distinguishable from the universe, and that God's existence can be rationally Lutheranscholasticism did not exploit this move of Luther, demonstrated or proven. andbecause it returned to themedieval theological strategies of Anselm and Aquinas it fell victim to Kant's critique. In Two proofs or arguments were advanced, the ontological the 20th century, however, reintroduced the (Plato/ Anselm) and the cosmological (Aristotle/Aquinas). insightof Luther in his path-breaking book, The Dynamics The ontological argument held that if God is the greatest of Faith. A "god" is an ultimate concern. "Faith" means thing that one can think, God must necessarily exist, for having an ultimate concern. To regard something as anything that exists is greater than anything that does not ultimatewhich is not, in fact,ultimate (such as one's nation exist. The cosmological argument held that a creaturely or race or family)is to have a falseultimate. Having a false phenomenon like effectand cause, when traced back to its ultimate is both idolatrous and destructive. ultimate source, must result in acknowledging the existence of a First Cause, that is, God. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I+++++++++++++++++++++++ The gospel starts with Jesus and thinks of God in The critical philosophy of (1724-1804) terms of Jesus. Luther called this "from ushered in modem secularity by demonstrating that these below." arguments cannot prove or demonstrate the existence of I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I+++++++++++++++++++++++ God. The existence of God cannot be regarded as knowledge, scientia, but is simply opinion. Secularitydoes Note once again the character of these insights of Luther, not mean the end of religion or the end of belief in God's and ultimately Judaism, as revived by Tillich. The very existence. It simply means that religion and the belief in the meaning of the term "god" has to do, first of all, with existence of God become options. Some persons are whoever or whatever one regards as ultimate, final. When religious, some are not. Some believe in God's existence, thevalidity of theseinsights are acknowledged it is possible othersdo not. What is more, the notion of true or falsegods to raise appropriately the question as to whether someone or is irrelevant. Since the existence of God or is a matter something which is being regarded as ultimate is of opinion, one opinion is as valid as another, as long as no authenticallyor inauthenticallyultimate, that is, whether one one is threatened by the opinion. Edward Gibbon's has a trueor false "god." False "gods" have been evident in description of the late antique world fitsthe modem world: the destructive dynamics of uncritical patriotism, The people thought all gods equally true; the philosophers nationalism, racism, and sexism. These insights have thoughtthem equally false; and the politicians thought them influenced the thinking of culture critics as diverse as equally useful. Theodore Roszak, The Making of a Counter Culture; Neil Postman, Technopoly, and Ernest Becker, The Denial of MartinLuther provided the Lutheran tradition with an "end Death. Great plays like ArthurMiller's run" aroundthe critique of Immanuel Kant by reformulating andLillian Hellman's The Little Foxes, and movies like The the question of God, and by doing so in ancient Jewish Pawnbrokerdisclose thedestructive power of false"gods. " 12 rather than ancient Greek terms. Luther does this in his commentaryon theFirst Commandment, "You shall have no These insights do not prove or demonstrate that there is a other gods," in the Large . There he writes: true "god." But they do help us to understand what Christian traditionmeans when it claims that Jesus is to be Whatis it to have a god? Whatis God? Answer: a god is confessed as "God." Luther's insight into the meaning of that to which we look for all good and in which we find "god" has had a profound effect on the way in which 20th refage in everytime of need. Tohave a god is nothing else century Lutheran theologians have understood the ancient than to trustand believe him with our whole heart. . . That church's confession that Jesus of Nazareth is an incarnate to which your heart clings and entrusts itselfis, I say,

