Jan 2019 Vol 43 No 1

Contents Evangelism and the Paradox of Europe and Christianity THEME: HeirsEvCallErt vforofan Papers thedE P ollReformation EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY VOLUME 42, NO 4, October 2018 EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY VOLUME 39, NO 3, July 2015 Heirs ofpage thepage Reformation292 4 EVANGELICAL REVIEW OF THEOLOGY VOLUME 2019 43, NO 1, January Kevin Vanhoozer’sAn Evangelical TheodramaticEmilio A Viewntonio Improvisation of n ProselytismúñEz and the Jerusalem ElmEr thiEssCouncilEn andpage tof homas196 Acts 15schirrmachEr The Mandate of Asian pageAmerican 308 Evangelical Theology page 5 The Case for PracticalA mosTheological Yong Interpretation in Brent Neely Incarnations,Faith-basedpage Christian Organizations 204 and Hindu: Christology in Conversation with Vaishnavism A Trinitarian DoctrinePEirong of l Christianin Vocation page 319 scottpage HArrow 17 Er Reverse Missiology: Mission Approaches and Practices of African Learning from African TheologiansStevenpage D. 218 Boyerand Their Hermeneutics: Some ChristiansJonathan within Edwards, the Slavery,Baptist Unionand Africa of Great Missions Britain israEl oluwolE olofinjana wAYnEpage AlA 334n DEtzlEr Reflections from a Germanpagepage 229 26 Evangelical Theologian Reciprocal MissionHans-Georg Theology Wuench for Diaspora Mission What’s in a Name? Should sAllamu FollowersEl cuEva of Jesus Call Themselves ‘Christians’?page 346 Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents: EconomicsEDit EDand b Ythe l.D ‘Present wAtErm AEviln Age’ Aspiring to a Better Understandingpage 40 of the New Testament Letters richardpage l 243. smith Thomas Schirrmacher UnDErstAnDing AnD EvAlUAtingpage t HE354 PArticiPAtion of frAncoPHonE ArticlesAA Globaland book reviews ForumForum reflecting AfricMoralAns in Revelation worlD mission in the: c ongolComingEsE Age: working An Eschatologicalin bUrUnDi bY fo HlE global evangelical theology for the purpose Law and Gospel: The Hermeneutical and Homiletical Key to Evaluation of Kern Robert lTrembath’sYgUnDA li-m Anthropology of Revelation Reformation pageTheology 53 and Ethics of discerning the obedience of faith joshuapage 255wisE Thomas K. Johnson The‘Discerning Little Seminary the Obedience Thatpage Could: of 365Faith’: Trinity A history School offor the Ministry WEA

TheologicalBook Reviews Commission DAviD PArkEr Michael pageKing,page 377 Bob71 Jamison page 271 Index for EvangelicalandBook BruceReview Reviews Barron of Theology, Volume 42 Book Reviewspagepage 382 86 page 280

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Volume 43 • Number 1 • January 2019

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Theological Commission

Published by ISSN: 0144-8153 Volume 43 No. 1 January 2019

General Editor Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, Germany

Executive Editor Dr Bruce Barron, USA

Assistant Editor Dr Thomas K. Johnson, Czech Republic

Book Review Editor Michael Borowski, Germany

Committee Executive Committee of the WEA Theological Commission Dr Rosalee V. Ewell, Brazil, Executive Director Dr Thomas Schirrmacher, Germany, Executive Chair Dr James O. Nkansah, Kenya, Vice-Chair

Editorial Policy The articles in the Evangelical Review of Theology (ERT) of the authors and reviewers and do not necessarily represent those of the reflect the opinions Editors or the Publisher.

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Printed and bound in Great Britain for Paternoster Periodicals by AlphaGraphics, 8-9 Vanguard Court, Preston Farm, Stockton-on-Tees, TS18 3TR ERT (2019) 43:1, 3 Introduction: New Ideas

After nearly forty years of Christian experience, I sometimes struggle deeply personal interaction with the with lack of motivation for daily devo- texting Bible and their commentaries. emphasis on He contempo finds their- tionals. I get the feeling that I’ve read rary relevance quite refreshing. the Bible so many times that there is The ideas featured in Thomas nothing new to discover in another Schirrmacher’s essay are not new, but reading. My response to that devilish im- are somewhat overlooked. He focuses pulse is to look for new ideas. Instead on the contributions of German New of just opening the Bible, I grab a de- Testament scholar Wilhelm Lütgert, votional book or listen to a pastor on- whose ground-breaking analysis of line. In that way, I learn insights from the identity of the apostles’ oppo- another believer who may have seen nents, especially those lurking as the something in Scripture that I never unnamed targets in many passages noticed. of Paul’s letters, greatly affected how This issue of ERT features articles these issues are viewed today, more that should stimulate readers with than eighty years after Lütgert’s new ideas, even though some of them are derived from relatively old death. sources. Along with new ideas, we also Brent Neely grabs hold of theolo- need to be reinspired by clear presen- gian Kevin Vanhoozer’s creative con- tations of classic, timeless truths. In cept of ‘improvisation’ and applies it that vein, Thomas Johnson provides to the apostles’ actions at the Jerusa- an updated version of his masterful lem Council in Acts 15. His approach synthesis (and mainly reconciliation) sheds light on our ongoing task of ap- of Luther and Calvin’s views on the plying a timeless message to chang- relationship between law and gospel, ing cultures, as well as on the early church’s use of the Old Testament. ERT about a decade Steven Boyer points out that Vaish- ago. navism (the branch of Hinduism that firstEditors published don’t in normally publish venerates Vishnu) understands the their own work, but I had space for concept of ‘incarnation’ in a manner one more article and my book chapter that somewhat resembles Christian- on an innovative Anglican seminary ity. His exposition of Vaishnavism is and its unanticipated global impact enlightening in itself, but it also yields important observations about the sig- any leftover space for at least the next fourseemed issues, to fitas the nicely. WEA’s I don’t Peirong expect Lin Hans-Georg Wuench, in a colour- has structured an exciting set of top- nificanceful article of reprinted the Christian from incarnation. Verbum et Ecclesia, demonstrates that African ics coordinated with the WEA Theo- Christians do their theological work logical Commission’s agenda. See the quite differently from traditional call for papers on the next page. Western approaches, even when writ- Happy reading!—Bruce Barron Call for Papers The Evangelical Review of Theology (ERT) is the WEA Theological Commis- sion’s journal. Beginning in 2019, we are seeking to more fully synthesize the content of ERT with the work of the Theological Commission by highlighting, in each issue, a theme related to topics that the Theological Commission is ad- dressing. Accordingly, we are presenting a call for papers on four themes as listed below. Note the submission deadlines. We invite articles based on these themes, although submissions on any other topics are still welcome. Submit them to editor Bruce Barron at [email protected]. Questions may be directed to Peirong Lin, research coordinator for the WEA’s Department of Theological Concerns, at [email protected]. Engagement and Dialogue with the Other (April 2019 issue) The Theological Commission is working on clarifying its terms of engagement within the broader Christian family, as well as with other world religions. We invite articles that explore the theme of theological engagement. This could and/or the other, case studies from particular cultural or national contexts, or includehistorical theological accounts ofreflection engagement on the and understanding dialogue. Due ofdate engagement, was 1 January dialogue 2019, but submissions in January will be considered if space remains. Theological Anthropology (July 2019 issue) The Theological Commission is working on clarifying its understanding of human sexuality. A holistic understanding of human sexuality is rooted in one’s understanding of theological anthropology. We invite articles that dig deeply into issues of anthropology and human sexuality. How are human relationships

Due date 1 April 2019. Engagementcharacterized? in How the Publicdoes sexuality Space (October influence 2019 relationships? issue) How does culture Atinfluence the WEA, understandings we seek to work of anthropology with other international and sexuality? institutions like the UN as well as in many different government contexts. One important global trend today is the rise in nationalism in politics. Our faith impacts how we interact with the broader public. What does this mean for our theology? What kind one’s theology change in the face of a nationalistic or closed government con- oftext? theological How should reflection Christians is required live out in their pluralistic, theologies postmodern in the public societies? space? Does Due date 1 July 2019. Theological Education (January 2020 issue) As evangelicals, we pride ourselves on taking the Bible seriously. At the same time, we live in a time that is different from biblical times. The world today theological education? What is the role of higher criticism in theology? What is theglobalized place for and contextual digitalized. or systematic How should theology? these considerations Due date 1 October influence 2019 our. ERT (2019) 43:1, 5-16 Kevin Vanhoozer’s Theodramatic Improvisation and the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15

Brent Neely In a well-known article, Andrew ago as a radical movement of Jews Walls asks the reader to imagine an committed to Jesus as their risen extremely long-lived Martian anthro- Messiah. The undeniable diversity in pologist studying the ‘earthly’ phe- Christian expression raises crucial nomenon of Christianity over cen- questions about how to pursue au- turies and across the globe.1 Walls’s thentic contextualization of the faith imaginative ‘on the ground’ descrip- once delivered to all. tions of the extra-terrestrial social From its inception, the Gospel has scientist’s visits indicate a breath- continually traversed cultural and taking extent of liturgical, theologi- linguistic boundaries. Especially in cal, cultural and linguistic diversity the modern period, this has resulted among Christian faith communities, in diverse developments across the almost to the point of obscuring their spectrum of global churches as Chris- shared Christian identity. tianity has become rooted in an ever- Indeed, the cultural, political, increasing array of local cultures. A economic and even theological gaps diverse ecclesiastical panorama has among Christian groups around the emerged from the fraught and in- world are stark—not only over time, tricate dance between message and but also in various locations in our context as the gospel wends its way through history. Missteps are possi- the fact that, in terms of its lived ex- ble, but so too is a beautiful pattern ownpression, time. the This Christian variation faith testifies has un to- that is both variegated and integrat- dergone multiple rounds of change, ed, dynamic yet faithful to God’s story. variation and innovation since it Whence comes all this dynamism emerged in Jerusalem two millennia and creativity? Is there a stable identity? Where is the continuity among the churches? How do this vast new- 1 ness and change in the Church inter- and Liberator of Culture’, in The Missionary relate with the inalterable truth from Movement Andrew inF. ChristianWalls, ‘The History: Gospel Studies as Prisoner in the which its existence derives? And Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, where might we look for guidance as 1996), 3–15.

Brent Neely is a PhD student at Trinity International University (Illinois, USA). He and his wife have served in church ministry and theological education in the Middle East for two decades. He wishes to thank Kevin Vanhoozer for reading a draft of this article and offering comments and bibliographic suggestions. 6 Brent Neely we seek to achieve faithful contextu- the gospel as essentially dramatic, alization of the message amongst the the Bible as a script, doctrine as theworld’s countries and people groups? atrical direction, and the church as part of the ongoing performance of salvation.’4 I. Acts 15, the Global Church, In this essay, I apply elements of and Improvised Drama Vanhoozer’s notion of theodrama to One point of entry into these ques- the narrative action of Acts 15, giving tions appears in Acts 15, which re- special attention to his use of the con- counts decisions adopted by the cept of improvisation. In this precise so-called Jerusalem Council that un- theological sense, improvisation does leashed seismic transformation in not mean unbounded innovation. early Christianity.2 As we consider Rather, it represents the creative but those world-forming moves in an- faithful contextualization or appli- cient Judea, we turn to the insights of cation of canonical truth to shifting a contemporary theologian to help us cultural contexts. Vanhoozer explains frame and guide our quest. that such improvisation is fully consonant with a stable orthodox identity.5 ‘Theodrama’ is the guiding para- Vanhoozer uses the classic debate digm that Kevin Vanhoozer applies between Athanasius and Arius over to biblical interpretation, theological the nature of Jesus as an illustration, production, and the life and mission pointing out that mere repetition of prior verbal formulations guarantees and hence christological principle, neither theological integrity nor rele- namely,of the church. that the He Spirit affirms speaking ‘a canonic in Scripture about what God was/is do- statement “The Father and I are one” ing in the history of Israel and climac- (Johnvance. 10:30)',‘The Arians Vanhoozer could affirm states, Jesus’ ‘but tically in Jesus Christ is the supreme it fell to Athanasius to explain what rule for Christian faith, life, and the words meant. Homoousios was understanding.’3 Further, he ‘views Athanasius’s “improvised” response.’6 Vanhoozer’s understanding of 2 ‘theodramatic improvisation’ corre- Luke’s work. For a defense of this contested lates in striking ways with the ‘drama’ position, I assume see the Craig broadly S. Keener, reliable Acts, historicity An Exegeti ofof the Jerusalem Council. Acts 15 has cal Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker featured frequently in discussions of Academic, 2012), chapters 3–9, including the global theologizing, contextualization, and the translation of the gospel as a Historical Source’. final section of chapter 6, ‘Approaching Acts across cultural, religious, or ethnic 3 boundaries.7 For Richard Longeneck- Them All?” Theological Method in an Era of World Kevin Christianity’, J. Vanhoozer, in Craig ‘“One Ott Rule and toHarold Rule A. Netland (eds.), Globalizing Theology: Belief ster John Knox Press, 2005). and Practice in an Era of World Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 108. 4 Vanhoozer’s full statement on doctrine as 5 Drama of Doctrine, 128. Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 109. ‘theodrama’ is found in The Drama of Doc- 6 Drama of Doctrine, 128. trine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to 7 Vanhoozer, - Christian Theology (Louisville, KY: Westmin- balizing Vanhoozer, Hermeneutic of the Jerusalem Coun- Cynthia A. and David K. Strong, ‘The Glo Kevin Vanhoozer's Theodramatic Improvisation 7 er, at the Jerusalem Council, ‘James, in Acts 15 is virtually a tailor-made it appears, voiced one of the greatest - of all theological judgments, which sation.11 ‘Improvisation is … [the at this point in God’s dealing with term]exemplification for the process of dramatic of judging improvi how humanity was one of the great turn- to speak and act in new situations ing points of redemptive history.’8 in a way that is both canonically and Notwithstanding its unique role in 12 For Vanhoozer, the drama of salvation, Acts 15 is an ‘The best improviser is the one whose exemplary, even foundational, case of contextuallyspeech and fitting.'action appear neither the improvisation and contextualiza- preplanned nor ad-libbed but rather tion that has been underway as the- - ology has ‘gone global’ from the start. vise whenever their doctrinal direc- For Vanhoozer, theology is oriented fitting. Christian theologians impro towards ‘practical’ wisdom (sapientia and phronesis) in the life of disciples. istions to followappear the fitting Word or inobvious the Spirit to one of Given its relationship to lived experi- freedom.'who fears13 God,‘Improvising to one whosewell requires reflex ence in all its nuance, diversity, and both training (formation) and dis- tension, the rationale of the divine cernment (imagination).'14 drama ‘is as imaginative-intuitive as For those committed to the author- it is analytic-conceptual and … theol- ity of Scripture, the assumed over- ogy’s primary aim is to help disciples tones of the term ‘improvisation’ may discern how best to “stage” the gos- well be alarming. But, as Vanhoozer pel of the kingdom of God in concrete points out, the problem here lies with situations’.9 Scripture provides ‘the script’ which is to be lived out as the the popular (mis)understanding of church ‘performs’ the Gospel on the the concept and the failure to realize world stage.10 how improvisation, rightly under- In this sense, the narrative action stood, has been inherent in all theology, mission and translation, at least since the closing of the canon. cil’, in Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland (eds.), In the contextual adaptation of im- Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 127–39; Timothy 11 - C. Tennent, Theology in the Context of World hoozer’s ‘One Rule’, along with The Drama of Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influ- Doctrine This . essayVanhoozer primarily does engages not provide with a Van de- encing the Way We Think about and Discuss tailed overlay of the improvisation scheme Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), onto Acts 15 in either work. Cf. Drama of 202–5. I will not address the complex and Doctrine, 339, 440. From a different angle, contested exegetical issues of the passage in in Biblical Authority after Babel: Retriev- complete detail. ing the Solas in the Spirit of Mere Protestant 8 - Christianity (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2016), per Longman III and David E. Garland (eds.), Vanhoozer presents the Jerusalem Council The Richard Expositor’s N. Longenecker, Bible Commentary ‘Acts’, , in vol. Trem 10, as ‘a paradigmatic case of what it means to revised edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, practice sola scriptura’ (p. 130; cf. 130–32). 2007), Kindle Locations 27449–50. 12 Drama of 9 Doctrine, 335–54. 10 Drama of Doctrine, 30– 13 Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 113; cf. 33. Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 109. 14 Drama of Doctrine, 337. See Vanhoozer, Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 114. Vanhoozer, 8 Brent Neely provisation, there is no question of larger story’. They are faithful to the abandoning truth. But for those who big picture, maintain their own iden- view theology as exclusively propo- tity, and ‘keep in mind the overall co- sitional and abstract, the intuition, herence of the developing theodrama’ discernment and oblique insight in- even as they respond to ‘what is hap- herent to improvisation may be un- pening immediately around them’.17 settling. Precisely these elements, Sometimes the word [of God in the however, are central to Luke’s story. biblical drama] is accepted, usually In drama theory, improvisation it is blocked; the divine improvi- begins with an ‘offer’, an initiative sation continues regardless. God presented by some character in a overaccepts even human blocking shared scene. The offer is built on a by incorporating it into the broad- preliminary assumption; offers are er covenantal comedy. Even Isra- then either ‘accepted’ or ‘blocked’. el’s unbelief is overaccepted into ‘In accepting an offer, the actor says the story, with the result—sponta- yes to the basic assumption. A block, neous but not discontinuous—that by contrast, is “anything that pre- 15 the Gentiles become part of the ac- vents the action from developing”.' tion too (Rom 9–11). The greatest The theodrama of the canon is the divine improvisation is, of course, Church’s operative assumption. Van- the incarnation, when the word hoozer further states: of the Lord comes in a way that is The most important offers that different yet at the same time con- structure the ensuing play—‘Let tinuous with previous words.18 there be light’; ‘Behold the Lamb of Another relevant concept here is God’; ‘For we are what he has made ‘reincorporation’, one of the most im- us, created in Christ Jesus for good portant narrative skills in improvisa- works’ (Eph. 2:10)—have already tion. Reincorporation involves reinte- been made. The New Testament grating previously revealed material is replete with examples of people in a scene during its development or accepting offers—improvising—in towards its closure. Reincorporation ways that develop the action. The Jerusalem Council, for example, ac- is not an exercise in autonomous free cepted the ‘offer’ that the covenant association or radical and random of Grace included the Gentiles.16 redirection; rather, the improviser engaging in this action is thoroughly While improvising, good actors ‘committed to the play, to the other fruitfully go beyond merely accepting an offer; they may overaccept it. That is, they incorporate offers ‘into a 17 Drama of Doctrine, 340. 18 Drama of Doctrine, 341. 1 Sam Vanhoozer, 8, in which God grants a king to Israel, 15 Drama of Doctrine, 339. Van- is another Vanhoozer, example of overaccepting—an im- hoozer quotes from Keith Johnstone’s work provised response that goes beyond the nar- Impro: Vanhoozer, Improvisation and the Theatre (New York: Routledge, 1981), 97. On the process a king like the other nations’), incorporating described in this paragraph, see Drama of therow entire confines episode of the into initial a much offer greater (‘Israel narrawants- Doctrine, 338–39. tive and purpose (God’s designs for a Davidic 16 Drama of Doctrine, 339. redeemer).

