384 Walter Klaiber, Justified Before God: a Contemporary Theology

384 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 4 (2008) 356–391 Walter Klaiber, Justifi ed Before God: A Contemporary Th eology (Nashville: Abingdon, 2006). 212 pp. £13.99. ISBN 0-687-06316-7/ 978-0687- 063161-9 (pbk). In 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justifi cation . In this momentous document the two churches agreed that the doctrinal condemnations of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with regard to the doctrine of justifi cation by faith alone could no longer be regarded as dividing the two churches from each other. Unfortunately, for some this has meant saying that the idea of justifi cation itself, described by Luther as the articulus stantis et cadentis eccle- siae , the article by which the Church stands or falls, is now irrelevant. One does not need to be a Lutheran (or even to have been one) to know that this is neither true nor was what the authors of the 1999 declaration had intended. In the present book, fi rst published in Germany in the early 1990s and now available in English, Walter Klaiber argues that the idea of justifi cation by faith is not only the key to reading both the Old and the New Testament but essentially the good news which all human beings need to hear at all times and especially today. Although other key texts on the subject of justifi cation, such as Hans Küng’s Justifi cation: Th e Doctrine of Karl Barth and a Catholic Refl ection (1964) and Eberhard Jüngel’s Justifi cation: Th e Heart of the Christian Faith: A Th eological Study with an Ecumenical Purpose (ET 2001), have been available in English for some time, justifi cation remains essentially a very German and essentially Germanic topic. Th is is also refl ected in Klaiber’s book. Klaiber is indeed, as Geoff rey Wainwright points out in the back cover commendation, ‘a New Testament scholar who has never been afraid to think and write theologically’. Th e fi rst two substantial chapters of the book are dedicated to tracing the concept of justifi cation through the Old and the New Testaments. What we fi nd here is an engagement with texts which is com- mendable as German theology at its very best. Th e extensive chapter on the Old Testament highlights that justifi cation is fi rst and foremost the gift of God and the work of his spirit and that it has, and indeed must have a communal, a social and indeed an ethical dimension. Righteousness is life. It is at once the ‘condition and the gift in the encounter with God’ (p. 22). In the context of the New Testament, Klaiber fi nds himself agreeing with the apostle Paul. For Paul, and indeed for Klaiber, the justifi cation is at the heart of his understanding of salvation. Th e very diff erentiated survey of © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2008 DOI 10.1163/174553108X341404 Book Reviews / Ecclesiology 4 (2008) 356–391 385 approaches to justifi cation as presented by diff erent New Testament writers, is at the heart of the book and key to understanding where Klaiber is coming from and why this matters to him. Unfortunately, Klaiber is not helped by the English translation of his book which in parts is rather poor and on occasion is reminiscent of Luther’s Latin (i.e. it helps to know German to understand what is being said). Yet the real weakness of what is in parts a superb and important work of theological schol- arship lies in the fact that, despite claims that what we are presented with is a ‘contemporary theology’, i.e. a theology for today, the author’s engagement with modern re-readings of the idea of justifi cation is largely restricted to tan- talizing references to their existence, while there is no room to discuss them (see the list on p. 140 which deals with the developments of the last three hundred years in four bullet points). Equally sadly, little room is given to the question of what a theological idea developed in the context of Christendom might have to say in the context of the missionary challenges of today’s post- Christian society. Th ere is a passing reference to ‘social duty’, presumably meaning ‘social responsibility’, and only a tantalizingly short reference to the signifi cance of justifi cation by faith in dialogue with other faiths’ understand- ings of salvation and the community of believers. Th e best way into Klaiber’s work is through the ‘summarizing theses’ at the end of the book. Th e reading of the gospel of justifi cation and righteousness which Klaiber presents here, is dynamite. ‘Justifi cation is a kind of rehabilita- tion ... in the sense that ... those who fi nd themselves at the end of their capacities are enabled to serve God and in this way to live their own lives. God’s justifying action provides the foundation of the true dignity of human existence and directs us anew toward our goal’ (p. 155). Th e gospel which Klaiber articulates is a radical one, though the radical inclusivity one might expect to follow from the universality of the gospel is somewhat obscured by the use of exclusive language when referring to human beings. Th e problem with Klaiber’s theology is that although he mentions a wider agenda it essentially remains confi ned to the ivory towers of academic theology. Klaiber is well aware of the subversive power of the radical message of justifi cation by faith alone, but unfortunately he does not explore what diff erence this would make to the life of our many diff erent Christian churches and to the demands of the modern world if we started to take it seriously not only for ourselves but also for others. In his Foreword the author expresses his hope that the book ‘can convey something of the creative and critical power of the message of justifi cation and make it fruitful for the contemporary transmission of the gospel’ (p. 1). I remain unconvinced that the book actually achieves this. .

Load more