Intersections/Winter1997 7 person of the Holy Trinity, "God from God, Light from of that "whoever:" Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, the Light,true God fromtrue God," as formulatedby theNicene Messiah! This is the meaning and power of the confession Creed. The ancientchurch had formulatedits confessionin that Jesus is God. terms of the Hellenistic meaning of "God." "God" in Hellenistic terms 111eant a being totally outside of the If Jesus is revealed to be God in the resurrection, then the physical universewhose primarycharacteristics were infinity history of Jesus can also be said to be the history of God. 13 and immortality. How then to think of Jesus, who was therefore should not make a priori both finite and mortal? statements about God,for example, that God is immortal, cannot die. Rather Christian theology should lookat what In order to make Christianity intelligible to the Greco­ hapenedp the in history of Jesus and makestatements about Roman culture, theologians and apologetes thought they Godon the basis of thathistory. Luther delighted in making needed to use the Hellenistic term "" (Word) as the such statements. Godsuckles atMary's breasts. Goddirties primary title of Jesus instead of the Jewish "Christ" his diapers. And ultimately, Goddies on the cross. An early (Messiah). They concluded that the Logos was the Second 17thcentury Lutheran GoodFriday hymn says: "O sorrow Personof the Holy Trinity, infinite andimmortal. Attention dread! God himself is dead! On the cross he has died. "15 shifted from Jesus' resurrection to the incarnation of the Logos. Logic compelled them to confess that the infinite Because Jesus determines what Christian theology can say Logos became a finite human being, that Jesus is in some about God, the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross sense God. But to confess that Jesus is God was to affirm supplies the basis and content forthe Christiandoctrine of ontological nonsense: the finite is infinite; the mortal is theHoly Trinity. Greek theologydeveloped the doctrineof immortal. In making such a confession the ancient dogma the Holy Trinity on a speculative basis, namely the lost its connection with the gospel and became instead an relationship of the Logos to the Father in eternity prior to item of Christian ideology. and apart from the incarnation. Augustine, in the West, made the doctrine of the Trinity irrelevant to Christian life Martin Luther insisted that the creeds and dogmas of the because he taught that the distinction of the persons is ancient church have to do always and only with the gospel. appropriate only to describe the inner life of the Trinity But thegospel doesnot apply prior understandings of God itself. The activity of God in relation to the world is 16 to Jesus. The gospel starts with Jesus and thinks of God in "indivisible," without distinctions. termsof Jesus. Luthercalled this Christology"from below," that is, thinking about Jesus as the Christ historically rather If Christian theology begins with the cross, however, then than philosophically. Contemporary theologians Werner the doctrine of the Trinity is the way the church must Elert, , Jurgen Moltmann, Eberhard confessGod theon basis of the cross. In thecross suffering Jiingel,Gemard Forde, and have retrieved the anddeath taken are into the being of God, and there theyare ancientdogma about the divinity of Jesus in a way which is overcomeso that they do not have the last word. The cross 14 both Jewish and apostolic. and are the basis for the church's proclamationof Godas sufferingand victorious love. The We pay attention to Jesus at all because of his resurrection Trinity means that we are not abandoned in and to our fromthe dead. The resurrection is intelligible only in terms sufferingand death, thatnothing can ever separateus from of a Jewishunderstanding of God as moving historytoward God'slove (Romans8:28-3 9). a finaldestiny: thefull realization of the Messianic Age. In theresurrection of Jesus the outcome of historyis disclosed. II II I II I II I I I I l++II I I!++++++++++++++++ Jesus is revealedas Messiah,as final "judge." He, not death, When by faith becomes one in a list of will have thelast word. This is the gospel, the goodnews, doctrines to be believed, it has lost its power. proclaimed by Jesus' disciples, by Christianity. Hence the II I II II I II I I I I!+++++++++++++++++++++++ earliest witnesses already give Jesus the highest titles, including the title "God" (e.g., Romans 9:5; Phil. 2:6). Thisalso affects our understanding of the languageused in the Trinitarian confession. The meaning of "Father" does But "God" does not mean a being outside of the universe, not derivefrom our experience or expression of fatherhood. infiniteand immortal. "God" means whoever has the last It derives from the cross. "Father" means the self-offered word, whoeveris fmal, authentically ultimate, whoever can vulnerabilityand participationof theCreator of Lifein the make unconditional promises, that is, promises not suffering and death of the creature. The "Father" of Jesus, conditioned by death. The resurrection reveals the identity