Vanhoozer, Kevin Vanhoozer's Theodramatic Improvisation 9 players’, and to the wholeness and II. Memory, Catholicity and 19 unity of the drama. As we will see, Canon at the Jerusalem offers, acceptances, overaccepting and reincorporating are all promi- Improv nent in the Jerusalem Council story. The disciple-theologian-actors are In describing theologians as im- not called to a wilful, autonomous construction, even as they are called provisers, we must stress that they to improvise. Whatever the ‘new’ is are not freestyle, independent im- in improvisation, it is not a heedless provisers. Rather, they follow the disavowal of what preceded. As Van- lead of God the Author, Thespian and hoozer puts it: Improviser himself; he makes the Memory is actually more founda- offer. For Vanhoozer, in the canoni- tional for improvisation than origi- cal sweep of the salvation story, the nality. An improviser seeks not to lead offer is God’s cosmic promise to innovate but to respond to the past Abraham (Gen 12; Rom 4:13).20 ‘The … for the future is formed out of history of salvation is largely the his- the past. … The difference between tory of divine improvisation on this acting from a script and improvis- covenantal theme.'21 In Acts 15, we ing is that the improviser is more clearly perceive an initiating offer dependent on what the other ac- and an improvised response. In the tors are saying and doing. This is especially the case when the action into the Antioch congregation without carried forward derives from the 23 becomingunprecedented Jewish flow proselytes of Greek, God pagans (and economy of the Triune God. his missionaries) had radically inter- This is precisely the story of Acts, a jected the ‘new’; an offer was on the narrative propelled across the Roman table (cf. Acts 11:19–26; 14.27; 15.3). world stage with unexpected twists The apostles and elders struggled, and turns. The apostles display bold listened and responded; that is, they obedience, but on many occasions they are simply scrambling to keep improvised.22 Recognizing the Anti- up with the Actor’s offers. Consider, och mission to the Gentiles as the ‘res- for example, the apostles’ somewhat toration of David’s fallen tent’—now fuzzy expectations until the Spirit extending its sovereignty over the na- appears at Pentecost; the sometimes tions—was a grand move to overac- negative nudges that the Spirit gives cept and propel God’s drama forward Paul’s band in guiding their journey (Acts 15:16–18). (e.g. Acts 16:6–7); or especially the engagement between Peter and Cor- nelius. In Luke’s earlier book, the para- doxical victory of the cross had been - 19 Drama of Doctrine, 340 (cf. ded the shroud of the old cosmos, 339–40). confirmedushering in as thethe resurrectionnew creation. shred And 20 Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 347. 21 22 Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 339. 23 Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 114. Cf. Vanhoozer, Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 114. 10 Brent Neely then, in the immediate sequel, the In Syria and Asia Minor, God and would-be ambassadors of the new- the Antiochene community had been creation gospel are told to wait (Acts improvising on such a scale that an ‘ecumenical’ conference was neces- will improvise in response. sary. This new expansion of the peo- 1:4)!Although God must improvisation move first; his impliespeople ple of God—an incorporation into the emergence of something new, the Messiah of Gentiles who had not prior activity of God sets the trajec- taken on the ‘yoke of Torah’—was tory, even when that prior action has shifting the ground beneath the feet long been misunderstood. Through- of a church that understood itself as out Acts, the Spirit leads in line with the renewed Israel of the latter days. the covenantal promise granted to God’s bold offer led to considerable Abraham in eons past (cf. 3:24–26). shaking and to ‘no small dissension Memory is vital in Antioch, in Jerusa- and debate’ (Acts 15:2 NRSV). But a lem and in the mission to the nations. centrifugal fragmentation had to be Thus the debate in Jerusalem invokes resisted. Importantly, the shape of the memory of the Spirit’s recent ac- - tions in Syria and Asia Minor (15:3–4, lic, so representatives of the whole 12); of Peter’s encounter with Cor- spectrumthe theodrama (from is those unified reaching and catho out nelius years earlier (15:7–11); and, to Gentiles to the Hebraic old guard) ultimately, of the divine deposit in convened at Jerusalem (15:2). the Scriptures and history of Israel The tenor of theology forged in (15:13–18). new contexts is improvisational. For A theodramatic expression of the Gospel in new scenarios entails sur- Syria, the context that could not be ig- prise, contextual development, or noredthe first-century was the increasing church of number Judea and of even apophatic mystery. But it cer- non-Jews entering the fold of Israel’s tainly does not mean a random abdi- Messiah. The tectonic plates were cation of authority to every new agen- sliding. Crucial to the deliberations da or context. Vanhoozer’s construal were the remembered contexts of the of the theodrama entails the Spirit, ministries of Paul, Barnabas and Pe- through Scripture, leading the assem- 25 bled community. Therefore, improvi- ter wherein God had instigated new sation in the theodramatic mission realities in physical, tangible, miracu- of the Church must be both canonical lous ways. But James then turned the and catholic (universal). Perhaps today more than ever, vernacular the- 25 ologies from across the world must 15:7–11. In effect he says: ‘God gave these contribute to this process, as catholic outsiders Note Peter’s his own impassioned Spirit freely speech and directly. in Acts community is global community.24 Who are we to quibble?’ Indeed, Peter is rather provocative and totalizing as Luke presents him: God makes ‘no distinction be- 24 - tween us and them’; Jews and Gentiles are sonal communication, Vanhoozer advocated saved by Messiah’s grace on the same terms; for Vanhoozer, further clarity ‘One (here Rule’, and 117–18. in theology In per and resistors are ‘testing God’, and hypocriti- generally) on the role of catholicity and also cally at that (as they themselves have been for correlating the universal with the local less than comprehensive in bearing the yoke church in concrete rather than abstract ways. of Torah)! Kevin Vanhoozer's Theodramatic Improvisation 11 assembly’s focus to the holy writings. meta-principle, a guardrail of sorts. Again, the theodrama is canonical; it This guardrail is the canon itself. To always requires the turn to Scripture. be more precise, exegetical method But in light of the new reality, impro- in Acts 15, and throughout the New visational hermeneutics would also Testament, is shaped by the drama be required. of revelation contained in the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures and understood to have recently climaxed in the III. Improvisational Christ-event. Hermeneutics at the Council The apostolic interpretation of the In globalizing theology, as faith cross- Prophets was certainly improvisa- es boundaries, fresh understandings tional, but it did not consist of purely of the canon emerge. The fact of a di- arbitrary lexical games or random verse world church, gathered around method. In this regard, the larger con- a shared canon, raises the question of text of Amos 9 may also be relevant interpretation. (For simplicity, I set to James’s expanded interpretive ho- aside the relatively minor differences rizon. For example, in Amos 9:7, the between Christian traditions regard- prophet’s sharp rhetoric shockingly places Israel in the same basket with ing the canon.) What is the form of a other nations of the world, near and canonical, yet dynamic, hermeneutic? far. 27 The early believers improvised How is the word to be understood their Bible reading in line with the arc in unprecedented scenarios? What of salvation-history, in light of the di- methods should be employed? vine drama of the Gospel—the Christ- With regard to James’s invoking event that had broken in upon Israel of Scripture in Acts 15:15–18, David now, at the end of the ages (cf. 1 Cor and Cynthia Strong point out that 10:11). his method in appropriating Amos 9 Given these extraordinary events (and other passages) contrasts sub- that had been accomplished in the stantially with the conventional historical-grammatical exegesis taught (cf. Lk 1:1), for James to understand in American evangelical seminaries. midstthe Gentiles’ of the embrace first-generation of the risen church Je- They treat James’s more ‘rabbinic’ sus as the ‘restoration of David’s fall- technique as an example of a valid, en tent’ (Acts 15:16; Amos 9:11–12) though non-Western, hermeneutic— was anything but a stretch; indeed, it a hermeneutic still anchored in Scrip- was virtually inevitable. ture.26 The famous story of Akhnai’s oven Strong and Strong raise a valuable from the Babylonian Talmud (Bava point, but there is more to be said. Metzia 59b)28 provides an illustrative Whatever Hebraic contextual exegesis James may be engaged in (such as stringing together diverse bibli- 27 Bible and Mis- cal texts based on lexical triggers), sion: Christian Witness in a Postmodern World beyond his method there is also a (Bletchley, See Richard UK and Bauckham, Grand Rapids: Paternos- ter and Baker Academic, 2003), 67. 28 The Babylonian Talmud (original text and 26 - English translation) is available at https:// neutic’, 131–32. www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud. Strong and Strong, ‘Globalizing Herme 12 Brent Neely counterpoint to the scriptural herme- New Testament is an improvisation neutics of Acts 15. In Luke’s account, upon the Old’, entailing ‘the recapitu- Scripture is authoritative and context lation of all that has gone before in Je- sus Christ’ (cf. Lk 24:27; 2 Cor 1:20).30 evaluated in light of it; nevertheless, This sense of improvisation be- the(i.e. context—the the influx of divine Gentiles) action must in the be tween the testaments is not identical world—pushes the believers towards to, but is compatible with, Augustine’s an appropriation of God’s word that famous aphorism about the ‘new con- is both new and canonically faithful. cealed in the old; the old revealed in Together, by the Spirit, they come to the new'.31 Augustine, writing Against a fresh understanding of God’s previ- Adimantus, says that ‘there is such ously unexpected action in the world strong prediction and preannounce- and of how that action is consonant ment of the New Testament [in the with, or even required by, his ancient, Old Testament] that nothing is found revealed truth. In the Talmudic story, in the teaching of the Evangelists and on the other hand, not even miracles the apostles, however exalted and di- or heavenly voices can overcome an vine the precepts and promises, that interpretation backed by traditional is lacking in those ancient books.'32 consensus; so settled is this point that In On the Profit of Believing, Au- God is in effect outdone by the rabbis. gustine speaks of the underlying The interpreters trump the Author. congruity between the Old and New Of course, Acts and the Talmudic Testaments, stating that the apparent narrative are not comparable genres, disjunction lies only in the obscuring and we must allow that the Talmud is epistemological veil that obfuscates speaking ‘tongue-in-cheek’. But with the reading of the Old Testament regard to the dynamics of canon, com- until that veil is removed in Christ munity, and hermeneutical authority, (cf. 2 Cor 3:6–18).33 In the wake of a the structural contretemps between dramatic improvisation in the Bible’s the two stories is noteworthy. ‘Great Story’, one’s retrospective gaze The Hebrew Scriptures remained may well lead to a sense that a veil has the unassailable authority for the Je- been lifted.34 At the Jerusalem Coun- rusalem messianic community. But that canon was understood as a co- herent story line that had reached its 30 Drama of Doctrine, 341. 31 - life, death and resurrection of Jesus minding Vanhoozer, me of this Augustinian notion. The I am grateful to Dr Tite Tiénou for re fromclimactic, Nazareth. surprising The fulfilmentdrama that in theex- phrase is said to come from Questions in the Heptateuch 2.73 (which I have not been able plains the past, situates our present to access). and directs the future is centred on 32 The Reformation and the the gospel about Jesus. Recall that Right Reading of Scripture (Waco, TX: Baylor reincorporation (or recapitulation) University Iain Provan, Press, 2017), Kindle Locations is essential to right improvising.29 In- 1039–41, citing Against Adimantus 3.4. deed, ‘one might say that the whole 33 On the Profit of Believing/De Utilitate Credendi, www.newadvent.org/fathers/1306.htm Augustine, (paragraph 9 on the ‘veiling’ 29 Drama of Doctrine, 339–40, issue). 388–89. 34 - Vanhoozer, Iain Provan sometimes refers to (a sum Kevin Vanhoozer's Theodramatic Improvisation 13 cil, the dynamic and redemptive in- a contextualizing ‘that recognizes the tervention of Jesus in his world (well cultural clothing of our speech and beyond Jewish boundaries) drove action but does not necessarily deny the disciples back upon Scripture, in 36 dependence on the living Spirit, in David Bosch critiques a sort of hyper- such a way that they saw with new ideologicaltheir transcontextual contextual theology significance’. that, eyes. The path forward would be dis- in a sense, sets the context above the covered not by syllogistic deduction text: ‘It isn’t the facts of history that but by wise discernment as a faith- reveal where God is at work, but the ful community improvised within the facts illuminated by the gospel. Ac- drama. cording to Gaudium et Spes 4, the church, in reading the signs of the times, is to interpret them in the light IV. Canon and Context of the gospel.’ Bosch further asserts, ‘We may not, however, without ado cultural context and provides a sort convert the context into the text.’ For Actsof live 15 video exemplifies clip of canonical mission theodra in fresh- Bosch, the ‘theologia localis should … matic interpretation. challenge and fecundate the theologia oecumenica, and the latter, similarly, Scripture governs theology not by [should] enrich and broaden the perspective of the former.’37 harvest abstract universals, but by At the Jerusalem Council we see embodyingproviding the truths field offrom transcultural which we what Vanhoozer calls a critical or significance in particular contexts. disciplined contextualization—that … What ought to govern the play of is, a ‘genuinely contextual theology theology in other times and places [which] is accountable both to the [is] the cultural-linguistic patterns theodrama (and hence to canoni- of Scripture itself, not because cal texts) and to the contemporary those ancient cultures are authori- situation'.38 Timothy Tennent con- tative but because the judgments strues the outcomes of Acts 15 as ‘a - generous compromise’;39 while I ac- guistic expression in them are. … knowledge his observation, for our that[The comecanon to authoritatively] specific cultural-lin con- purposes the stronger resonance of strains but does not exhaustively - determine how we participate in ting term than ‘compromise’ for the the theo-drama today. We are still ‘faithfulcontextual improvisation’ theology that is emerged a more fitin 35 in the realm of phronesis. Jerusalem. Faithful improvisation entails not - contextualism (‘the view that every- ity’ in theological production, a pro- thing we say is determined by and Vanhoozer calls for ‘creative fidel relative to a particular context’) but 36 37 Transforming Mission: Paradigm Vanhoozer, Shifts ‘One in Theology Rule’, 118. of Mission, 20th ‘the Great Story.’ See e.g. Provan, The Refor- anniversary David J. ed. Bosch, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2011), mationmary of), Kindle the narrative Locations flow 1063-69. of the canon as 422, 491, 420. 35 Drama of Doctrine, 348 (em- 38 phasis in original). 39 Theology in the Context, 204. Vanhoozer, Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 114. Tennent, 14 Brent Neely duction executed in subjection to the ‘local’ may celebrate its distinctiveness, but not in isolation, for ‘any the- identities of Scripture, of the story, ology is a discourse about a universal canon.and of theThis God is aand fidelity people in ofwhich that stothe- message.’43 The Gospel is both vitally ry remain stable and continuous. Yet at home in and incisively at odds with new enactments of theological truth every people and place. In Andrew appropriate to a new time and place Walls’s formulation, the dialectic tension between the ‘indigenizing’ and the Gospel is transmitted, translated ‘pilgrim’ principles is constant.44 areand fleshedexpressed out. in Throughoutchanged ways, time, in Certainly, theological understand- changed contexts—all this with faith- ing of Scripture must not and can- fulness to the judgements or ‘com- municative action’ of the canonical translation involves interpretation, theodrama. In faithful improvisation ornot perhaps be ‘confined improvisation. to the past’.45 Histori Even- the same gospel, not another gospel, cal-critical sensitivity to the original is handed on.40 context of the biblical text is vital, but As the message is translated into it does not constitute the whole theo- new contexts, the church and its the- logical process; if it were, then theol- ology are contextualized or, perhaps ogy would be reduced to perpetual more precisely, enculturated. This is ‘duplication’.46 This is not how impro- not merely an expansion of the church, visational drama works. ‘Though the but the Church ‘being born anew in 41 each new context and culture’. Nec- enough simply to repeat one’s lines essarily, productively, and by design, whenchurch’s the scriptcultural is scene sufficient, changes.’ it is47 not tensions remain throughout the pro- But the equal and opposite defect cess of mission and enculturation, is an interpretation that cuts the in- always and everywhere—even in terpreter off from the authority of the Western world. Again, the Spirit the past and of the text by a totaliz- forms, challenges and critiques local ing commitment to the contemporary expressions of the ekklesia by means context or regnant ideology. This is, of canon and (catholic) community. The Church can be conceptualized as a ‘universal hermeneutical com- 1985, 16. munity, in which Christians and theo- 43 A Theology of Libera- logians from different lands check tion, 15th anniversary ed. (Maryknoll, NY: one another’s cultural biases'.42 The Orbis Gustavo Books, Gutiérrez, 1988), xxxvi. This and the previous sentence are drawn from Bosch, Trans- forming Mission, 450, who quotes Hiebert 40 Drama of Doctrine, 127–33. Vanhoozer helpfully employs Ricoeur’s dis- 44 tinction Vanhoozer, between two kinds of ‘sameness’, 45and Gutiérrez. Drama of Doctrine, 351; cf. idem-identity (brittle, duplicative) and ipse- 129–33. Walls, 'The Gospel as Prisoner’, 7–9. identity (dynamically faithful) (pp. 127–28). 46 Vanhoozer, Drama of Doctrine, 351, with 41 Transforming Mission, 447; cf. reference to Mikhail Bakhtin, ‘Response to a 445–50. Question Vanhoozer, from the Novy Mir Editorial Staff’, in 42 Bosch, - Speech Genres and Other Late Essays (Austin: tions of an Epistemological Shift’, Theologi- University of Texas Press, 1986), 7. cal Paul Students Hiebert, Fellowship ‘The Missiological Bulletin (May-June), Implica 47 Drama of Doctrine, 336.

