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The Trinitarian Doctrine of Grace in Martin Luther's the Bondage of the Will

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The Trinitarian Doctrine of Grace in Martin Luther's the Bondage of the Will The Trinitarian Doctrine of Grace in Martin Luther’s The Bondage of the Will Dissertation by Miikka Ruokanen Jesus College, Cambridge 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Divinity 1 Abstract Miikka Ruokanen: The Trinitarian Doctrine of Grace in Martin Luther’s The Bondage of the Will The most systematic work Martin Luther ever created was his De servo arbitrio / The Bondage of the Will (1525), his powerful polemic against the leading Humanist of his day, Erasmus, who had criticized Luther in his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio / The Freedom of the Will (1524). Luther’s The Bondage of the Will is regarded as a work representing the organic unity of his entire theological thought; it can be seen as his theology in a condensed form. In spite of the immense significance of Luther's magnum opus, its theological structure and content have so far not yet been satisfactorily revealed. Much research has been conducted on certain detailed aspects of this work of Luther’s, such as the problems of the free will, determinism, and predestination. The basic weakness of those analyses is that the details of The Bondage of the Will can be correctly understood only on the basis of a comprehension of the basic systematic theological idea of his work. The very kernel of Luther’s own thought and the deepest intentions of his theology in this work are best comprehended by analyzing the inner structure and cohesion of his own thinking and by seeing how his own argumentation developed in his dispute with Erasmus. The task of this study is to expose the fundamental systematic theological idea and structure in Luther's The Bondage of the Will. The method employed in the present study is a comprehensive systematic analysis of Luther’s thought in his work. Attention will be paid to the conceptualization of issues by Luther, to his main propositions and the arguments he uses to support his claims, and to the structural principles and the core body of his thinking system. The history of theological and philosophical thought is taken into consideration as far as it enlightens Luther’s own theological conceptualizations. The present work avoids interpreting Luther by external criteria and, instead, attempts to understand the authentic immanent foundational ideas of his theological thought. The debate between Luther and Erasmus contained genuine paradigmatic differences in their understanding of the Christian faith, but also some misunderstandings, even intentional misinterpretations. The present study aims at clarifying these conceptual differences and confusions and at exploring the possibility of some degree of reconciliation between the conflicting views. My hypothesis is that Luther’s own specific and comprehensive understanding of the Trinitarian theology of grace, with special emphasis on Pneumatology, alongside the more obvious Christology, strongly linked with the theology of creation, is the fundamental thought structure of his magnum opus. This enables him to get rid of the common Late Medieval teaching of the free choice of the human being, represented by Erasmus. Above all, Luther is a theologian of grace, sola gratia. The Bondage of the Will, the most Pneumatological treatise he ever wrote, offers a radical and comprehensive Trinitarian theology of grace. Luther understands the human being as an “ecstatic” creature who receives his/her existence and the quality of his/her existence from extra se. Luther argues for this 2 paradigm in terms of the theology of creation, Christology, Pneumatology, and soteriology. As such, the human being was created a creature which is destined for union with his/her Creator in the Holy Spirit who is the actual presence of the Creator in his creature, God sharing his life with the human being. After losing this original state of union, the human being became a battlefield of the opposing transcendental powers, Satan and sin on the one side, and God and his grace, on the other side. The human is free in “things below oneself,” in matters that belong to daily human life, but he/she is not free in “things above oneself,” in matters that transcend the human being. Luther sees sin as human infirmity, inability to get rid of unbelief and pride which destroyed the human’s union with God. The human being cannot change his/her evil orientation but must continue such as he/she is: this is Luther’s concept of “the necessity of immutability”; he applies this philosophical concept to soteriological usage. The human being is in a desperate situation in regard to his/her capacities of contributing to his/her own salvation; here Luther follows his logic of theologia crucis. Both in terms of creation and salvation, the human being is meant to be in an intimate union, in a communion of life, with the Triune God. Luther develops a strong soteriology, understood in terms of an