Intersections/Winter 1997 8 theEternal Son,is about self-offeringand vulnerability, not when the Word of God is proclaimed, when the Holy about patriarchy and oppression. Eucharist is celebrated, when Holy Baptism is administered, Godis doing somethingin and through the human action of III. The Lutheran Tradition is Evangelical saying words, eating bread and drinking wine, washing The evangelical dimension of Lutheranism has its focus in someone with water. At this point the Lutheran tradition is theconfession that justification is by faith. Martin Luther's unmistakably catholic, that is, it is offensive to every personal struggles as a monk involved the question of how tradition which is non- or anti-sacramental. he could be certain of God's grace. The medieval arrangements of confession andpenance, monastic discipline When Samuel S. Schmucker ( 1799-1873), president and and pious works simply were of no help to his troubled professorof Gettysburg Theological Seminary, proposed in conscience. Sometime, probably in 1513, while giving his 1855 an American version of the Augsburg Confession first lectures on the Psalms in his new professorship at the intended to makeLutheranism more acceptable to Protestant University of Wittenberg, Luther made the astonishing America, he sought to revise or eliminate precisely the discovery that God's grace is total and unconditional in sacramental articles of the confession. His proposal was Christ, that grace alone, andnot works, is to be trusted in life rejected.20 But the sacramental dimension of the Lutheran and in death. tradition continues to be threatened by the American revivalist tradition and its contemporary expression in the 21 This all often seems irrelevant to modem persons. Paul Church Growth Movement. Tillich observed(in The Courageto Be) that modem persons are concernedabout themeaning of life, not the graciousness How are we to understand that God is doing something in of God. When justification by faith becomes one in a list of the Word, the Eucharist, and Baptism? Only a brief doctrines to be believed, it has lost its power. It is evident response is possible. When the gospel is proclaimed, that thatjustification by faith has been seriously misunderstood Jesus the crucified one is risen, that Jesus is the Messiah, when it is viewed as easy rather than rigorous discipleship thatthe messianic age has come, a new realityoccurs. Those (Yoder), as cheap rather than costly grace (Bonhoeffer). who receive the proclamation in faith are set free from the illusion of the denial of death, free fromthe desperation of Robert Jenson and Gerhard Forde have placed justification despair. God creates anauthentic vision forthe future. by faith into a context that is both true to its origins in the 1718 life of Luther and capable of perjuring power. Luther's On the basis of his promise and the church's prayer Jesus, encounter with mortality both raised the ultimate question theChrist, comes to be present as the crucifiedand risen one 19 anddrove him into the monastic life. Mortalityconfronts in, with,and under the bread and wine of the Eucharist. He us with the most radical question: What justifies my doesnot come from the past, evoked as a memory. He does existence? Whatever we are able to do in this lifeto answer not come from outside the physical world, wherever that or evade that question, our lives have consequences which might be, if at all. He comes from the future. He has not we are often not able to control in this life, and which we ascended to a differentplace in space, but to a differentplace have no ability to control once we are dead. Only one who in time. He has ascended to the final future of the is beyond deathis able to justifythe existence of those who consummated Reign of God. We are still at that point in have death beforethem. time where the Reign of God has already begun but is not yet consummated. Hence Jesus is present as the power of All justification of existence is by faith. The only thefuture. It is Jesus, embodiedin historywho comes as the appropriate question is, by faith in what? The Christian self-offeringone (his crucified body and shed blood) so that proclamationis thatJesus, thecrucified one, lives. Death no thecommunity, shaped by the power of his offering,has the longer has dominion over him (Rom. 6:9). He alone can power to offeritself. makethe unconditional promisethat death does not have the last word, that your lifeand every lifeis justified. Lifeis to I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I+++++++++++++++++++++++ be lived in trust of that promise. Justification by faith in We are to regard the world as good, as gift. It is gift Jesus means that, if death does not have the last word, then thereis more to do with my life than to preserve and protect and good in its finitude. it. I am freeto offermy life. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I+++++++++++++++++++++++ Holy Baptism into the Triune Name is initiation into the IV. The Lutheran Tradition is Sacramental Triune life of God. The power of death is displaced by the The sacramentality of the Lutheran tradition means that