Vanhoozer, Kevin Vanhoozer's Theodramatic Improvisation 15 among other things, a failure to faith- ary theology, arising out of the fully remember; it is, rather, to engage need to translate and incarnate in ‘blocking’. the gospel in and into particular A move in either direction, then, cultural settings. Just as important distorts and misappropriates Scrip- is the renewed consciousness that ture by seeking to entrap it within ei- theology is something that is lived. ther the ancient or current epoch. The Doctrinal truth must be not only ‘canon itself avoids both mistakes. It systematized but also shown; stat- neither leaves earlier texts in their ed, yes, but also staged and even own epochs nor distorts what they suffered.50 were originally about. On the contra- Theology without discipleship is ry: later biblical texts reincorporate the earlier material. They translate; 48 49 be ‘performed’; it is dramatic. A criti- they improvise.’ They are ‘creative’. calfatally aspect deficient. of the Christian dramatic truthparadigm is to The Jerusalem Council faithfully of Scripture, with its climax in the and also freshly read God’s script and story of Jesus, is the virtue of faith- then improvised. James and the Jeru- ful theological improvisation. And, in salem band were creative in multiple faithful mimesis, ‘the task of system- ways: atic theology is to train actors with in their catholic incorporation good improvisatory judgment, actors of all the relevant actors— who know what to say and do to per- • apostles, leaders, advocates form and advance the gospel of Jesus and complainants; Christ in terms of their own cultural in their reference to recent contexts.’51 actions of accepting offers, re- The expansion, development, and • membering and reincorporat- multi-directional movement of the ing, such as Peter’s experience church in mission engender and re- with Cornelius; quire ever-new theologizing. But for in their submission to the this church to remain recognizably Spirit, the Director (Acts 15:8, the one ekklesia of Jesus, the pulsing • 28); and energy of myriad contextual theolo- in their reference to the canon gies must be channelled canonically, of Scripture—remembering, by the Spirit of Jesus, in a shared uni- • reincorporating and overac- versality. The resulting catholicity ‘is cepting in light of the ‘Big Play’. not a “colorless uniformity” but a coat of many threads and many colors’.52 V. Conclusion The canonical template of faithful improvisation itself exerts a sort Thanks to developments in the global South, we now realize that all theology is essentially mission- 50 51 52 Vanhoozer, ‘One Rule’, 122–23. 48 Drama of Doctrine, 351. to Vanhoozer,Shoki Coe, ‘Contextualization ‘One Rule’, 121. as the Way 49 - toward Vanhoozer, Reform’, ‘Onein Asian Rule’, Christian 118, Theology: referring er points Vanhoozer, out that this faithful creativity is not Emerging Themes, edited by J. Elwood (Mary- a creation Each term ex nihilo is a potential(Drama of pitfall. Doctrine Vanhooz, 351). knoll, NY: Orbis, 1980), 48–55. 16 Brent Neely of normative pressure on the church Messiah’s fold. What was God doing? in mission throughout history. Con- Who are the people of God and how sider, for example, the famous con- are they constituted? The new cov- ciliar creeds, promulgated during a enant represents a theological tour time of dramatic expansion of the de force in which consummate pagans early church. Vanhoozer terms them were, by faith, swept into the com- ‘theodramatic discoveries’ worthy of pany of the chosen, alongside believ- respect.53 Similarly, mission, and thus ing Hebrews. As Bosch observes, this translation, contextualization and is the epitome of contextual theology, improvisation continue today in all ‘holding together in creative tension Christian contexts. As Craig Ott states: theoria, praxis and poiesis—or, if one wishes, faith, hope, and love’; such is formulations in the Western tra- ‘the missionary nature of the Chris- [Wedition may] are affirmno less that true theological in Africa tian faith, which seeks to combine the or Asia than they are in Europe three dimensions’.55 or America. However, they are Andrew Walls speaks of the early not necessarily equally relevant, church’s move towards incorporat- understandable, or adequate in ing Jews and Gentiles into one body all contexts. Nor are such formulations exhaustive. Here is where for subsequent church history; he theological insights from non- thenas a contends fleeting butthat criticaltoday’s watershedglobalized Western perspectives hold so church is poised on the cusp of anoth- much promise. They open the door 56 not necessarily for alternative but The epochal decisions emerging from rather for fuller theological under- theer such drama defining of Acts ‘Ephesian 15 constitute moment’. a standing.54 Spirit-breathed improvisation, the The fateful Jerusalem Council, oc- redemptive consequences of which curring two decades after the resur- have echoed down the centuries. rection, grappled with fundamental Their consequences echo even today crises of ecclesiology, theology, eth- as the theodrama continues on its glo- ics and salvation as a radical Jewish balizing arc. renewal movement was confronted with a wave of Gentiles entering the 55 Transforming Mission, 424. 56 53 in The Bosch, Cross-Cultural Process in Christian His- 54 - tory Andrew (Maryknoll, Walls, NY: ‘The Orbis, Ephesian 2002), Moment’, 72–81, ology’, Vanhoozer, in Craig ‘One Ott Rule’,and Harold 119. A. Netland available online at www.calvin.edu/admin/ (eds.), Craig Globalizing Ott, ‘Conclusion: Theology: Globalizing Belief and Prac The- provost/multicultural/documents/ephe- tice in an Era of World Christianity (Grand sian_moment.pdf. Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 315. ERT (2019) 43:1, 17-25 Incarnations, Christian and Hindu: Christology in Conversation with Vaishnavism

Steven D. Boyer

I. Introduction: Learning from this source. As many readers may be unfamiliar Christianity by Means of with the history and theology of Hinduism Hinduism, I wish to begin by removing The contemporary discipline of com- one common misconception. It is often parative theology is often pursued in assumed that similarities regarding a a way that would seem incompatible single notion like ‘incarnation’ will with core evangelical commitments. inevitably prove inconsequential in But the work of understanding a re- light of the much larger dissimilarities ligious tradition different from ours between Christianity and Hinduism on its own terms as a means of under- as comprehensive religious outlooks. standing our own tradition better has There is some truth to that point, but much to commend it. In particular, Hinduism is an extraordinarily diverse phenomenon, and so it matters very be bolstered as we examine strikingly much which particular tradition confidencesimilar teachings in the Christianin other gospelfaiths andcan one is considering. There exist thereby see the distinctiveness and vibrant, sophisticated expressions of winsomeness of our own teaching classical Hinduism (for example, the more clearly. popular school of thought known as Toward that end, this essay looks at Hindu and Christian understand- nondualism’, that originated with ings of ‘incarnation’, considering the Visistadvaitathe eleventh-century Vedanta, orVaishnavite ‘qualified classical Christian teaching in light saint Ramanuja) that are explicitly of Indian concepts that are often re- and unequivocally monotheistic (not garded as similar to it. We will look monistic or polytheistic); rooted in bhakti, or personal love and devotion known as Vaishnavism—that is, Hin- (rather than in jnana, knowledge or specificallydu devotion at to the the branch god Vishnu—since of Hinduism philosophy); and utterly dependent most (though not quite all) talk about on the gracious initiative of God incarnations among Hindus comes (rather than on human spiritual

Steven D. Boyer (PhD, Boston University) is Professor of Theology at Eastern University in Saint Davids, PA. He is co-author (with Christopher A. Hall) of The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Un- knowable (Baker, 2012) and has also written articles on topics as diverse as the theology of mathemat- ics, order and equality in the Trinity, and Hollywood’s transmogrification of C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. 18 Steven D. Boyer attainment). This God-loving, grace- II. One Revelatory Incarnation based version of Hinduism may or Many? surprise some of us, for it comes As is generally known, standard Hin- much closer to the ordinary intuitions of historic Christianity than we might or incarnations, each of which is an 1 have expected. du doctrine affirms multiple avatars For the purposes of the present es- favour into a broken world; by con- occasiontrast, the Christian for the overflow doctrine speaks of divine of more user-friendly expression of Hin- only one incarnation, the unequivo- duismsay, it is is especially not similar significant to Christianity that this in only a vague, generic way. Rather, our midst. This difference regarding Vaishnavism is intensely committed callythe number final coming of incarnations of Jesus Christ is an into apt to a doctrine of incarnation. More - cance is sometimes thought to be self- teaching about a personal God and a placeevident, to as begin, if simply because declaring its signifi that savingspecifically, love itusing frequently the important expresses and its ‘they have many incarnations, but we rather technical language of avatars. have only one’ clearly and obviously This word has become widely explains what distinguishes the two approaches. known in the West, though often in - contexts I can’t imagine a Hindu holy cance is really so clear and obvious. man approving. The term itself de- WhatBut exactly I’m not is sureat stake that here? the signifi Could rives from Sanskrit roots that mean there be more than one incarna- ‘to cross (over)’ and ‘down’. Hence, tion, on Christian grounds? Interest- Hindus use the term to refer not, of ingly, no less a Christian luminary course, to personas in virtual technol- that Thomas Aquinas thought so. He ogy, but to the ‘descent’, ‘manifesta- maintained that, in actual fact, there tion’ or ‘incarnation’ of a deity in rec- was only one incarnation, but he saw ognizable, embodied form. no reason to deny that there could be For Vaishnavite Hindus, the lov- more than one if God so desired.2 ing initiative of God is concretely ex- This way of thinking is, of course, pressed in exactly this way: God him- somewhat shocking to us (and I frank- self (Vishnu) enters our world for us and for our salvation. What are we to 2 Summa Theologia - make of this surprising parallel be- - tween Christianity and Hinduism? tions See for evaluating the differences iii, 3, 7. For between reflec Christiantion on the and significance Hindu approaches of Aquinas’s to specula incarnation, see Noel Sheth, ‘Hindu Avatara and 1 - Christian Incarnation: A Comparison’, Philos- cussion by Julius Lipner in The Face of Truth: ophy East and West 52, no. 1 (January 2002): A ForStudy more of Meaning on Ramanuja, and Metaphysics see the in fine the disVe- 107; Julius Lipner, ‘Avatara and Incarnation?’ dantic Theology of Ramanuja (Albany, SUNY in David C. Scott and Israel Selvanayagam Press, 1986), especially chap. 7. Some as- (eds.), Re-visioning India’s Religious Tradi- pects of Ramanuja’s teaching would require tions: Essays in Honour of Eric Lott (Delhi: In- further exploration (beyond the scope of this dian Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- essay) to consider the extent of their similar- edge, for the United Theological College, ity to Christianity. Bangalore, 1996), 131. Incarnations, Christian and Hindu 19 ly have no idea what some of Aqui- Krishna’s childhood playfulness can nas’s odd speculations on this topic enrich Christian devotion to Jesus. actually amount to), but the point is She writes, ‘The young Krishna does that the difference in number may not not desire to be worshiped in awe, be conceptually absolute. The Bible nor does he desire to be feared; in- speaks of just one incarnation, and stead, Krishna desires that his devo- that settles the matter both for Aqui- tees enter into an intimate relation- nas and for us. But could there have ship of pure love and devotion with been more? What is gained or lost by him, modeled on the [relationship] a the Christian insistence on the singu- mother has with her child.’3 larity of Christ’s incarnation? Largen does not mean to reject im- We may be tempted to think that ages of God that involve awe and fear; - rather, we can accept them alongside their Hindu counterparts. Thus we therevelation justification that Jesusfor a provides,single incarna since end up with two different sets of im- tionthe Bible grows states out clearly of the that finality Jesus of rep the- ages (Christian and Hindu), which to- resents the full, complete revelation gether reveal God in richer ways be- of God (cf. Heb 1). Yet it is hard for cause of their complementary nature. this claim to stand on its own theo- Note the emphasis here on how logically without some other line of the images reveal God. If we think of argument undergirding it. From a incarnation primarily as a mode of Hindu point of view, it seems simply revelation, then this wider, more comprehensive account of that revelation image could decisively capture the can hardly be objected to. absurd to imagine that a single, finite infiniteat the incomprehensible mystery of God. Wouldn’ttruth more an III. The Nature of a Hindu infiniteeffectively? series If we of diversethink of images Jesus pri get- marily as a revelation, then it could Incarnation be quite reasonable to conclude that We will return to the emphasis on our preoccupation with Jesus alone is revelation in a moment, for it will help regrettably narrow. us to understand not only why there In fact, this apparent narrowness can be more incarnations in Hindu- has prompted some Christian theolo- ism than in Christianity, but also why gians to expand the Christian vision Hindu incarnations have their par- precisely by supplementing it with insights that come from (among other ask explicitly: what is that character? places) Vaishnavism. I do not endorse Whatticular does character. it mean But for first Vaishnavites we need to this move, but its logic is very instruc- speak of an incarnation? tive. For example, Lutheran theologian Kristin Largen advocates what might 3 Baby Krishna, In- be called a mutual enrichment mod- fant Christ: A Comparative Theology of Salva- tion Kristin (Maryknoll, Johnston NY: Largen, Orbis Books, 2011), 50. el for drawing together Vaishnavite For related observations about Christian and and Christian approaches to God. In Hindu practice, but without the same syncre- her book Baby Krishna, Infant Christ, tistic overtones, see Sheth, ‘Hindu Avatara’, she argues that Hindu images of 122, note 74. 20 Steven D. Boyer

We can begin by correcting a simple mistake. Some Christians have the rest of Hinduism’s non-monist imagined the various avatars in Hin- tradition,unqualified it issense). all the For more Ramanuja certain thatand duism to be docetic ‘appearances’ or Krishna is real. ‘projections’ of Brahman, not ‘real’ in But the reality of the incarnation is not the whole story; there are still texts of Hinduism (most prominently at least four important differences theany significantBhagavad Gitasense., where But the the sacred doc- between Krishna and ordinary mor- - tals like Arjuna and us. First and most biguous appearance) and the classical obviously, Krishna is divine. He is the commentariestrine of avatars onfirst those makes texts an unamshow great God Vishnu, whom foolish peo- without a doubt that the avatars are, ple overlook when they gaze upon the in fact, real embodiments that have manifestation (the physical embodi- real effects on the world.4 ment) and fail to recognize the higher In the Gita, the avatar is Krishna, essence. the charioteer and counsellor for Second, Krishna has taken his cur- the befuddled warrior Arjuna, who rent form not (like ordinary mortals) as a result of the inexorable workings religious duty in a world gone mad. of karma, but by his own free decision Krishnais wrestling does withnot simply how pop to fulfil into Ar his- and power, which suggests that his entire existence is not quite like ours; rather, he is a regular character in the it is sovereign, free, unconstrained.5 story.juna’s Hevisual is born, field likegrows Hamlet’s up, eats ghost; and Third, the actual matter of Krish- drinks, drives a chariot and even dies. na’s body may differ from our own. I There is every indication that this is say that it may differ because, in fact, a real, concrete embodiment, one (the the Vaishnavite tradition is mixed on Gita says) that includes ‘material na- this point. There is some indication ture’ (prakrti). in the Gita itself that Krishna has an Even for the famous eighth-cen- ordinary material body like Arjuna’s, tury Hindu monist Sankara, whose but many in the tradition (most nota- interpretation of Hinduism is well- bly Ramanuja himself) say that Krish- known in the West and would make na’s material form is derived from a the docetic claim appear supremely plausible, this avatar is every bit as real as his environment (though the 5 Avatara and Incar- entire environment is not real in any nation?’ 137) that this difference between Krishna Lipner and maintains ordinary human (‘ mortals makes the Vaishnavite account fundamentally dif- 4 - ferent from orthodox Christianity’s account rinder, Avatar and Incarnation (New York: of Jesus, since Jesus is said to be fully human, Oxford See theUniversity seminal Press, work 1982), of Geoffrey 119. For Par a like us in every way except for sin. But the similar discussion, see Lipner, ‘Avatara and phrase ‘except for sin’ strikes me as doing Incarnation?’ 138; Sheth, ‘Hindu Avatara’, exactly the same theological work for Chris- 108. For a different (and unconvincing) con- tians that Krishna’s freedom from karmic clusion, see Robert W. Stevenson, ‘The Con- determination does for Hindus. So I would cept of Avatara in Ancient and Modern Com- argue that this is actually a parallel between mentaries on the Bhagavadgita’, Journal of the Vaishnavite and Christian accounts, not a Studies in the Bhagavadgita 3 (1983): 61.

significant difference. Incarnations, Christian and Hindu 21 pure and divine kind of ‘matter’ that unlike the theophanies of the Old is unique to the deity.6 We need not Testament. Consider the three men resolve that question here. who appear to Abraham in Genesis Finally, Krishna has no human soul - or spirit; he is simply Vishnu. In this pears to Samson’s parents in Judges respect, the Vaishnavite teaching is 18,13. orIn thesuch mysterious stories, a certainfigure who human ap somewhat reminiscent of fourth- ordinariness is initially presupposed century Apollinarianism in Christian- ity (the ‘God in a body’ Christology, be not human at all in any serious where Jesus is understood as fully di- insense—and the figures, once but their they special, turn outdivine to vine on the inside but with a physical character becomes known, no one is body like ours on the outside). interested in the human ordinariness at all. When Jacob realizes that he has been wrestling with God in Genesis IV. The Purpose of a Hindu 32, he fears for his life, but he never Incarnation stops to marvel theologically that deity and humanity have come together Whatever we make of the various in a permanent hypostatic union. On details, all these points indicate that the contrary, once deity is revealed, the divine Self of the avatar domi- supposed humanity is forgotten alto- nates the Hindu portrayal. Krishna, gether. It is not even a subject of spec- for all his involvement in ordinary life ulation, for the reality of God relativ- events like chariot driving, is always izes all such considerations. presented as displaying what Geof- Hinduism follows this same line frey Parrinder describes as a kind of 7 of thought, and insofar as Hindu in- transcendent divine ‘aloofness’. He is carnations can be viewed as parallel interested in our world; he comes to to Old Testament theophanies, the instruct and aid us in our weakness; approach seems sensible. Like Old hence, he willingly takes part in our Testament Jews, Vaishnavites happily little drama—yet he is never subject celebrate a multitude of instances of 8 to it. God appearing among us, a multitude In this respect, as many people of so-called ‘incarnations’, that are (in have pointed out, the avatar is not the words of Richard De Smet) ‘not hypostatic, but manifestative, or … instrumental'.9 God does not become 6 The Body-Divine Relation in the Human a man; instead, he shows himself as Form’, See Stevenin Catherine Tsoukalas, Cornille ‘Krishna (ed.), and Song Christ: Di- a man, and in this way he is present vine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhaga- among us to provide what we need, vad Gita (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), 152–53. namely a revelation of God or of God’s 7 Avatar and Incarnation, 226. truth that can restore the cosmic or- Lipner agrees: ‘In the Krishna-narratives, the der (dharma) whenever ignorance divinity Parrinder, of Krishna is often barely contain- able’ (‘Avatara and Incarnation?’ 138). 8 - 9 trast with Christianity: ‘Krishna could not in Jerald Gort, Hendrik Vroom, Rein Fern- be Lipner a Man succinctlyof Sorrows makesin the away perfect Jesus conwas hout, Richard and Anton De Smet, Wessels ‘Jesus (eds.), and Dialoguethe Avatara’, and perceived to be, and has never been thus de- Syncretism: An Interdisciplinary Approach scribed’ (‘Avatara and Incarnation?’ 138). (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 159. 22 Steven D. Boyer and corruption and evil have grown the union of love proper to a Creator strong enough to threaten it seriously. and his creatures. Of course, this deliverance is only This is a lovely vision in many ways, local, not universal, but Vaishnavites (like Old Testament Jews) are content of it. But Christians who know their with that, at least for the moment. andearly Christians church history can affirm also large remember swaths God’s coming among us at all is an the great champion of a similar un- event to be celebrated; one doesn’t derstanding of the nature of broken- necessarily assume that its effects ness in our world. That champion was will last long in the cosmic scheme of Pelagius, who steadfastly insisted that sure, but the people who have seen abelievers fifth-century must learn British to monkrecognize named the things.the truth The will truth all is too reaffirmed, soon wander to be evil in the world and separate them- back into their blindness. The fright- selves from it—and that they can rec- ful disaster is averted and we are at ognize it and separate from it, with peace, but only until the next poten- the help of God’s gracious instruction. tial disaster looms on the horizon. Christians, led by the indomitable The marvellous appearances of God Augustine, found much that was true offer great instruction and comfort in this teaching, but also a fatal opti- and even rescue to God’s people, but mism about human nature that could they do not provide ultimate rescue, not be sustained either by Scripture for Hindus any more than for Jews. or by human experience. - According to the historic Christian equivocally change things. view, human brokenness runs deeper TheyAnd do on notthe Hindu finally, account, decisively, we unsee than Pelagius thought; it runs into the why they do not unequivocally change very nature of our humanity. As Par- things: it is because the world does rinder has noted,10 however strong Hindus believe the chain of karma The world is a troubled place, no notdoubt, need but final, that unequivocaltrouble can change.be ad- break, it is never understood as en- dressed and escaped if we follow good totailing be, howevera comprehensive difficult Fall it may that be cor to- instructions in order to penetrate the rupts the whole human person. Yet veil that has fallen over our minds. this is exactly what Christians insist The wheel of karma has captured us, upon. and its power needs to be broken, but it can be broken by understanding the ultimate nature of things more fully. V. The Distinctiveness of An ‘incarnation’, according to this Christ’s Incarnation view, simply reveals that ultimate It is in light of this large-scale prob- nature. It reveals God’s kindness and lem that Christians understand the love, and it reveals our own deepest nature and role of God’s incarnation nature as well. When we have seen in Christ. Where Hinduism offers a wickedness all around us for so long ‘manifestative’ or instrumental un- that we ourselves have begun to copy derstanding of incarnations, in which and internalize it, then God manifests himself to point out the lie, renew our failing vision, and draw us back into 10 Avatar and Incarnation, 238.