intimate union between the Triune God and the human being. This union is not primarily a cognitive-rational and morally responsible relation, as Erasmus was inclined to think, but an actual-ontic and existential union with Christ in the Holy Spirit, koinonia/unio cum Christo in Spiritu sancto. The quality of a human being’s life in this world and his/her eternal beatitude depends on whether his/her person is or is not in union with the Holy Trinity. In his Trinitarian theology of grace, Pneumatology, arguably neglected in Medieval times, is powerfully revived. Luther’s conception of divine grace, with some peculiarities of his own, recalls Augustine’s doctrine of grace, differing from the soteriological views of Scholasticism and Nominalism. The present study culminates in a systematic presentation of the three dimensions of Luther’s Trinitarian doctrine of grace: First, contrition, conversion, and faith are effected by God’s Spirit, sola fide is a thoroughly Pneumatological concept – a fact not sufficiently emphasized in Luther research. Second, Luther sees the union with Christ simultaneously as a Christological and as a Pneumatological reality - again a view not underscored in research. Third, sanctification means growth in love by way of being increasingly controlled by the Holy Spirit, who is the essence of divine love. This three- dimensional conception of grace can be supported by other works of Luther’s mature theology. There are strong points of contact with Johannine, Pauline, Augustinian, and Greek Patristic theology here; a more detailed analysis of these connections is not in the scope of the study at hand, but it is left to further research. The results of the study intensify the ecumenical potential of Luther’s doctrine of grace. Moreover, these results contribute an amendment to the Finnish school of Luther interpretation where the Pneumatological dimension is underemphasized in the first and the second dimensions of Luther’s doctrine of grace. Finally, the possibility of some degree of reconciliation between the views of Erasmus and Luther will be considered at the end of the study. 3 Contents: 1 Introduction 1.1 The Root of the Conflict between Luther and Erasmus 1.2 Varying Interpretations of The Bondage of the Will 1.3 Task, Method, and Sources of the Study 1.4 A Note on Terminology 2 Erasmus and Luther: Two Different Paradigms of the Christian Faith 2.1 The Paradigm of Erasmus: God’s Fair Treatment of the Humans 2.2 The Paradigm of Luther: Union by God’s Monergistic Grace 3 Luther’s Theological Method of Conflict and Distinction 3.1 The Human Being as a Battlefield of the Opposing Transcendental Powers 3.2 Distinction between Law and Gospel 4 The Enslavement of the Human Being 4.1 Sin as Infirmity 4.2 “The Necessity of Immutability” 5 Pneumatological Emphasis in the Doctrine of Grace 5.1 A Fully Theocentric Conception of Grace 5.2 God’s Holy Spirit – The Actuality of Grace 5.3 Flesh or Spirit 6 The Trinitarian Nature of the Pneumatological Grace 6.1 Christological Grace Made Operative by the Holy Spirit 6.2 The Analogy of Creation in the Doctrine of Grace 4 7 Necessity as a Soteriological Concept 7.1 Is God Just? 7.2 Focus on the Certainty of Salvation 8 A Comprehensive View of Luther’s Doctrine of Grace 8.1 The Three Dimensions Grace 8.2 An Amendment of Tuomo Mannermaa’s Interpretation of Luther 9 Is there Any Possibility of Reconciliation between Erasmus and Luther? 10 Conclusion 11 Abbreviations 12 Bibliography 12.1 Sources 12.2 Literature 5 1. Introduction Martin Luther never wrote “a systematic theology”; he did not create anything comparable with John Calvin's Institutio Christianae religionis. But yet Luther was a theological thinker trained in the best academic theological and philosophical tradition of his day. The most systematic work Luther ever created was his De servo arbitrio / The Bondage of the Will (December 1525), his powerful and polemic reaction against the criticism of Erasmus, the leading Humanist of Reformation times, in his De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio / The Freedom of the Will1 (September 1524). Luther’s The Bondage of the Will became a major theological document of the Lutheran Reformation. Luther’s opus has long been an object of great interest, and a great number of investigations and interpretations have been published concerning this major work of his.2 There are researchers who regard The Bondage of the Will as the greatest theological work Luther ever wrote; according to some, the very heart of the Christian faith is at issue in this opus.3 Luther’s The Bondage of the Will is regarded as a work representing the organic unity of his theological thought: it can be seen as his theology in a condensed form.4 In spite of its title, Luther’s treatise does not only deal with the problem of “free choice,” it is about the entire disposition of the human creature toward the Creator and the Creator’s 1 This is the most commonly used English translation of the name of Erasmus' work; literally the title means Discourses or Comparisons on the Free Will.
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