Intersections/Winter 1997 9 Lordship of Jesus. We are set by the Triune God into the Herb Brokering said this in a similar, but inimitable way. struggle between the power of death and Reign of God, a struggle which takes place within ourselves and as well as Oncethere was a church where thepeople took the offering within the world. In Baptism we are grasped by the God back home with them. Firstit was collected and brought to who will not give up on us and who will not let us go. the altar. After they asked God to bless it, they took it and put it back into their pockets. They mixed it up with all V. The Lutheran Tradition is World-Affirming their other money, so that they couldn't tell which was The sacramental dimension of the Lutheran tradition leads blessed and which was not. Then they left. All week they directly to the Christian affirmation of the world. The spent as thougheach piece was blessed and was to be used Christian doctrineof creation is the way we are freeto look lovingly. upon the world, to regard the world, if indeed the gospel is true. We are to regard the world as good, as gift. It is gift Thereare many themes in the Lutheran tradition whichgive and goodin its finitude. Godalone is God. The world is not expression to its world affirmation. The place given to infinite, ultimate. Therefore it cannot be the source of marriage by the Lutheran reform movement meant that ultimate terror nor the object of ultimate value. It is to be celibacy was not to be regarded as holier, more pleasing to received, enjoyed, served as God's gift. God. The concept of vocation meant that being parent or spouse, farmer or merchant, teacher or laborer was doing If the creation of the world is a vision of the world, that God's work as surely as if one became a clergy person.22 vision involves not only how the world is to be received but With this vision andthese themes comes an accountability also how the world is to be treated. Humanity is called to before God to engage in authentic stewardship, authentic 23 stewardship of creation, a calling never more urgently affirmation of the world. Lutherans have not always necessary than in the face of the growing ecological trainedthemselves or wanted to be accountable. Oftenit is challenge which confronts humanity. , difficult to discern what responsible and accountable according to Martin Luther's explanations in his Small stewardship involves. Catechism,means asking how we hallow God's Name, serve God's Reign, do God's will, etc. This is expressed in the Just these factors makes Lutheran world affirmation an offertory prayer of the Lutheran Book of Worship. argument. Those who teach and learn are called to participatein this argument. If the church-related college or Blessed are you, 0 Lord our God, maker of all things. universityis not onlyan instance of the church teaching, but Through your goodness you have blessed us with these also an instance of the church learning, then you are called gifts. With them we offer ourselves to your service and to be learning for us so that we can be learning with you dedicate our lives to the care and of all that what is thewill and work of Godin theworld today. you have made, for the sakeof him who gave himselffor us.

ENDNOTES

1. Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney, AmercanMainline 6. HenryBettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (London: Religion(New Brunswick:Rutgers UniversityPress, 1987), pages OxfordUniversity Press, 1963), pages 301-302. The text states in 110-113. part: "Let neither his Imperial Majestynor theElectors, Princes, 2. Thebest introduction is Eric W. Gritsch,Fortress Introduction etc., do any violence or harm to any estate of the Empire on to Lutheranism (: Fortress Press, 1994). account of the Augsburg Confession ... Likewise the Estates 3. Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (NotreDame: University of espousing the Augsburg Confession shall let all the Estates and NotreDame Press, 1981 ), pages 206-207. Princeswho cling to theold religion live in absolutepeace and in 4. In CarlBraaten, Principlesof Lutheran Theology(Philadelphia: theenjoyment of allthe estates, rights privileges." FortressPress, 1983), there are seven themes. My selection does 7. Barbara Tuchman, The Marchof Foily (New York: AlfredA not coincide with these; but I deal with most of the thematic Knopf,1984), pages52-126, describesthe Renaissance popes,and materialwhich Braaten identifies. especiallythe pontificateof LeoX from1513-1521. 5. This is a matter of very little significance for present 8. Luther'sWorks, AmericanEdition, Vol. 31, page 25. relationshipsbetween Lutherans andRoman Catholics. I mention 9. Fromamong themany books about MartinLuther, three seem it here only to indicate his ecclesial status at his death. especially helpful. Eric Gritsch, Mal1in -- God's Court Jester

Intersections/Winter 1997 10 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), is an excellent combination 16. Catherine LaCugna, God For Us: The Trinity and the of biography and theology. Peter Manns, Martin Luther (New ChristianLife (San Francisco: Harper, 1991). Ted Peters, God as York: Crossroad, 1983), is a sympathetic biography written by a Trinity (Louisville: Westtninster\JohnKnox, 1993), pages 122- great Getman Roman Catholic scholar. Gerhard Forde, Where 128, has an excellent sullllllary of LaCugna's book. See also God Meets Man (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972) Walter R. Bouman,"The T1inityin the Experience of the Christian is an excellentintroduction to Luther's theology fornonspecialists. Life,"Trinity Seminmy Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Fall 1993), pages 10. (1612-1686), Systema Locorum 57-68. Theologicorum, Vol. I (1655), page 551. Quoted in Heinrich 17. E1ic Gtitschand Robert Jenson, Lutheranism: The Theological Schmid, Doctrinal Theologyof the Evangelical Lutheran Church Movement and Its Confessional Writings (Philadelphia: Fortress (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), page 4 9. Press, 1974 ), pages 36-44. 11. The Book of Concord, edited by Theodore G. Tappert 18. Gerhard Forde, Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1959), page 47, par. l. Future Life (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982). citations from The Book of Concord will be identified in the text 19. Gritsch,Martin -- God's Court Jester, page 6. by page and paragraph number. 20. Gritsch,Fortress Introduction to Lutheranism, pages 58-62. 12. Ernest Becker, in Angel in Armor (New York: Free Press, 21. Walter R. Bouman, Like Wheat Arising Green: How the 1969), pages 73-98, has a brilliant analysis of The Pawnbroker, in Church Grows and Thrives, Vol. 8 (Valparaiso: The Liturgical which he doesnot make explicit referenceto Tillich or Luther but Institute, 1991). whose influencehe acknowledges elsewhere. 22. Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation (Philadelphia: 13. RobertJenson, "The Triune God," Christian Dogmatics, Vol. Muhlenberg Press, 1957). Cf., Robert Benne, Ordinary Saints I, edited by CarlBraaten and RobertJenson (Philadelphia: Fo1tress (Minneapolis:Fortress Press, 1988), and Carter Lindberg, Bevond Press, 1984), pages 115-118, gives an excellent account of why Charity(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1988), and Carter Lindberg, andhow hellenism's tragicview of lifeand historyresulted inthe BeyondCharity (Minneapolis: FortressPress, 1993). Adaptation attempt to protect "god" from the ravages of timeand matter. of the Lutheran understanding of vocation to a cunent issue is 14. See especially Wol:fhart Pannenberg, Jesus -- God and Man, evident in Marc Kolden, "Christian Vocation in Light of Feminist Gerhard Forde, Where God Meets Man, Eberhard Jungel, God -­ Critiques," Lutheran Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 1 (Spring, 1996), The Mysterv of the World, Jurgen Moltmann, The Way of Jesus pages 71-85. Christ, and Robert Jenson, Storvand Promise. 23. Douglas John Hall, The Stewardship of Lifein the Kingdom 15. The Germantext reads:"O grosse Not! Gott selbst ist tot, Am of Death (New York: Friendship Press, 1985). Krenz ist er gestorben." The English translation somewhat weakens thedramatic German text: "O sonow dread! God's Son is dead!" Then it continues with a theological forthe death Walter Boumanis Edward C. Fendt Professorof Systematic and has no translation at all forthe thirdline. W. G. Polack, The Theologyat Trinity Seminary, Columbus, Ohio. Handbook to the Lutheran Hvmnal (SL Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1942), page 131.

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