Parrinder, Incarnations, Christian and Hindu 23

God appears in human form or adopts thereby doing something shocking human features to accomplish certain to human nature itself. Christ is the short-term objectives, Christianity speaks very self-consciously of the larger program, and those who are hypostatic union of deity and human- beginning,united with thehim ‘firstfruits’, are in for quite of a a much ride. ity in Christ. God truly becomes man, The Athanasian Creed famously though without ceasing to be the declares that deity and humanity fulness of the eternal God, and this become one in Christ ‘not by conver- unprecedented union permits two impossible things to happen, both of by taking of the manhood into God’. which lie utterly outside the imagina- sionRedemption of the Godheadis not simply into a flesh,return but to tion of Hindu teachers and seers. innocence; eschatological humanity First, when God becomes a man, he is something higher and greater than suffers and dies. Jesuit Indologist Noel unfallen humanity had been. We are Sheth argues that this element con- reminded that the eternal God has stitutes what is ‘uniquely Christian’ accomplished something unimagina- about the Christian view of the Incar- ble: he has drawn a mere creature, a nation.11 God becomes astonishingly subject to the conditions of this sinful own eternal reality. We become, in the world, in such a way as to overcome merewords image, of 2 Peter a mere 1:4 reflection (KJV), ‘partakers into his the deep liability that humanity in- of the divine nature’ in Christ. curred by violating the very character Sin’s penalty is paid and sin’s pow- of reality. er is broken precisely because the na- This part of the human problem is ture of the one penalized, the nature what we Christians refer to as guilt, of the one in bondage, has now been which makes humanity subject to di- united forever to the personal right- vine wrath. This part of the solution eousness and power of God himself. may be summarized in the breathtak- Those who are in Christ are no longer ingly simple word atonement. An un- merely themselves. In the marvel of imaginable exchange has taken place God’s gracious work, they are drawn to allow the Creator to bear the guilt into the very life of God. The bro- of his creatures, to allow the Moral ken puppet Pinocchio is not merely Lawgiver to receive the punishment mended; he becomes a real boy. for moral lawlessness. The paradoxes Thus we come, via a rather round- here can be piled to the sky, but the about route, to be reminded of what basic fact is that the living God dies Christians have always believed, and on behalf of sinners. No wonder Paul describes this as a stumbling block to more clearly by contrast with its Jews and foolishness to Greeks, yet to perhapsHindu competitors. also to see We its significancemight have us the power and wisdom of God. thought that Hinduism, with its talk Second, not only does God become of multiple divine incarnations and a man to suffer and die, but he then of Atman being the same as Brahman rises from the dead precisely as a man, and so forth, was presenting too lofty a picture of divine-human interaction. But it is not so; in fact, almost the re- 11 - verse is true. rinder, Avatar and Incarnation, 213. Clearly, the monistic Hinduism of Sheth, 109 (cf. 111, 115). See also Par 24 Steven D. Boyer

Sankara, with its unrelenting insist- But the Christian account turns ence that ‘all is Brahman’, keeps its this on its head. God does not just ap- adherents from grasping even what pear among men but rather becomes it means to say that a true creature a man, to do things for and to human- becomes a partaker of the divine na- ity that are frankly scandalous. A ture. With no real doctrine of crea- more serious human disease required tion, everything intrinsically partakes a more radical treatment, and so God of the divine nature, and so Sankara’s did not just provide a perfect law (as notion of salvation ends up being a Judaism holds) or an ideal prophet rather ho-hum affair. Nothing really (as Islam contends). He did not even changes, ever. just come himself and appear among The monotheistic Hinduism of us, as Hinduism holds (in line with Ramanuja, by contrast, does have a the Old Testament theophanies). In- real doctrine of creation, and so we stead, the eternal God sweeps into expect salvation in this view to have creation to take human nature upon something more of a Christian feel to himself, to link human nature perma- it. And it does, after a fashion; some- nently to the divine nature in a hypo- thing does change. For Ramanuja, for- static union, and thereby to redeem giveness and restoration are obtained as well as to remake humanity. This through a combination of sheer per- is the colossal achievement that the sonal grace on God’s side and intense incarnation in its distinctive Christian love and gratitude on the human side. sense offers. This is real forgiveness and real res- I do not view Hinduism in general, toration, and that’s good. Yet from or Vaishnavism in particular, as self- the Christian vantage point, it is still contradictory or ridiculous. On the mere forgiveness and mere restora- contrary, the Hindu outlook seems tion; both are simply revealed, not to me to make very good sense. If unimaginably achieved. It is a forgive- anything, it is the Christian vision ness without the staggering anomaly that does not make (ordinary) sense. of God’s atoning death, and a resto- Instead, it involves what Christians ration that involves merely a return have always very intentionally re- to innocence, not a hypostatic union ferred to as a mystery, and a mystery between creatures and their Creator. as vast and luminous as the incarnation ought to shock us. But we Chris- tians tend to become accustomed VI. Conclusion: Remembering to our mysteries, and we forget how What We Know - The real power of the Christian vi- ism’s doctrine of avatars helps me to sion of the God-man becomes clear- shockingremember they the shock.are. I find that Hindu est right here, when contrasted with a In this respect, sympathetic Chris- tame, sensible, reasonable alternative tian engagement with Hinduism of- like that offered by Hinduism. The fers two somewhat surprising advan- Vaishnavite account shows God whit- tages. First, it may have apologetic tling himself down to our size, so that value, not by demonstrating incoher- ence in the Hindu outlook, but instead from his presence; what is more sen- by assuming basic coherence and wesible can than understand that? him and benefit then offering a richer, more provoca- Incarnations, Christian and Hindu 25 tive, more exhilarating coherence as tions for our understanding of the dian alternative. This kind of strategy vine achievement and of human des- may inspire fresh conversations with tiny—well, this is something different traditional Hindus, but even more so, altogether. The Christian vision of a it could help us reach the multitudes single, once-for-all, world-shaking of Westerners who are drawn to the incarnation displays a higher drama exotic East primarily out of disen- and a fuller glory than we can easily chantment with the commonplace bear in mind. ordinariness of their home culture Understanding clearly what a and its prosaic traditions. Apologetics tame, sensible ‘incarnation’ would in this mode aims precisely at dispel- look like (compliments of Vaish- ling these illusions of ordinariness navism), and then asking how the and showing us instead where true Christian doctrine of incarnation goes adventure lies. further and reaches deeper can help But second, even for convinced us to see afresh—and with increas- Christians who do not need a prom- ing wonder—the marvels we have ise of intellectual adventure to draw them to Christ, engagement with the centre of what Lesslie Newbigin alreadycalled a seen ‘universal in our faith.history’ Here that we Hinfind- Vaishnavism has an intriguing peda- 12 gogical value, as it leads us to under- duism cannot match. The highest achievement of Vaishnavite theology stand the distinctiveness of our own may be to point us to a gospel that is tradition more clearly and vigorously. dazzlingly, breathtakingly higher still. To believe that God became a man in Christ is certainly a good thing, as far as it goes. But to indwell the classical 12 The Gospel in a Plural- biblical logic of the hypostatic union, ist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), with its unimaginably lofty implica- 90. Lesslie Newbigin, ERT (2019) 43:1, 26-39 Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics: Some Reflections from a German Evangelical Theologian

Hans-Georg Wuench There are at least two dangers in student what the relevance of his dis- comparing African and European (or sertation would be for the church in Western) theology. These dangers Germany and his own personal Chris- are generalization or even stereotyp- tian life. I shall never forget the look ing, on one hand, and subjectivity or on my student’s face. He had never even arbitrariness on the other hand. ever thought about this. His disserta- One should not think of all Africans tion was on an academic-theological as similar in their way of doing theol- question. Why should it have rel- ogy. In fact, there is nothing like ‘the evance for the church or for his own African theology’, just as one cannot Christian life? identify ‘the European theology’ or I observed the same phenomenon even ‘the European Evangelical theol- time and again in the students who ogy’. This article therefore presents a followed him. It became clear to me very subjective and selective view. In that there is a difference in the under- no way is it meant to be an exhaustive standing of ‘theology’ between Africa academic survey of the specialties of and Germany. In this article, I shall African theological thinking. look into this difference in greater Some years ago, I was a co-super- detail. visor for a German master’s student - in Old Testament at the University ticle, I will refer primarily to essays of South Africa (UNISA). We were at fromIn theAfrican first mainTheology section on ofthe this Way: ar a study conference for master’s and Current Conversations, edited by Di- doctoral students in Germany, and ane B. Stinton. This book serves as a my student was presenting a paper starting point for an attempt to iden- on the ideas and plans for his disser- tify ways of looking at theology that tation. Two UNISA professors were could be considered especially Afri- also present at this presentation. At can. the end of it, one of them asked the Hans-Georg Wuench is academic dean for theology at Theologisches Seminar Rheinland (Germany) and professor extraordinarius in the Department of Biblical and Ancient Studies at the University of South Africa. This article was previously published in Verbum et Ecclesia 36, no. 1 (2015) and is used with permission. Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 27

I. African Theology on the supported by the ruling European powers’. The second weakness ‘was Way: Identifying Specialties the tendency of missionary Christi- anity to devalue traditional African 1. African theology as opposed culture and especially to dismiss tra- to Western theology ditional religion as heathen or pagan’. This leads to ‘the two chief concerns In his article on biblical hermeneu- of theology in Africa’, as Parratt goes tics in Africa, Gerald West from the on to say, namely, ‘on the one hand its University of KwaZulu-Natal presents relationship to political power, and on his hermeneutic as a development of the other its relationship to African so-called ‘intercultural hermeneu- culture’.3 tics’, which is, according to West, the - ‘most common African form of ideo- 1 ence of the missionaries in present- theological orientation’. One im- It is, however, not only the influ portant element of this intercultural building churches that must be noted. hermeneutics is ’the recognition that ing the gospel, defining theology and African biblical interpretation is al- the prominence of Western (very of- ways in some sense “over against”, or Theten German) missionary academic influence theology also led toin in opposition to, the forms of biblical African theology. As South African interpretation imposed by and inher- Bishop Desmond Tutu complained in ited from missionary Christianity and 1997, ’We are too much concerned to 2 Western academic biblical studies’. maintain standards which Cambridge The period of colonization and or Harvard or Montpellier have set, mission, which were connected to a even when these are utterly inappro- - priate for our situations.’4 ology in Africa. Perhaps one should For a long time, for example, one greatrather extent, say that strongly it dominated influenced African the had to study at least a few semesters theology for a long time. Missionary of theology in Germany if one wanted theology was imposed on African to be a ‘real’ theologian in South Af- churches as the theology of the Bible. rica. These two forces, ‘missionary There was no distinction whatsoever Christianity and Western academic between the Bible and the theology biblical studies’, as West puts it,5 are proclaimed by missionaries. still very strong in Africa. Hence de- This missionary theology had at least two main weaknesses, as John means consciously grappling with finingthis reality. an ‘African theology’ always ‘awareness that Christianity had been This discussion with the colonial Parrattintroduced points into out. Africa The during first was the theco- lonial era, and seems to have pros- pered largely because it had been 3 (ed.), A Reader in African Christian Theology (London: John Parratt, SPCK, 1997), ‘Introduction’, 3–4. in Parratt 1 4 - in Africa’, in Diane B. Stinton (ed.), African rican Theology: Soulmates or Antagonists’, in Theology Gerald on O. the West, Way: ‘Biblical Current HermeneuticsConversations John Desmond Parratt M.(ed.), Tutu, A Reader‘Black Theology in African and Chris Af- (London: SPCK, 2010), 23. tian Theology (London: SPCK, 1997), 43. 2 5

West, ‘Biblical Hermeneutics’, 24. West, ‘Biblical Hermeneutic’, 24. 28 Hans-Georg Wuench past can be seen in almost every essay 3. Integrating real life means cited in this article. The responses are integration of non-academics manifold and in part even contradic- Gerald West writes, ‘The African bibli- tory. What has found consistent ap- cal scholar is never allowed to settle proval among all of them is the stress in the academy alone; there is a con- on the necessity to connect biblical stant call from ordinary African inter- truth to everyday life in Africa. preters for African biblical scholars to engage with them and their realities’.8 2. Integrating real life and Whereas there is a growing distance theology between the academic world and the everyday life of Christians in Germany Something that strikes a European (and also in many other countries of - the Western world), African theology can—even if it is not explicitly men- consciously tries to bring these two tionedtheologian in any as article—is very specifically the numer Afri- worlds together. ous citations of African proverbs Stinton, a Canadian/African theo- in many of the articles. The very logian, stresses this in her preface to her edited volume. There she refers proverb: ‘When spider webs unite, to the story of the Emmaus disciples: first sentence of Stinton’s6 book is a they can tie up a lion.’ This may not Just as the Emmaus disciples sound strange to African readers, but shared their hopes and fears, their for theological books in Germany, it certainties and their doubts, their would sound somewhat strange and grief and their joy ‘on the way’ of inappropriate to start with a proverb. discovering the Risen Jesus with This shows one of the major differ- them, so African believers contin- ences between African and Western ue to grapple with recognizing and theology: African theology always appropriating the Risen Christ in strives to be rooted in everyday life. our midst today.9 According to Holter, this ‘presence Stinton calls this discussion between within the social, political, and eccle- the disciples and Jesus a ‘Christian Pa- siastical context of Africa’ can be seen laver’ that has many similarities with as a ‘most characteristic feature of Af- the African culture. One very impor- rican theology’.7 tant element in this kind of African palaver is the following: ‘Every member of the community has the right to participate, whether in speech or symbolic action. Hence African pala- 6 African Theology on the ver guarantees equality in terms of Way: Current Conversations (London: SPCK, 10 2010), Diane xiv. B. Stinton, accessing speech.’ 7 Money! African Old Testament Scholarship between Knut Holter,the Myths ‘It’s Notand Only Meanings a Question of the of South and the Money and Methods of the 8 North’, Old Testament Essays 11, no. 2 (1998), 9 African Theology, xx. 241. 10 West, ‘BiblicalAfrican Hermeneutics’, Theology, xvii. 29. Stinton, Stinton, Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 29

4. Integrating real life leads to a this way what we call theology dif- less strict and extreme theology fers considerably from the exact sciences. Researchers engaged in The fact that theology in Africa the latter always strive to isolate seems far more rooted in everyday their experience so that they can life than is often the case with Euro- pean theological thinking has certain examine the data objectively, that consequences. One of these is that Af- is, without allowing their emo- rican theology often seems less strict tions, feelings and personal experi- and extreme than Western theology. 13 Or, as the late Ghanaian theologian experimentation. - Anotherence to consequence influence the of result integrating of the tions on William Wade Harris, he real life and theology is that the per- Kwame(Harris) Bediako‘appropriated wrote inthe his truth reflec of sonality of the theologian is not ex- the Bible not as patterns of “belief in” cluded from but consciously included the truth, but more in line with the Af- in her or his theology. rican pattern of “participation in” the truth.’11 In his article in Stinson’s book, 5. Integrating real life means Gerald West depicts liberation theol- integrating the theologian ogy and feminist theology in Africa. himself or herself What is very clear from his presenta- During the 1970s and 1980s, there tion is that both theologies are rooted was a consistent thrust in the aca- in the experiences of everyday life. demic world at German universities With respect to feminist theology for a ‘neutral’ and ‘nonbiased’ ap- (with their special African implemen- proach to theology. Students in their tations of ‘womanism’ and ‘bosadi’), West writes, ‘It is from within African their childish faith behind when they feminist hermeneutics that the most enteredfirst semester university. were Only asked in tothe leave last sustained engagement with postco- two or three decades has this view lonial hermeneutics has come.’ This theology has its ‘starting point in the been replaced with an increasing re- realities of ordinary Africans’.12 alizationgradually that changed. there isIt nohas such now thing finally as The Catholic theologian Agbonkhi- neutrality when it comes to theology. anmeghe Orobator formulates this This realization is often viewed as idea with the following words: ‘Theol- something very sad, but which cannot ogy is about life.’ Making sense of the be changed. experiences of everyday life, Orobator African theology, in contrast, glad- says, ly embraces the fact that we as human in the light of faith is what makes beings as well as our circumstances theology contextual. Understood and cultural surroundings always were and will be part of our theology.

11 - - 13 tures’, Kwane in Diane Bediako, B. Stinton ‘Biblical (ed.), Exegesis African in AfriThe- Theological Methodologies’, in Diane B. Stin- ologyca: The on Significance the Way (London: of the SPCK,Translated 2010), Scrip 16. ton Agbonkhianmeghe (ed.), African Theology Orobator, on the ‘Contextual Way (Lon- 12 don: SPCK, 2010), 4.

West, ‘Biblical Hermeneutics’, 24–27. 30 Hans-Georg Wuench

As S. I. Ihuoma says, ‘All that happens something that distinguishes African in one’s life has some religious conno- biblical hermeneutics from tradition- tations. … This is not a problem which al Western hermeneutics: we have to cope, but an opportunity While Western forms of biblical 14 interpretation have been reluc- Many articles thus contain refer- tant, until recently, to acknowledge encesto make to our personal theology aspects “fit for of life”’. the au- that text and context are always, thor’s experience. Stinton explicitly at least implicitly, in conversation, encourages the reader to pay atten- the dialogical dimension of bibli- tion to these aspects: ‘Even before cal interpretation has always been listening for the content of their an explicit feature of African bibli- ideas, get a feel for who the speaker cal hermeneutics. … Interpreting is through the bio-data provided and the biblical text is never, in African through any additional research you biblical hermeneutics, an end in can do. A person’s theology almost itself. Biblical interpretation is al- - ways about changing the African perience, so try to discern what has context. … While Western forms of certainlyshaped the reflects person’s his view.’ or her15 life ex biblical interpretation have tended to hide or omit the contemporary 6. Integrating real life means context of the biblical interpreter, African biblical interpretation is dialogue between culture and overt about the context from which Bible and for which the biblical text is in- The last and most important conse- terpreted.17 quence of integrating real life and For Orobator, the concentration on theology is the importance of the the African context is most important. context for theology. West cites Justin Context for him is ‘the primary factor Ukpong, a key commentator on the comparative method, who says that Christianity and presents theology as ‘the goal of comparative interpreta- ofa discipline theological grounded reflection in the in ordinary African tion is the actualization of the theo- experience of Christians and their logical meaning of the text in today’s faith communities’. An appropriate context so as to forge integration theology, therefore, is a theology ‘that between faith and life, and engender makes sense not only to the theolo- commitment to personal and soci- 16 gian, but also especially to his or her etal transformation.’ To West, this is community. … Context is to faith what soil is to a seed.’18 The dialogue between the biblical 14 Paul Tillich’s Theol- ogy of Culture in Dialogue with African The- text and today’s context can be seen ology: Sylvester A Contextual I. Ihuoma, Analysis (Piscataway, NJ: as a very dynamic one. Jesse N. K. Transaction, 2004), 193–94. Mugambi, professor at the University 15 African Theology, xx 16 Justin Stinton, S. Ukpong, ‘Developments in Bibli- Transactions, Trajectories and Trends (Lei- cal West, Interpretation ‘Biblical Hermeneutics’,in Africa: Historical 22, citing and den: Brill, 2000), 24. Hermeneutical Directions’, in Gerald O. West 17 and Musa W. Dube (eds.), The Bible in Africa: 18 West, ‘Biblical Hermeneutics’, 22–23, 31. Orobator, ‘Contextual’, 3–5. Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 31 of Pretoria and professor extraordi- will refer to the Africana Bible and the narius at UNISA, writes as follows: Africa Bible Commentary. I opt for the … approach, which allows unrestricted movement between the text and the context. On II. The Africana Bible and the one hand, the context provides the Africa Bible Commentary the operational platform on which (ABC): The Application of theology has to be done. On the other, the text provides the analyti- African Specialties The Africana Bible is a project initiated by the Society of Biblical Litera- The theology of reconstruction is ture (SBL). Scholars from Africa and basedcal stimulus on this for two-way creative communireflection.- the African diaspora came together cation between the text and the to present a broad view on what context.19 could be called ‘African views on the With the term ‘theology of recon- Hebrew Bible’. The different authors struction’ Mugambi denominates a were, as the editors write in their theology that tries to reconstruct the preface, asked ‘to demonstrate how Biblical truth in light of the questions Africana traditions, lore, and lived ex- of today. Mugambi writes further: perience can be creatively deployed ‘This approach takes biblical her- in reading, probing, conversing with, meneutics seriously, discerning the challenging, (at times) ignoring, ex- meaning intended by canonical texts tending, and creating meaning from and in partnership with the First cultural contexts. The message takes Testament, the Apocrypha, and the precedenceand relating overthat meaningthe medium to specific of its Pseudepigrapha’.21 transmission.’20 The second book to which I refer - is the Africa Bible Commentary (ABC). tures that characterize African ways This commentary on the whole Bi- of readingWe have the just Bible identified and doing five theol fea- ble was initiated by the Association ogy: (1) the integration of real life, of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) and which leads to (2) the integration of produced together with the mission non-academics, (3) less strict or ex- organization Serving in Mission. It is treme theology, (4) the integration aimed at pastors and lay people in of the theologian personally and (5) churches in Africa. Its preface states, dialogue between culture and the ‘The ABC should be African in terms of Bible. We shall now show how these its authorship and its content, which - pretation of biblical texts and used in remaining true to the biblical text, theologicalfive features discussions. are applied To to dothe so, inter we mustit must reflect apply its biblicalAfrican context.teachings While and truths to African realities.’22 All au-

19 - struction’, in Diane B. Stinton (ed.), African 21 The Theology Jesse N.on K. the Mugambi, Way (London: ’Theology SPCK, of Recon2010), Africana Bible: Reading Israel’s Scriptures 144. from Hugh Africa R. and Page the and African Randall Diaspora C. Bailey, (Minne- 20 apolis, MN: Fortress, 2010), xxvii. 144. 22 Africa Bible Com- Mugambi, ‘Theology of Reconstruction’, Tokunbuh Adeyemo, 32 Hans-Georg Wuench thors of the ABC are seminary or uni- Both books make extensive use of versity professors living and working African proverbs, songs, adages and in Africa. They were encouraged to metaphors. While this may be more ‘use African proverbs, metaphors and or less normal for African readers, it is stories to make it speak to African be- not in the Western context. There are lievers in the villages and cities across numerous examples in both books. the entire continent’.23 An article on ‘African and African Di- The ABC contains more than 1,600 asporan Hermeneutics’ starts with pages. For this article I reviewed its the adage, ‘The grass is always green- commentaries on Genesis, Judges, er on the other side.’25 ‘Women, Afri- Ruth, Job, Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, Joel cana Reality and the Bible’ from Mad- and Malachi, as well as all 78 addi- ipoane Masenya starts with a Zulu tional articles on special theological song from South Africa: ‘What have questions. I sought to determine how we done? Our sin is our blackness— the abovementioned specialties of Af- Whites are dogs.’26 The same author rican theology were appropriated in opens her article on Jeremiah with a these books or, in other words, how Northern Sotho proverb: ‘A child who theory revealed itself in practice. refused to listen [to advice] landed in “initiation schools” and claimed see some differences between the two that the schools were his extended books.In discussing Some of thesethe findings, differences we shall are family.’27 This proverb then serves as due to the different ideas behind the a kind of leitmotif throughout the rest books; others arise from the fact that of the article. It summarizes the mes- the ABC is intentionally an evangelical sage of the book of Jeremiah, as this work. result was especially true for Judah in Jeremiah’s time. The same connection between the- 1. Integrating real life and ology and real life is also found in the theology ABC. There are numerous examples, The integration of real life and theol- but the case can be made clearly by ogy dominates both the Africana Bible looking at the commentary on Ruth and the ABC from the beginning. The by Isabel Apawo Phiri, who was born preface to the former starts with the in Malawi but now works at the Uni- sentence, ‘Culture and life circum- versity of KwaZulu-Natal. The com- stances affect the way people read sa- mentary takes up only six pages, but cred literature.’24 As already cited, the it cites nine proverbs from the Chewa ABC states its task as applying biblical teachings and truths to African reali- 25 ties. Both books therefore strive to in- Madipoane Masenya (ngwan’a Mphahlele), tegrate the real life of African people and Randall Rodney C.S. Bailey,Sadler CherylJr., ‘African A. Kirk-Duggan, and African today into theology. Diasporan Hermeneutics’, in Page and Bailey, The Africana Bible, 19. 26 mentary, 2nd ed. (Nairobi: WordAlive, 2006), Reality and the Bible’, in Page and Bailey, The ix. Africana Madipoane Bible, 33. Masenya, ’Women, Africana 23 Africa Bible Commentary, ix. 27 24 The Africana Bible, xxv. and Bailey, The Africana Bible, 147. Adeyemo, Madipoane Masenya, ‘Jeremiah’, in Page Page and Bailey, Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 33 in Malawi. everyday life also in the ABC. In his Another way to integrate real life article on ‘Leadership’, the Nigerian and theology is to link theological theologian Tokunboh Adeyemo starts truth to examples of everyday life. with an African legend: ‘Many tradi- These examples could either be sto- tional African ideas about leadership ries of true people or legends that re- are embedded in the Kikuyu legend about the despotic king Gikuyu who Following are a few examples from was overthrown because of his tyran- flectboth onbooks, situations starting from with everyday the Africana life. nical rule and replaced by a council of Bible. elders, chosen from the older men of In her article on ‘Women, Africana the community who had previously Reality and the Bible’, Masenya tells been warriors.’30 the story of Bathepa Maja, a retired This example is very interesting be- nurse, who engaged herself in estab- cause it shows that the content of the lishing a community home-based care legend itself is not as important. One center in her rural village in Limpopo. could easily replace this story with She then uses this story as ‘a herme- the general statement that through- neutical lens through which one can out history, tyrannical rulers were get a small glimpse of Africana wom- overthrown and replaced by people en’s realities in relation to the Bible’.28 from the military. What is the effect Davidson, Ukpong and Yorke, in of citing an old legend? Does it give their article on ‘The Bible and Africa- credibility to the statement itself? na Life’, use ‘two popular African sto- It seems that the effect is just to link the theological truth to experiences between the Bible and Africans: of everyday life, which are somehow preserved in this legend. ries’One to showstory therelates difficult that relationshipwhen white

they presented Africans with the 2. Integration of non-academics missionariesBible and asked first them came to close to Africa, their In his article on ‘The Bible in Twenty- eyes for prayer. On opening their First-Century Africa’ in the Africana eyes, Africans discovered that the Bible, David Tuesday Adamo, a theo- whites had taken away their land logian from Nigeria, cites these words and left them with the Bible. … The from Justin Ukpong: ‘The ordinary other story tells of an African wom- people’s approach to the Bible is in- an who carried the Bible with her forming scholarly reading practices; wherever she went. When asked critical reading masses are being why she did that, she responded nurtured at the grassroots, and the that it was because the Bible was hitherto muted voices of the ordinary the only book that could read her.29 people are coming alive in academic biblical discourse.’ According to Ada- mo, this is part of the ‘distinctive Afri- We find the same connection to can tradition of interpretation’, which 28 began to emerge during the twentieth 29 and Masenya, Gosnell Yorke, ‘Women’, ‘The 34. Bible and Africana Life’, Steet in Page Vernyl and Davidson,Bailey, The JustinAfricana Ukpong, Bible, 30 40–41. Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commentary, 546. Tokunbuh Adeyemo, ‘Leadership’, in 34 Hans-Georg Wuench century. Adams refers to Ukpong and ble have been encouraged to ‘step West as the pioneers of this method- outside’ of established disciplinary ology and adds, ‘I believe very strong- and genre boundaries and to em- ly that this type of African reading ploy African and African Diaspora stories, poetry, art, and music as academic approaches to the Bible.’31 actual dialogue partners in the shouldMasenya be classified writes of alongsideher experiences other interpretive process. … Readers with the laywoman Bethepa Maja, in- should leave this volume with an troduced above: appreciation of the remarkable di- I am intrigued by her hermeneu- versity, scope, and tone that char- tics. It does not require a back- acterize modern Africana encoun- 33 ground in Bible studies or biblical ters with the First Testament. Thus, from the beginning, the Afri- refreshing break from those ap- cana Bible seeks intentionally to be languageproaches proficiency.to hermeneutics … This isand a colourful, diverse and multi-faceted. theology that most of us have been The ABC has a somewhat more re- trained to employ, particularly stricted basis for its theological think- during the apartheid era: individu- ing, because contributors were ‘ex- alistic, detached, spiritual, and fu- pected to accept the AEA Statement turistic.32 of Faith as a guideline for their work’. There were no clear examples of However, there is still a great diversity the integration of non-academics into at work. As Adeyemo indicated in de- the theological debate in the ABC, likely due to this book’s character as to the ABC should be chosen to re- a commentary. fining the project, ‘The contributors denominations and languages, and flectshould the include diversity both of menAfrica and as women.regards 3. A less strict and extreme The theological editors will respect theology this diversity, within the bounds set The relevance of this point can only by the AEA Statement of Faith.’34 be shown indirectly, since there is, un- To make clear the differences that are possible within the ABC, let us look on it. Nevertheless, it can still be seen at one example. In his article on ‘The surprisingly,very clearly inno the intentional overall attitude reflection of Role of the Ancestors’, the Nigerian both books. The Africana Bible makes theologian Yusuf Turaki speaks about this point very clearly from the begin- the place of ancestors in traditional ning: African thinking. He then discusses whether it is possible to present Jesus [This book] uses various method- as an African ancestor. He sees some ologies, some more traditional and advantages in this approach but also others decidedly experimental. some problems. He concludes: Contributors to The Africana Bi- The best approach may be mod- elled on the one taken in the book 31 - ley, David The Africana Tuesday Bible Adamo,, 28–30. ‘The Bible in 33 The Africana Bible, xxvii. 32Twenty-first-century Africa’, in Page and Bai 34 Africa Bible Commentary, ix. Page and Bailey, Masenya, ‘Women’, 37. Adeyemo, Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 35

of Hebrews. … Taking this ap- her personal history in both books. proach, it can be said that Jesus has In the Africana Bible, one example become the mediator between God stands out. In her article on the book and African society. Consequently, of Job, Masenya introduces her ap- African veneration, worship and proach by saying, ‘In the story that respect for the ancestors should follows, the narrator [Masenya her- now properly be addressed to Je- self], a contemporary Job, picks up sus as the mediator. … And just on some of the issues raised by the character of Job in the Hebrew Bible supplanted the Jewish religious in her own struggle to wrestle with as he fulfilled, transformed and- God amid suffering.’37 formed and supplanted the ances- Masenya then tells about the trag- system,tral cult and so he traditional has fulfilled, religions trans of ic loss of her son in a car accident Africa.35 and her questions about this trag- This approach to African religions edy. ‘Why did my son die?’ she asks. and cults seems relatively moderate. Masenya opens her heart and pours Instead of bluntly rejecting the idea out her questions, her doubts and her of the role of ancestors, Turaki tries accusations, just as Job did. At the end she writes: Christian truth. So huge and sovereign is this Sa- to modifyIn his article this idea on so‘Idolatry’, that it fits Emeka with cred Other, who has become and Nwankpa, also from Nigeria, takes a continues to be the object of our rather different position. Nwankpa yelling, anger, criticism, and frus- writes: trations, that God remains patient Unlike Paul, some African theo- with all those who wrestle with logians have called for accommo- God in the midst of unjust suffer- dation of African traditional reli- ing. If these sufferers persist in gions, claiming that the High God their steadfastness with God, they, worshipped in those religions is like the biblical Job, will eventually the same as the God of the Judeo- say: ‘I heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see Christian religion. Some even refer 38 to Jesus as ‘a paramount ancestor’. you’ (Job 42:5). By doing this, they validate tradi- There are other examples of the in- tional religious beliefs and wor- tegration of the theologian’s life into ship that the Bible condemns.36 theology in the Africana Bible, but none as impressive as this one. ABC. 4. Integrating the theologian In the commentary on Genesis, the personally BenineseWe also theologian find examples Barnabe in the Asso - There are many examples of the inte- hoto, one of its two authors, writes as gration of the theologian with his or follows: It is very encouraging to have the

35 in Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commentary, 480. 37 36 Yusuf Turaki, ‘The Role of the Ancestors’, Bailey, The Africana Bible, 237–38. Africa Bible Commentary, 866. 38 Madipoane Masenya, ‘Job’, in Page and Emeka Nwankpa, ‘Idolatry’, in Adeyemo, Masenya, ‘Job’, 239–40. 36 Hans-Georg Wuench

Most High as one’s defence. I (Dr 5. Dialogue between culture and Assohoto) can testify that there Bible was a time in my own life when The last and most important aspect of those who loved me felt that others African Bible interpretation is its dia- were seeking evil power to destroy logue between culture and the Bible. me. From two different sources I It is not possible to show the abun- received plaques engraved with dance of examples on this point. The the words of Isaiah 54:17: ‘No few mentioned here simply scratch weapon forged against you will the surface. prevail.’ Whenever my eyes caught There are at least two ways to these words, I felt a sense of assur- 39 understand this dialogue. Both of ance that I was well guarded. them could be found in both books, In her commentary on the book of but with different accentuations. Ruth, Isabel Apawo Phiri tells of one of her sisters, who was named Man- African culture as the receiver in this zunzo (suffering) because she was dialogue.The first Maybe way it iswould to be understand better to born two months after the death of speak of it as a monologue since the their father.40 Tewoldemedhin Habtu culture is not really active. The goal is from Eritrea, in his commentary on to make biblical truth understandable Job, tells about a habit in his own cul- and conceivable in the African ture, which shows similarities to the culture. The second way is to see story of Job: this relationship of Bible and culture In my culture, when a person dies more as a kind of dialogue between the bereaved family sit in mourn- equals, with the goal of furthering ing for seven days, with commu- an inter-relationship between Bible nity members constantly coming and culture. In The Africana Bible, the to console them. With the pres- second way is prominent, whereas in sure of modern life, these days of the ABC mourning have now been reduced role. to three.41 the first one plays the biggest To African readers, these examples a) The Bible speaking into African may not be recognized as something culture special. However, in the Western con- Elelwani Farisani, recently chair of the text, they are unusual. Authors typi- Department of Biblical and Ancient - Studies at UNISA, writes in his article sonal life experience in their biblical on the book of Obadiah in the Africa- commentaries.cally do not reflect In Africanon their culture, own per it na Bible, ‘Ethnic tension described by seems to be perfectly normal. Obadiah between the Israelites and the Edomites may have relevance in Africa today, especially in the context 39 - of recent xenophobic attacks on for- emo, Africa Bible Commentary, 33. eign nationals in South Africa.’42 40 Barnabe Assohoto, ‘Genesis’, in Adey Africa Bible Commentary, 319. 41 Isabel Apawo Phiri, ‘Ruth’, in Adeyemo,- 42 emo, Africa Bible Commentary, 574. Bailey, The Africana Bible, 181. Tewoldemedhin Habtu, ‘Job’, in Adey Elelwani Farisani, ‘Obadiah’, in Page and Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 37

In his article on Micah, Farisani life. … To look for a once and for all writes: ‘Micah’s meticulous relevance biblical ‘answer’ to a particular cul- - tural problem is to misunderstand ruption, HIV/AIDS, and moral decay the process whereby a community plaguefor Africa the intensifies African continent. as poverty, Accord cor- and people come to see themselves ingly, there is a need for socioeco- as called into the people of God and nomic, political, and moral renewal come to participate in that commu- in Africa.’ He further argues, ‘The nity.45 eighth-century prophet Micah is to b) Bible and culture as partners in usemost him important as a new way paradigm to reflect in a on quest the dialogue for an African theology of renewal, transformation, reconciliation, and reconstruction.’43 dialogue between African culture and The examples of this way of letting theWe canBible find in manyThe Africana examples Bible of mutual. First, the Bible speak into the African cul- the Bible and African culture are ture in the ABC are numerous. Instead brought into dialogue by way of anal- of piling up examples, I will turn now ogy, such as in the article by Makho- sazana K. Nzimande from the Univer- written by the Ghanaian theologian sity of Zululand on Isaiah. Nzimande Kwameto an article Bediako on this and specific entitled question, ‘Scrip- writes, ‘Ancient Israelite and Judean ture as the Interpreter of Culture and struggles under the Babylonian em- Tradition’. It starts by declaring, The pire that Isaiah sought to address are analogous to black people’s struggles Africa Bible Commentary attempts to 46 relate the Scriptures and African cul- in post-apartheid South Africa.’ She tures and in so doing to seek ways in adds a few pages later: which the gospel may be seen to be Evidently, Europe and America relevant to African cultures.’ Bediako have emerged as the ‘Babylonian continues, ‘We need to allow Scrip- empire’ of our time. Within this ture to become the interpreter of who economically suicidal postapart- heid context, the prophet’s anti- of who we are in our cultures and Babylonian political stance in traditions.’we are in the44 specific concrete sense Isaiah is deeply needed in levelling Bediako states that our task is a sharp theological critique against more than simply ‘extracting prin- the capitalist exploitation of glo- ciples from the Bible and applying balization and the subsequent suf- these to culture. Rather, he contends: blacks.47 The application of Scripture to our fering it inflicts on South African cultures is a gradual process of Another example of this way of analo- coming together, of life touching gy can be found in Madipoane Masen- ya’s article on Jeremiah:

43 Bailey, The Africana Bible, 190–92. 45 44 Elelwani Farisani, ‘Micah’, in Page and- 46 er of Culture and Tradition’, in Adeyemo, Af- Page Bediako, and Bailey, ‘Scripture The Africana as Interpreter’, Bible, 139. 4. rica Kwame Bible Commentary Bediako, ‘Scripture, 3. as Interpret 47 Makhosazana K. Nzimande, ‘Isaiah’, in

Nzimande, ‘Isaiah’, 142. 38 Hans-Georg Wuench

The 587 B.C.E./1994 C.E. catastro- III. Conclusions phes in Judah and white South Af- What can Western theologians learn rica, respectively, show that no hu- from African theology? The answer man leader is indispensable. Thus to this question is not easy, keeping human leaders need to remain in mind that there is neither the West- humble and vigilant even as they ern theologian nor the African theolo- serve fellow human beings who gian. However, noting the differences have equally been created in the between Western and African ways image of the divine leader.48 of doing theology can stimulate and Examples of this kind of dialogue are eventually even change our ways of rarer in the ABC, but still they can be theologizing. and Politics’, the Nigerian theologian most important things to learn from identified.James B. Kantiok In his articlewrites: on ‘Christians AfricanKnut theology Holter identified as ‘the question one of the of Jesus, too, did not separate religion relevance. … African scholars’, he stat- and politics. In his mission state- ed, ‘are, generally speaking, far more ment in Luke 4:18–19 he declared eager than their Western colleagues that his ministry was to those in emphasising that OT scholarship suffering various forms of bond- should serve church and society.’ age and oppression, including Holter warns that ‘without listening economic oppression (poverty), to these concerns, I fear that the guild physical oppression (diseases and of Western OT scholarship might ul- disabilities), political oppression timately face the danger of being of (injustice and oppressive rule) interest to nobody but itself.’51 and demonic oppression (various To really learn from African schol- forms of occult practices). These 49 ars presupposes an open-minded same evils plague Africa today. dialogue. The point of such a dialogue George Kinoti, a theologian from Ken- ‘is not to copy each other’s interpre- ya, writes in his article on ‘Christians tative experiences and concerns, but and the Environment’: to challenge each other’s more funda- If we are to be obedient to God and mental biblical interpretation’.52 look after his creation, we must If we as theologians want to be rel- not ignore what is happening. Like evant to our society, we have to take Noah, we must work to rescue all the context of our readers and our creatures in danger of extinction— churches more seriously in the pro- whether the danger comes from cess of exegesis. It is not enough to do - appropriation after exegesis, but we ing, poaching or any other cause.50 should learn to understand context pollution, habitat change, overfish

48 51 49 - 52 tics’, Masenya, in Adeyemo, ‘Jeremiah’, Africa 151. Bible Commentary, Africa Holter, and ‘It’sEurope Not MakeOnly a Sense?’ Question’, in Hans248. de 1027. James B. Kantiok, ‘Christians and Poli Wit Knut and Gerald Holter, O. ‘Does West a (eds.), Dialogue African between and 50 - European Readers of the Bible in Dialogue: In ronment’, in Adeyemo, Africa Bible Commen- Quest of a Shared Meaning (Leiden and Bos- tary George, 618. Kinoti, ‘Christians and the Envi ton: Brill, 2008), 75. Learning from African Theologians and Their Hermeneutics 39 as something that accompanies the theology. However, we can learn from whole process of understanding bibli- each other. For example, the words of cal texts. As Snoek stresses, there was Bishop Desmond Tutu stress the need a ‘long discussion held in Western for an African theology: Europe in the nineteenth and twen- Let us develop our insights about tieth centuries about the relation be- the corporateness of human ex- tween exegesis and actualisation. For istence in the face of excessive a multitude of reasons … exegesis and Western individualism, about the actualisation have become increas- wholeness of the person when ingly distant from each other within others are concerned for Hellen- academia.’53 istic dichotomies of soul and body, It is our task to overcome that dis- about the reality of the spiritual tance and make theology relevant for when others are made desolate our culture and society. This calls for with the poverty of the material. more wholeness or unity of theology Let African theology enthuse about and life, academia and church. The the awesomeness of the transcend- task before us cannot be simply to ent when others are embarrassed copy methods or contents of African to speak about the King, high and - ple.54 53 - lifted up, whose train fills the tem logue between African and European Biblical May Western theology join in this en- Scholars’, Hans in Snoek, Hans ‘Keyde Wit Concepts and Gerald in the O. West Dia thusiasm! (eds.), African and European Readers of the Bible in Dialogue: In Quest of a Shared Mean- ing (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2008), 92–93. 54

Tutu, ‘Black Theology’, 44. ERT (2019) 43:1, 40-52 Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents: Aspiring to a Better Understanding of the New Testament Letters

Thomas Schirrmacher

‘The freedom which Jesus gives is not a heathen lawlessness.’ —Wilhelm Lütgert in his 1919 commentary on Galatians

The work of Wilhelm Lütgert (1867- Jewish-Christian legalists on one 1938) in New Testament studies and hand and Gentile, enthusiastic an- systematic theology receives insuf- tinomians on the other. Against the legalists, Paul emphasized freedom topics of his theological work were from the law and life in the Spirit, and ficient(1) his recognition critique of today.idealism, The (2)central the against the antinomians Paul empha- recovery of the doctrine of creation sized that God’s Spirit never endorses for epistemology and the recovery of sin and that the Old Testament con- ‘nature’ for the doctrine of God, and tinues to be God’s word. love in ethics.1 (3)Lütgert’s the recovery exegetical of the significancework on nu of- I. Personal Background2 merous New Testament books was After completing his college prepara- ground-breaking. He successfully tory studies in 1886, Lütgert studied broke away from Christian Baur’s theology in Greifswald under repre- reigning tradition that James and Pe- sentatives of the so-called ‘Greifswald ter represented a legalistic and Paul School’:2Hermann Cremer (1834– an antinomian Christianity. Overall, Lütgert viewed Paul as being caught between two fronts that had formed: 2 - tel and Hermann Strathmann, Adolf Schlatter und On Wilhelm Lütgert, Lütgert see Paul zum Althaus, Gedächtnis Gerhard (Güter Kit- 1 sloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1938); Werner Neuer, version of this paper, available from the edi- ‘Wilhelm Lütgert: Eine kleine Einführung tor on These request. points are discussed in a longer in Leben und Werk eines vergessenen The-

Thomas Schirrmacher is the World Evangelical Alliance’s Associate General Secretary for Theological Concerns. An abridged version of this article appeared as ‘Wilhelm Lütgert and His Studies of the Apos- tles’ Opponents’, Jahrbuch für evangelikale Theologie (Yearbook for Evangelical Theology) 19 (2005): 139–66. Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 41

1903), professor of systematic theol- hibited from lecturing.3 In 1936 two ogy, and Lütgert’s later longstanding of his lectures were forbidden before friend and co-worker, Adolf Schlatter he could present them, whereupon (1852–1938) from Switzerland. he had them printed. Lütgert partici- After his move to Berlin, and in pated in the illegal examinations held addition to attending lectures by by the confessing church,4 although Adolf von Harnack, he attended he was very sceptical regarding Karl history lectures given by Heinrich von Treitschke. After his theological died after a short illness. exams, Cremer invited him to Barth’s influence. In 1938 Lütgert pursue a doctorate. In 1892 he II. Lütgert’s Attitude towards the completed his licentiate in systematic theology on the topic ‘The Method of Historical-Critical Method Dogmatic Proof in its Development Nowhere did Lütgert deny the historical-critical method, nor did he ex- becoming an associate professor of plicitly endorse an interpretation of Newunder Testament Schleiermacher’s in 1895. Influence’, Scripture that began with its infallibil- In 1898 Lütgert married Martha ity, as did for instance his contempo- Sellschopp, with whom he raised seven children as a caring and warm is, however, free from all historical father. In 1901, he obtained an addi- rarysuspicion Benjamin regarding Warfield. the His canonical position tional doctorate for his research on text, and in introductory questions the Johannine Christology, and the (about authorship and origin) Lütgert following year he was granted a full always concurred with the tradition. professorship. In 1913, he was named As a typical example, at the begin- professor of systematic theology and ning of his examination of the Pas- became head of the seminary at Halle. toral Letters, Lütgert acknowledged In 1929 he moved to Berlin as a sys- that given the contemporary state of scholarship, the Pauline origin of the tematic theologian and director of the letters could not be presupposed. theological seminary. However, he added, ‘I am personally In 1934, Lütgert spoke out against convinced that Paul is the author of the use of Aryan paragraphs related the letters.’5 The results of his study to the church, and as a result the could be used to support this posi- district leadership of the National tion, but the topic was settled for him. Socialist German Workers’ Party com- Similarly, in his study of the Johan- plained to the government. In 1935 nine gospel and letters, he considered - John the author without categorically representing the position that it could he was removed from office and pro ologen’, Jahrbuch für evangelikale Theologie not be otherwise. 1 (1987): 108–24; Gerhard Bially, ‘Wilhelm In his essay ‘The Reliability of the Lütgerts These vom 'Zweifrontenkrieg des Paulus gegen Nomisten und Enthusias- ten’ (M.Th. thesis, University of Wuppertal, 3 2000), 7–22; Jochen Eber, ‘Lütgert, Wilhelm’, 4 Biografisch-Bibliografisches Kirchenlexikon, 5 Bially, ‘Wilhelm LütgertsDie Irrlehrer These’, der 16–17. Pasto- vol. 16 (2000): 870–74, which contains the ralbriefe Ibid., 120.(Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1909), longest bibliography. 7. Wilhelm Lütgert, 42 Thomas Schirrmacher

Image of Christ in the Gospels’, Lüt- clear to me that in complete op- gert declared that ‘the entire image of position to it, Paul’s gospel rested Christ is the same throughout all the on an acknowledgement of the law. Gospels.’ 6 Historically, he considered From that there came the knowl- this image to be completely reliable. edge that Paul was not only in op- Thus he had no doubt, historically or position to the legalists, but also in with respect to his faith, about Jesus’ opposition to the antinomians. Giv- confession that he was the Messiah. en this, there was not only a new This picture emerges more fully from point of view with respect to the his study ‘The Worship of Jesus’.7 explanation of several of the Paul- - ine letters, but also a notion of the tions of authorship presented in the history of the Apostolic era which NewLütgert’s Testament affirmation and believed of the ascripby the went beyond that of the Tübingen early church was a great hindrance to School as well as that in Ritschl’s his acceptance in German historical- ‘The History of the Formation of critical research. For that very reason, the Old Catholic Church.’ In a num- evangelical theologians should con- ber of individual studies I have sider it an honour to maintain Lüt- pursued my notion of the history gert’s legacy. of Jewish Christianity up into the second century and back into Juda- III. Lütgert’s Main Thesis ism at the time of Christ. A summarized presentation of this course of history, which also includes the his several decades of preoccupation Inwith a 1935the topic letter, of Paul’sLütgert opponents: reflected on of Christians, is the next larger task According to the theological tradi- whichemergence is placed of the before first persecution me in my tion which was brought to a close studies. I have the urgent desire to by Ritschl, the Pauline gospel still achieve this wish. This is due rested on a rejection of the law. Ac- to the fact that from the opinions cording to this, Marcion appeared about my investigations which as the consistent representative of have been published up to now, I the Gospel. It is no accident that the see that otherwise the recognized last large theological work by Har- results of this work would be for nack dealt with Marcion. The rejec- naught and that beyond the details tion of the Creator was also at this no discussion regarding the overall point tied to the rejection of the concept of early Christianity would lawgiver. With it the current cri- occur. I delayed this work because, sis was initiated. It had long been instead of New Testament theology, I assumed the responsibility for systematic theology. Late, too late, 6 8 des Christusbildes der Evangelien’, in his did I achieve my scholarly goal. Gottes Wilhelm Sohn und Lütgert, Gottes ‘Die Geist: Glaubwürdigkeit Vorträge zur Christologie und zur Lehre vom Geiste Gottes (Leipzig: A. Deichert’sche Verlagsbuch, 1905), 22. 8 Antwort auf die mir am 7 Die Anbetung Jesu 7. Mai überreichte Adresse (Gütersloh: C. Ber- (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1904), 49–66. telsmann, Wilhelm 1935). Lütgert, Wilhelm Lütgert, Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 43

Following is a chronological review of anism as it was from legalism.’11 Who- Lütgert’s exegetical studies on Paul’s ever is free from the law, according to letters. Lütgert’s understanding of Paul, is in fellowship with God and for that reason free from sin.12 This means that to 1. Corinthians: Libertine be a Christian is demonstrated in the Spirituality fact that the Christian wants to avoid Ferdinand Christian Baur and the sin. The law is not abolished; rather, it Tübingen School assumed that in New Testament times, there was on Lütgert closed his investigation one hand a legalistic Jewish Christi- iswith fulfilled these in words: life. anity represented by Peter and James, It was with certainty that Paul and on the other hand an antinomian maintained freedom in his strug- Gentile Christianity with Paul, a Jew, gle against legalistic Judaism; he as its spokesman. What came from exhibited the same certainty when this, according to Hegel’s scheme, was the issue was the validity of the the synthesis of early Catholicism. law in his struggle with the anti- Baur’s interpretation determined the nomians. The clarity with which he prevailing understanding of 1 Cor- knew how to unite the two tenden- inthians for a long time; he saw the cies is paradigmatic for all times.13 same Jewish opponents in the Christ ‘party’ that he saw in the letter to the To Lütgert, the antinomians were 14 Galatians. ‘libertine spiritualists’ and Gnostics. In 1908, Lütgert opened his inves- The faith, however, does not rest on tigation of the opponents in Paul’s human wisdom, but rather ‘on God’s 15 letters with ‘The Preaching of Lib- power’ (1 Cor 2:5). For that reason, erty and the Spirits of Enthusiasm in the church does not have to seek gno- Corinth: An Article Concerning the sis but rather faith. ‘Preaching does Characteristics of the Christ “Party”’,9 not save those who understand, the which above all was directed against wise, but rather those who believe. Baur’s representation of history. In … What we have in the Corinthian the opening sentence he wrote, ‘The - Christian church has, from the begin- cism in the sense that it is a gnosis ning, had to stand between two fronts churchthat surpasses is for the faith,first timewhich a Gnosti rests … the circle of Apostles had oppo- upon revelation and the possession nents on both sides.’10 of which accounts for Christian per- As Lütgert saw it, Paul stood be- fection and counts as the essence of 16 tween Jewish Christian legalists and Christianity.’ Gentile Christian antinomians: ‘In Lütgert’s view has been disputed; [Paul’s] view, freedom from the law he claimed that asceticism was sup- was always just as far from antinomi-

11 Freiheitspredigt, 143. 12 Freiheitspredigt, 16. 9 Freiheitspredigt und Lütgert, Schwarmgeister in Korinth: Ein Beitrag zur 13 Freiheitspredigt, 157. Lütgert, Charakteristik Wilhelm Lütgert,der Christuspartei (Gütersloh: 14 Freiheitspredigt, 86. C. Bertelsmann, 1908). 15 Lütgert, Freiheitspredigt, 112. 10 Freiheitspredigt, 7. 16 Lütgert, Freiheitspredigt, 111, 134. Lütgert, Lütgert, Lütgert, 44 Thomas Schirrmacher pressed libertinism and assumed that would have been unthinkable for both stemmed from the same move- Paul—but rather a reference to pa- ment, instead of seeing two contra- gan circumcision rites. Lütgert main- dictory deviations from God’s crea- tained this stance in his view of the tion ordinances. term ‘emasculate’ in Galatians 5:12.

2. Philippians: The Perfected 3. Thessalonians: The Enthusiasts Ones Also in 1909, within the same volume, In 1909 Lütgert published an exami- Lütgert published ‘The Enthusiasts nation of ‘The Perfected Ones in the in Thessalonica’. There is no gener- Letter to the Philippians’. As his point ally accepted answer surrounding the of entry, Lütgert argued that Philip- historical situation of the letters. 20 pians 3 makes it clear that Paul stood Whether both letters to the Thessalo- between two fronts. 17 nians addressed the same situation is When Paul was active in Philippi also unresolved, although Lütgert ul- and when he wrote this letter, according to Lütgert, there were a large the second letter’s authenticity to be number of libertines in Philippi. They timatelyimportant. affirmed21 this and considered denied the preaching of the cross and Describing the overall picture of thought they had already achieved the early Christian church, Lütgert the resurrection, making the hope suggested that ‘in the Apostolic era of a resurrection and of the parousia there were more trends and tenden- irrelevant. The fear of God, humility cies, that the life of the community and obedience were for them a lower was richer, more colorful, and more form of piety.18 diverse than it appears in the tradi- The Jews treated the Pauline gos- tional historical view.’22 For him it was pel as deserving to be thrown into the amazing that ‘Christian literature be- same pot with these notions. In Paul’s gins with a polemic against libertine view, they shared several features enthusiasts and those who denied the with the libertines: the rejection of resurrection. With this the portrayal humility and of the cross, the lack of 23 proper fear of God, and their scepticism regarding the hope of resurrec- of history is significantly changed.’ tion.19 4. The Pastoral Letters: Order Lütgert took the unusual position instead of Gnosis Still in 1909, Lütgert’s study ‘The and ‘dogs’) in Philippians 3:2 do not False Teaching of the Pastoral Letters’ thatconcern the termsmockery ‘mutilators of Jewish of the circum flesh’- appeared. He understood this work cision—something that he believed

20 17 Thessalonich’, in his Die Vollkommenen im Philipperbrief’, in his Die Vollkommenen im Philipperbrief Wilhelm und Lütgert, die Enthusiasten ‘Die Enthusiasten in Thessa in- Philipperbrief Wilhelm Lütgert, und die Enthusiasten‘Die Vollkommenen in Thessa im- lonich (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1909, 55. lonich (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1909), 1. 21 18 22 19 23 Lütgert, ‘Die Enthusiasten’, 81. Lütgert, ‘Die Vollkommenen’. 53-54. Lütgert, ‘Die Enthusiasten’, 102. Lütgert, ‘Die Vollkommenen’, 54. Lütgert, ‘Die Enthusiasten’, 102. Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 45 as a direct continuation of his exami- teachers of the pastoral letters were nation of the Corinthian letters.24 To ascetics. Still, this asceticism is only a Lütgert, the false teachers in the pas- suppressed libertinism.’28 toral letters were Jewish antinomians who preached freedom from the law. As spiritualists, they were Gnostics 5. The Letters of John: Office and who claimed a higher knowledge than Spirit the Scriptures. They were shaped by In 1911, Lütgert devoted himself pri- asceticism and a rejection of every kind of order. Antinomianism, asceti- his work Service and Spirit in Battle. cism, Gnosis, and enthusiasm were Hemarily found to FirstJohn toJohn be indisputing the first againstpart of the catchwords by which they were libertines, among others. The author distinguished, as well as an unwilling- emphasized that love also always ness to suffer.25 means freedom from sin. Again here, the central point is the 1 John 5:17 (‘All wrongdoing is correct integration of the law into the sin’) was central for Lütgert. The Gospel. Like Romans 2:16 and 7:12, church has ‘no privileged wrongdo- according to Lütgert, 1 Timothy 1:9 ing’. 29 ‘What is sin for the rest of the also correctly understood law as an world is sin for them. Their freedom ethical order integrated into the Gos- does not consist in there no longer pel.26 The defence of the correct use of being sin for them.’30 the law is at the same time a defence This is how Lütgert understands of the Scriptures, as in particular 1 the disputed statement in 1 John 1:8 Timothy 3 makes clear: ‘In that the and 20 about being sinless. The false false teachers wanted to lead the con- teachers do not consider themselves gregation beyond the Scriptures, they sinless because they actually do not also rip themselves loose from a con- sin, but rather because they no longer nection with the piety of Israel.’27 consider what they do to be sin.31 ‘An- What the opponents of the Corin- tinomianism and perfectionism are thian letters have in common with therefore tied together.’32 I consider the opponents of the pastoral letters this observation to be exegetically is that as liberal Jewish antinomians - they distort the preaching of freedom. They invoke wonders, visions and justified and a central insight for eth a knowledge that is independent of 28 Die Irrlehrer, 92. 29 - the Scriptures. Both reject suffering Lütgert, and lowliness as well as the hope of tichristen’, in his Amt und Geist im Kampf: Studien Wilhelm zur GeschichteLütgert, ‘Johannes des Urchristentums und die An resurrection. ‘The difference consists (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1911), 23. in the fact that Paul’s opponents in 30 Corinth were libertines and the false 31 32 Lütgert, ‘Johannes’, 23. - ing that Lütgert, Lütgert ‘Johannes’, views this 23–24. perfectionism as 24 Die Irrlehrer der Pastoralbriefe, Lütgert, ‘Johannes’, 24. It is interest- 73. other type of perfectionism of his time, as is Lütgert, 25 Die Irrlehrer, 73. demonstratedjustified, although in his he talk was Sündlosigkeit familiar with und an 26 Die Irrlehrer, 13–14. Vollkommenheit: Ein Vortrag (Gütersloh: C. 27 Lütgert, Die Irrlehrer, 68. Bertelsmann, 1897). Lütgert, Lütgert, 46 Thomas Schirrmacher ics. Christians who wanted to rescind Lütgert made more use of John’s the internal contrast between the letters in both of his large works on church and the world: Corinthians love than practically all Protestant Absence of love as characteristic: ethicists. The church must to be pro- Corinthians tected against the ‘lax feature’ of the 33 Aversion to the death of Christ: false prophets: ‘I write this to you so Corinthians, Philippians that you will not sin’ (1 John 2:1). Also characteristic of John’s letters ‘All of these phenomena are features 35 is the struggle against Docetism and of a movement’, he concluded. the denial of the hope of resurrec- 6. The Letter of Clement and the emphasis on knowledge as opposed Letter of Ignatius: Service and totion. apostolic Furthermore, preaching one againand the finds com an- Spirit mandments: Together with his study of John’s let- The false prophets are therefore ters, Lütgert continued his investi- libertine Gnostics. Because they gation of the opponents of the early are Gnostics, gnosis stands out so Christian documents beyond the New strongly in John. The letter speaks Testament. much more frequently about In ‘Turmoil in Corinth’ he primarily knowledge (2:3, 4, 13, 14; 3:1, 6, - 20; 4: 6, 7, 8, 16; 5:20) than it does about faith. To know God and to studiedan appendix. Clement’s36 He first emphasized letter, address the obey him are the two most impor- ingclose Clement’s relationship second between letter thosebriefly let in- tant parts of Christianity as far as ters from the time of Paul. Among the this letter is concerned.’34 opponents, he simultaneously found Within the framework of his re- asceticism and sexual excesses of the sults, Lütgert draws parallels be- worst order.37 tween the false teachings in John’s In ‘Separation among the Churches letters and those considered in his of Asia Minor’ he looked into Igna- previous studies. He arrived at this tius’s letters. Ignatius’s opponents arrangement: recognized the gospel but rejected the authority of the Old Testament Antinomian libertines: Corinthi- which was held up to them; that is to ans, Philippians, Thessalonians say, they rejected all Scriptural evi- Enthusiasts: Corinthians, Pastorals dences.38 Here, Lütgert saw parallels Gnostics: Corinthians, Pastorals Spiritualistic deniers of the res- 35 urrection: Corinthians, Pastorals 36 - (the resurrection has already oc- rinth’, Lütgert, in Amt ‘Johannes’,und Geist im 48–49. Kampf: Studien zur curred), Philippians (the resurrec- Geschichte Wilhelm des Lütgert,Urchristentums ‘Der Aufruhr (Gütersloh: in Ko C. tion has already been achieved) Bertelsmann, 1911), 111–18. 37 38 33 kleinasiatischen Lütgert, ‘Der Aufruhr’,Gemeinden’, 79. in Amt und 34 Geist Wilhelm im Kampf: Lütgert, Studien ‘Die zur Separation Geschichte in dendes Lütgert, ‘Johannes’, 48. Lütgert, ‘Johannes’, 47. Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 47 to the false teachers referred to in the ity that enjoys a haughty disdain of Pastorals and John’s letters.39 Israel.41 To the best of my knowledge, the Lütgert himself summarized the studies Lütgert conducted on these results of his study as follows: earliest writings by church fathers Romans is meant to protect the have not been taken up in scholarly predominantly Gentile church in discussion, although their content lies Rome from an antinomian Christi- not far from the present-day consen- anity, which at the same time joins sus. a disdain for Israel and a Jewish- Christian lack of freedom and 7. Romans: Antinomianism, Anti- feeds revolutionary tendencies Semitism, and Revolution in the church. This Christianity is rampant in the Gentile churches, In 1913 Lütgert continued his investi- initially invoking Paul but already gation of New Testament books by ad- having begun to move in opposi- 40 dressing Romans. Lütgert assumed tion to him. Paul therefore has that Romans defends against many reason to demarcate the Gospel misunderstandings prevalent among with respect to what these people were saying, to warn the Roman summarized Lütgert’s concerns: church about them, and in so do- GentileAccording Christians. to W. OttoLütgert Michel it is brieflyincor- ing to ensure acceptance which is rect to understand Romans only necessary for effectiveness in the in an anti-Jewish sense. Many re- Roman church. From this it can marks (e.g. Rom 3:31; 8:4; 13:8– be explained why he emphatically 10) teach a positive evaluation of expresses his positive stance in the law and appear completely in- Romans towards the law and why explicable in an anti-Jewish sense. he gives his teaching on grace the It is more probable that Paul had to address a Gentile antinomian- With this approach his positive ism. Indeed the Apostle himself formrelationship of a teaching to the onlaw justification. can be ab- stood under suspicion of being a sorbed into his teaching on grace. participant in the emergence of … Paul is compelled to embrace the this antinomianism (Rom 3:1–8). law and Jewish Christianity against 42 That Romans 6 is directed against Gentile Christians. libertine tendencies is generally In Romans, therefore, Paul ad- admitted. Romans 9–11 captures dresses disdain for the law (antinomi- a more lively picture, if one under- anism43), disdain for Israel (anti-Sem- stands this section historically and itism44), and revolutionary tendencies assumes an anti-Semitic Christian- in the Roman church.45 With the third

Urchristentums (Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 41 Der Brief an die Römer (Göt- 1911), 153. tingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978), 40. Otto Michel, 39 42 Der Römerbrief, 111–12. 40 Der Römerbrief als 43 Der Römerbrief, 69–79. Lütgert, historisches Lütgert, Problem‘Die Separation’, (Gütersloh: 137, C.163–64. Bertels- 44 Der Römerbrief, 79–90. mann, Wilhelm 1913). Lütgert, 45 Lütgert, Der Römerbrief, 98–111. Lütgert, Lütgert, 48 Thomas Schirrmacher point, Romans 13:1–7 receives its It is unlikely that a largely Jewish- natural place, as does the end of chap- Christian church would have opened itself completely to the Jewish temp- there is reason to clarify the relation- tation. If, however, some Gentile tership 12. between Based on the the Gentile first two Christian points, Christians had followed the Jewish church and Old Testament revelation. corrupters and others rejected the Romans 9–11 then becomes a truly Jewish temptation—not necessarily integral component of Romans. with Apostolic arguments—then that would explain why the letter speaks 8. Galatians: Law and Spirit repeatedly about contention among The culmination of Lütgert’s stud- believers.49 ies regarding the opponents in New Only a part of the church is ad- Testament letters is surely his 1919 dressed in Galatians 3:1, where Paul 46 study of Galatians, ‘Law and Spirit’. refers to ‘you who are spiritual’.50 Here A central passage for Lütgert is Gala- we are dealing with Christians who tians 5:13. The Galatians are ‘called to consider themselves more spiritual be free’, but must ‘not use … freedom than the rest of the church. Theodore to indulge the sinful nature’ but ‘rath- 51 er, serve one another in love.’ Zahn called this group ‘spiritual- Galatians itself reports on contro- ists’, correctly equating them with the versy in the church. The clearest ex- ‘strong’ Gentile Christians in Romans ample is Galatians 5:15: ‘If you keep 14–15 who elevate themselves above on biting and devouring each other, the ‘weak’ Jewish Christians. watch out or you will be destroyed Lütgert’s view of Galatians was by each other.’47 It is unlikely that this taken up by James Hardy Ropes52 in passage deals simply with personal 53 quarrels between individual church in 1945. The fact that Paul did not members, but rather it presumably rescind1929 and the Fredericvalidity of R. the Crownfield moral law involves disputes about the stance - towards Old Testament law. The same theran Ragnar Bring in his commen- applies to Galatians 5:26: ‘Let us not was confirmed by54 the Swedish Lu become conceited, provoking and en- tary on Galatians. vying each other.’ Since the Galatian church consist- 49 Gesetz und Geist, 11. ed predominantly of Gentile Chris- 50 Gesetz und Geist, 12–13. tians but Jewish-Christian problems 51 Lütgert, Der Brief des Paulus an were also prevalent, it stands to rea- die Galater Lütgert, (Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus, 1922, son that the letter would address the rpt. 1990), Theodor 270–72; Zahn, Lütgert refers to Zahn in false teaching of both Jewish and Gen- Gesetz und Geist, 13–14. tile opponents.48 52 - lem of the Epistle to the Galatians’, Harvard Theological James Hardy Studies Ropes, 14 (1929). ‘The Singular Prob 46 Gesetz und Geist: Eine 53 Untersuchung zur Vorgeschichte des Galater- Problem of the Dual Galatians’, Journal of Bib- briefes Wilhelm (Gütersloh: Lütgert, C. Bertelsmann, 1919). lical Literature Frederic R.64 Crownfield,(1965): 491–500. ‘The Singular 47 Gesetz und Geist, 9. 54 Commentary on Galatians 48 Gesetz und Geist, 9–11. (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1961). See Lütgert. Ragnar Bring, Lütgert, Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 49

IV. Reactions to Lütgert Lütgert’s interpretation of the Co- The reactions to Lütgert have varied rinthian letters as a radical change, greatly. The most heated response writing, ‘In one way or the other Lüt- concerned his view of the Corinthian gert’s explanation has received broad 59 letters; his work on Romans was the support.’ According to Deming, Lüt- least disputed. That result may have gert’s convincing insight was to trace been affected by the fact that Adolf libertinism and asceticism back to the Schlatter relied on Lütgert’s work in same source. To Deming, Lütgert’s his monumental commentary on the viewpoint and later variations of it Corinthian letters. Though Schlatter were eventually substituted by Ernst made considerable new contribu- Käsemann’s similar thesis that not tions, he adopted Lütgert’s descrip- Gnostic but rather apocalyptic move- tion of Paul’s opponents as enthusi- ments related to ‘realized eschatol- asts.55 ogy’ were in the background of these In 2001 Michael D. Goulder ac- letters. Deming himself supported knowledged that Lütgert had a cen- Käsemann in his critique of Lütgert’s tral place in investigations of the Co- viewpoint.60 rinthian letters,56 although he took a different position in his designation of the Christ party.57 As Goulder saw V. The Gnosis Discussion - A longstanding discussion in religious haustively criticize Baur’s reconstruc- studies, as well as in research on the tionit, Lütgert of the inparties 1908 in was the the early first church: to ex New Testament and the early church, Lütgert’s analysis convinced many concerns the question of ‘Gnosis.’ 61 and is a basis for the modern dis- According to Adolf Harnack, this cussion of the two letters, even if was a Christian heresy that emerged parts of it have been discarded. It out of Judaism and Christianity. For is on account of his sharp thinking the representatives of the so-called that the Tübingen theory lost its history-of-religions school, it was an position among the wise and those independent pre-Christian and non- in the know.58 In 1995 Will Deming described 59 Paul on Marriage and Celi- bacy: The Hellenistic Background of 1 Corin- thians Will 7 (Cambridge:Deming, Cambridge University 55 Paulus, Der Bote Jesu: Press, 1995), 22.. Eine Deutung seiner Briefe an die Korinther 60 Paul on Marriage and Celibacy, (Stuttgart: Adolf Schlatter,Calwer Verlag, 1969), 42, cf. 31–32. As a further example of a newer ap- 20–46; Schlatter, Die Theologie der Apostel praisal Deming, of Lütgert’s studies of Paul’s oppo- (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1922, rpt. 1997), nents, see Robert Jewett, Paul’s Anthropo- 403–32. logical Terms: A Study in Their Use in Conflict 56 Paul and the Com- Settings (Leiden: Brill, 1971), 19–20. peting Mission in Corinth, (Peabody, MS: Hen- 61 drickson, Michael 2001), D. Goulder,13–15, 25–29. Wilhelm Bousset, Hauptprobleme der Gno- 57 Paul and the Competing Mission, sis’ (originally Adolf von published Harnack. 1908), ‘Rezension in Kurt über: Ru- 27–29. dolph (ed.), Gnosis und Gnostizismus (Darm- 58 Goulder, Paul and the Competing Mission, stadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 14. 1975), 231–37. Goulder, 50 Thomas Schirrmacher

Christian religion that then became Hans-Martin Schenke correctly won- mixed with Christianity. With respect dered whether, in light of the con- to the New Testament, there was troversies and breadth of the textual the additional question of whether a - Gnosis is possible.65 H. J. W. Drijvers enced Christianity and in particular declared,findings, aafter summary modern presentation discoveries of first-centuryPaul, or whether Gnostic the New religion Testament, influ many new sources relating to Gnosis, especially Paul, fought vehemently ‘The problem of the origins of Gnosti- against this impulse. Primarily Ru- cism is today one of the most disput- dolf Bultmann and his students held the former view; in theology Walter studies.’66 Schmithals is above all associated ed Lütgert questions is inresponsible the field offor religious initiat- with the latter position, and in reli- ing the discussion of the relation- gious studies the leading name is Kurt ship between Gnosis and the New Rudolph. 62 Theologian Martin Hengel Testament. It is for this reason that is associated with the denial of the Bultmann, of all people, interacted latter position.63 with him extensively.67 But Lütgert With all due respect to Hengel’s had nothing to do with the viewpoint arguments, he can maintain his view only on the basis of a late dating of Gnosis, since he implicitly rejected it. several New Testament writings. thatPhilosopher Paul himself Hans wasLeisegang influenced wrote by The famous warning in 1 Timothy in 1924, in his classic presentation 6:20–21 against ‘what is falsely called of Gnosis, that the gospels ‘were all knowledge’ is, for Hengel as well as for Lütgert, directed against Gnos- Gnostic motives’ and that ‘the apostle tics. However, contrary to Lütgert, the morePaul lived or less in filledthe world and infiltrated view of Gnosis with warning is not Pauline: ‘The earliest and thought along its lines.’ 68 In 1927 evidence for a Christian “Gnosis”, 1 Timothy 6:20, belongs in the beginning of the second century.’ Hengel 65 dates the book in 110–120 AD, and der Gnosis’ (originally published 1965), in Hans-Martin Schenke; ‘Hauptprobleme he does the same with Ignatius’s let- Kurt Rudolph (ed.), Gnosis und Gnostizismu 64 (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesells- ters. chaft, 1975), 586. The question of the origins of 66 Gnosticism is nowadays farther away Gnostizismus als religionsgeschichtlich- than ever from being cleared up. es Problem’, H. J. W. in Drijvers, Rudolph ‘Die (ed.), Ursprünge Gnosis und des Gnostizismus. 841. 67 Die Gnosis in 62 Gnosis: Wesen und Ge- Korinth: Eine Untersuchung zu den Ko- schichte einer spätantiken Religion (Göttin- rintherbriefen See Walter (Göttingen: Schmithals, Vandenhoeck & gen: Vandenhoeck Kurt Rudolph. & Ruprecht, 1990). Ruprecht, 1965, revised 1969), 113–16; 63 Schmithals. Neues Testament und Gnosis einer vorchristlichen Gnosis’, in his Kleinere (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesells- Schriften Martin 3: Paulus Hengel, und ‘Paulus Jakobus. und (Tübingen: die Frage chaft, 1984), 25, 29–30 on Lütgert and Adolf Mohr Siebeck, 2002), 473-510. The most important literature is mentioned in the notes Bultmann school’s critique of Lütgert. on pp. 474–76. 68Schlatter’s significanceDie to BultmannGnosis (Stuttgart: and the 64 Kröner, 1924, rpt. 1985), 2–3; see also Hans Hans Leisegang, Hengel, ‘Paulus’, 492. Wilhelm Lütgert and his Studies of the Apostles’ Opponents 51

Richard Reitzenstein named Paul ‘not was himself a Gnostic was an abuse of Lütgert’s position. For Lütgert it all Gnostics’.69 For Lütgert, in contrast, was clear that Paul fought relentlessly itthe was first, beyond but arguably question the that greatest Paul was of against Gnosis everywhere. the greatest debunker of Gnosis. Whether one describes Paul’s op- As far as Lütgert is concerned, the ponents as Gnostic, proto-Gnostic, concepts ‘Gnosis’ and ‘Gnostic’ have libertine or antinomian (all of which no relationship to Gnosis in church notions are contestable in one way history. He does not mention any or another) does not alone decide precursors of later movements. To what these opponents stood for. The consider his position disproved by most important issue is what they subsequent research would do him advocated or what Paul opposed, an injustice. For Lütgert, ‘Gnostic’ de- even if the origin of these percep- scribes a movement in which the acts tions is not always clear. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 6:16–20 some peo- a higher knowledge is at the centre. ple visited prostitutes without see- of God or salvific revelation but rather- ing themselves as having breached God’s will, while others practiced GnosticismHere is his definition: in the sense ‘With thatthe Corin Gno- sexual abstinence in marriage. These sisthian surpasses church we faith, have with for the that first Gnosis time circumstances are important for our based on revelation so that the pos- exegesis as well as for our systematic session of it makes for Christian per- theological evaluation, regardless of fection, the essence of Christianity.’70 whether we can reconstruct the prov- As Hengel correctly indicates, the idea of Gnosis was not precisely the exact terms to describe them. - enanceAt the of timethe points of 1 Corinthians,of view and findthe fore that point various meanings church in Corinth was divided with weredefined attached until aroundto the notion. 1960, andNot un be- respect to numerous questions. One more precisely.71 One should not look to idols, and another participated tilat Lütgert’s Schmithals writings was the prior term to defined World personin an observance did not eat of meatan idol sacrificed in or- War I in light of the discussions that der to eat this meat. One individual occurred between the World Wars or favoured sexual laxness, whereas since 1960, although Lütgert played a another rejected even sexuality in large part in initiating the discussions marriage. Paul, however, practically surrounding the relationship between never conceded a point to one or the Gnosis and the New Testament. Lüt- other Corinthian party. He equally gert’s outlook can be reconciled with admonished both parties in Corinth, Hengel as well as with Schmithals; in since neither opinion corresponded contrast, Bultmann’s view that Paul to godly thinking. This undisputed initial position should play a much larger role in the overall interpreta- Leisegang, Denkformen. (Berlin: Walter de tion of the letter as well as in doctri- Gruyter, 1928), 87–127. nal evaluation, instead of getting lost 69 in the question of the anterior histori- 70 cal reconstruction. 71 Quoted by Hengel, ‘Paulus’, 473. Lütgert, ‘Freiheitspredigt’, 134. Lütgert, ‘Freiheitspredigt’, 474. 52 Thomas Schirrmacher

VI. Law and Freedom veals itself in both of these norms.’72 Lütgert also supported the principle I believe that the necessity of de- of law and freedom outside of theol- fending the Christian faith against le- ogy, even if he initially derived the galism as well as lawlessness, which principle from theology. In his 1917 Lütgert demonstrates to be a central lecture ‘Law and Freedom’, deliv- theme in many New Testament docu- ered when he assumed the position ments, remains an important legacy of rector at the University of Halle- for evangelical theology, which con- Wittenberg, he made the following statement, which summarized his world view: ‘Law and freedom are the these same two fronts. tinues to find itself struggling on two poles, the two focal points of our lives. Neither of the two lets itself be 72 reduced to the other. Such a duality Hallische Universitätsreden 6 (Halle an der points to a uniform will, which re- Saale: Wilhelm Max Niemeyer, Lütgert, 1917), ‘Gesetz 18. und Freiheit’, ERT (2019) 43:1, 53-70 Law and Gospel: The Hermeneutical and Homiletical Key to Reformation Theology and Ethics

Thomas K. Johnson

Evangelicals should actively appro- I. Differences between Luther priate a central theme from the Prot- and Calvin estant Reformation that provides a There are theological differences between Luther and Calvin, but differ- proclamation: the nuanced relation ences of literary style and personal- unifiedbetween structure law and forgospel. faith, A lifelargely and ity seem larger. Calvin labours for elegance of expression and an orderly perspective can be learned from a arrangement. The table of contents of unifiedcomparison (but of not Martin woodenly Luther identical) (1483– his 1546) with John Calvin (1509–1564). Institutes of the Christian Religion offers an overview of how he con- nects the various themes in Christian questions established patterns for proclamation. Theirquality significant teaching and similarity preaching on in these the Protestant tradition. his commentaries he refers the read- The relationship between law and er toCalvin a previous finds repetition book if he inelegant; has already in gospel is a hermeneutical/homileti- given a satisfactory exposition of a cal key to Reformation theology and text or theme. He also distinguishes ethics, both historically to understand theology from biblical exegesis, rep- the Reformation itself and norma- resenting the Renaissance care for tively, setting a pattern to appropriate precision in dealing with historical today. This complementarity offers texts. To get Calvin’s complete per- evangelicals a proven tool for under- spective on a topic, one must read his standing the Bible, for proclamation not only his commentaries. in church and society, for balanced Institutes, Luther does not clearly distinguish and authentic pastoral care, and for exegesis from theology. In his relating the Christian faith to ques- Lectures , he often digresses from tions of culture and politics. on Galatians the text of Galatians to other texts and generally tells his students all they

Thomas K. Johnson is the World Evangelical Alliance’s special envoy to the Vatican, as well as a senior advisor for the WEA Theological Commission, International Institute for Religious Freedon, and Society of Christian Scholars. 54 Thomas K. Johnson should know relative to the themes tian faith, for Christian proclamation, before him. His Lectures on Galatians and for ethics, including social ethics. describe faith and life in light of Gala- Luther’s key text is his 1535 Lectures tians, not merely exegeting the Paul- on Galatians. Calvin’s 1548 Galatians ine book. Luther had a tremendously Commentary is convenient for com- systematic mind, but his love of the parison; it must be supplemented by gospel constantly breaks his orderly his Institutes because of his literary presentation. This makes Luther re- method. petitive though never monotonous. Behind the difference in literary style between Luther and Calvin lay a II. The Centrality of the Law/ difference in personality so great that Gospel Relationship one can mistake it for a difference in For Luther, the relationship between core theology. Lewis Spitz comment- law and gospel is the centre of true ed: Christianity; the ability to distinguish Calvin and Luther were tem- properly between law and gospel peramentally quite different. The - younger man [Calvin] was shy to fore whoever knows well how to distinguishqualifies one the as gospela theologian. from the‘There law and restrained, except for sudden should give thanks to God and know 2 the point of diffidence, precise that he is a real theologian.’ scrupulously just and truthful, self- The real problem in theology flashescontained of anger. and somewhat He was severe, aloof. but He through Luther’s time was the failure had many acquaintances but few to articulate this distinction: intimate friends. The older man [Luther] was sociable to the point this distinction between the law of volubility, free and open, warm andYou the will gospel not find in the anything books of about the and cordial with people of all sta- monks, the canonists, and the re- tions of life. But in spite of their dif- cent and ancient theologians. Au- ferences in personality, Calvin and gustine taught and expressed it to Luther retained a mutual respect some extent. Jerome and others for each other that was rooted in like him knew nothing at all about their confessional agreement.1 it. In other words, for many centu- A ‘confessional agreement’ deeper ries there has been a remarkable than their disagreements is what we silence about this in all the schools and churches. This situation has disguised by differences in terminol- produced a very dangerous condi- 3 findogy. Luther on law and and Calvin gospel, have though remark it is- tion for consciences. ably similar convictions, especially This distinction is no mere theoretical that the relationship between law abstraction. It is an existential reality and gospel is central for the Chris-

2 Luther’s Works, ed. and 1 The Renaissance and Ref- trans. Jaroslav Pelikan, vol. 26: Lectures on ormation Movements, 2 vols. (St. Louis: Con- Galatians, Martin 1535 Luther, (St. Louis: Concordia, 1963), cordia Lewis Publishing W. Spitz, House, 1971), vol. 2: The 115. Reformation, 412. 3 Galatians, 313.

Luther, Law and Gospel 55 of the highest import; it is the heart contained in the gospel,—is univer- of the Christian faith; it is the key to sally contrasted with the law, with keeping the gospel pure and distin- the merit of works, and with human guishing authentic Christianity from excellence.’7 He echoes Luther: ‘We distorted faiths and religions. ‘Let see then that the smallest part of jus- every Christian learn diligently to distinguish between the law and the law without renouncing Christ and gospel.’4 histification grace.’ 8cannot be attributed to the Without this distinction people ei- cannot earn God’s favor by law-keep- III. What Is the Gospel? ther fall into despair, finding that they presuming that they can earn God’s (not faith plus anything else) is the ing,favor. or However, they fall theinto proper false confidence, distinction centreFor Luther, of the justification gospel. By faithby faith a person alone is not a matter of memorizing proper is united with Christ and received by terms or using certain words; it is Christ so that Christ’s righteousness more an art than a science. It must be becomes one’s own and the believer made in the midst of life experience. is declared righteous by God. While Luther confessed, ‘I admit that in the time of temptation I myself do not enduring condition in relation to God, know how to do this as I should.’5 athe person’s legal status faith remainsof being justifieddynamic; is one an Calvin appropriates a clear distinc- may only be aware of the status of jus- tion between law and gospel from Luther, but he understands it to really trusts the gospel. come from the Bible: ‘[Paul] is con- tification to the extent one presently tinually employed in contrasting the If it is true faith, it is a sure trust righteousness of the law with the free acceptance which God is pleased to takes hold of Christ in such a way bestow.’6 Because Calvin avoids rep- thatand firmChrist acceptance is the object in the of heart.faith, or It rather not the object of faith but, so show that Calvin sees this contrast as to speak, the one who is present in 9 etition,central oneto the such faith. statement But he thinks suffices it tois the faith itself. prominent in the entire Bible. But the work of Christ, properly When discussing Abraham, Calvin speaking, is this: to embrace the notes, ‘For faith,—so far as it em- one whom the law has made a sin- braces the undeserved goodness of ner and pronounced guilty, and to absolve him from his sins if he be- testimony of our adoption which is lieves the gospel. ‘For Christ is the God, Christ with all his benefits, the end of the law, that everyone who 4 Galatians, 120. 10 5 , Galatians, 115. 10:4). 6 Luther, Commentaries on the Epistles has faith may be justified’ (Rom of Paul Luther to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans. William John Calvin,Pringle (Edinburgh: Calvin Transla- 7 Calvin, Galatians, 85. tion Society, 1854; rpt. Grand Rapids: Baker, 8 Galatians, 151.

1979), 67. Modernized spelling and punctua- 9 Galatians, 129. tion. 10 Calvin, Galatians, 143. Luther, Luther, 56 Thomas K. Johnson

Calvin uses slightly different lan- claims that true faith in Christ moves guage. Salvation is accomplished people to love and serve within the solely by the work of Christ; salvation everyday social structures without is received solely by faith. About Gala- any rejection of the moral law. Faith tians 2:15–16, Calvin observed: leads to good works, and if real faith is Since the Jews themselves, with all present, good works can be expected. their advantages, were forced to Therefore we, too, say that faith betake themselves to the faith of without works is worthless and Christ, how much more necessary useless. The papists and the fa- was it that the Gentiles should look natics take this to mean that faith for salvation through faith? Paul’s without works does not justify, or meaning therefore is: ‘We … have that if faith does not have works, it found no method of obtaining sal- is of no avail, no matter how true vation, but by believing in Christ: it is. That is false. But faith without why, then, should we prescribe works—that is, a fantastic idea and another method to the Gentiles? … mere vanity and a dream of the heart—is a false faith and does not faith of Christ, because we cannot justify.12 11 We must seek justification by the Luther interprets the representa- The Reformers understand the gos- tives of the Roman Catholic Church of pelbe in justified contrast by to works.’ the law. Believing his day to say that works were neces- the gospel is the opposite of seeking - to achieve a proper relationship with tral problem of the ‘papists’. Luther God by following the law or perform- saryalso thinksin order that to the be ‘fanatics’,justified, histhe termcen ing ‘works’. for some Anabaptists, follow the papists at this crucial point—a claim not always noticed. Luther teaches IV. Faith and Works that good works will always follow From the start of the Reformation, Lu- ther was misunderstood to say that if such good works do not contribute to people do not need to earn their eter- any justification that is authentic, but nal salvation by doing good works, In addition to holding a different then people are free from all moral justification.view of the relation between faith and restraint and free to sin. This antino- works, Luther also claims to teach mian misunderstanding threatened a different view of an appropriate to contribute to the widespread social ‘good work’. As a papist he performed chaos of the time, an outcome Luther works that were explicitly religious in feared. nature; he entered a monastery, fast- In his 1520 treatise The Freedom ed, took pilgrimages, and spent long of the Christian, Luther rejects antino- hours confessing sins.13 After coming mianism with his ear-catching irony that, in addition to being a perfectly free lord of all, each Christian is also a 12 Galatians, 155. perfectly dutiful servant of all. Luther 13 ‘extra-mundane Luther, asceticism’ in contrast with the ‘intra-mundane This is what later asceticism’ scholars taught often callby 11 Galatians, 66, 67. Luther and Calvin.

Calvin, Law and Gospel 57 to the Reformation faith, he taught that good works are primarily in the nothing one does contributes to jus- everyday world: justified by faith alone, meaning that- For such great blindness used to essarily leads to obedience to God’s prevail in the world that we sup- commandtification. Butin the real Word. justifying faith nec posed that the works which men Calvin’s doctrine of faith and had invented not only without works resembles Luther’s. Though but against the commandment of some have misperceived Calvin to be God were much better than those a stern legalist, in his time the French- which a magistrate, the head of speaking Reformation was perceived a household, a teacher, a child, a to be antinomian in a manner that servant, etc., did in accordance contributed to social chaos and wan- with God’s command.14 ton vice. This was similar to Luther’s problem, a result of saying that good - works and the moral law do not con- cation by faith are those commanded tribute to our salvation. From the byThe God good in worksthe Word resulting within from the justifievery- ‘Prefatory Address to King Francis’ in day created order: the Institutes, - Surely we should have learned trine of the relation of faith to good from the Word of God that the re- works, partly toCalvin teach clarifies his people his doc but ligious orders of the papists, which partly as an apologetic response to alone they call holy, are wicked, this continuing allegation against the since there exists no command- Reformation. ment of God or testimony in Sacred Scripture about them; and, on the these matters: ‘It is not our doctrine other hand, that other ways of life, Using Galatians 5:6, Calvin defines which do have the word and com- we maintain that it is invariably ac- mandment of God, are holy and companiedthat the faith by which good justifiesworks; isonly alone; we divinely instituted … , on the basis of the Word of God we pronounce 16 the sure conviction that the way of contendFrom thatLuther faith to aloneCalvin, is there sufficient is a life of a servant, which is extremely forsmall justification.’ development in the terminol- vile in the sight of the world, is far ogy of good works. Whereas Luther more acceptable to God than all talks about loving service within the the orders of monks. For God ap- created orders of everyday life in proves, commends, and adorns the obedience to the command of God, status of servants with his Word, Calvin usually talks about obedience but not that of the monks.15 to the law of God as the standard for For Luther, works do not contribute good works. This is a tiny change in terminology, not a substantial development in content. Like Luther, Calvin to justification before God. One is describes good works as love for oth- 14 Galatians, 212. ers within the framework of everyday 15 , Galatians, 213. For Luther, the life: fact Luther,of these biblical commands indicates that being Luther a servant is a proper way of serving God. 16 Galatians, 152.

Calvin, 58 Thomas K. Johnson

But we must inquire into the rea- that the Old Testament contains only son why all the precepts of the law law while the New Testament only are included under love. The law preaches the gospel. Against such extremes, with small differences, Lu- which instructs us concerning the ther and Calvin fundamentally agree consistsworship ofof twoGod tables,and the the duties first of on seeing both law and gospel in both piety, and the second instructs us the Old and the New Testament. Nei- concerning the love of neighbor … . ther obliterates all distinctions be- Piety to God, I acknowledge, ranks tween the two testaments; both see higher than love of the brethren; substantial continuity. and therefore the observance of Luther loved to describe Moses as the preacher of righteousness by law: the sight of God than the obser- Moses does not reveal the Son of thevance first of tablethe second. is more But valuable as God in God; he discloses the law, sin, the himself is invisible, so piety is a conscience, death, the wrath and thing hidden from the eyes of man. judgment of God, and hell. … There- . … God therefore chooses to make fore only the gospel reveals the Son trial of our love to himself by that of God. Oh, if only one could distin- love of our brother, which he en- guish carefully here and not look joins us to cultivate.17 for the law in the gospel but keep it Calvin uses the term law to de- as separate from the law as heaven scribe the function of Holy Scripture is distant from earth.18 in guiding the life of gratitude and Representing the apostle Paul, Luther good works, whereas Luther uses the writes, ‘You have not heard me teach term commandment. This difference the righteousness of the law or of in terms is based on a deep agree- works; for this belongs to Moses, not ment—real faith leads to good works to me.’19 that are practiced in everyday life ac- If this were all Luther said, one cording to the commands or law of might imagine an absolute antithesis God in Scripture. between the two testaments. Howev- er, with no sense of self-contradiction, V. The Gospel and the Old Luther notes, ‘The patriarchs and all the Old Testament saints were free in Testament Throughout Christian history, the faith, not by circumcision or the law.’20 relationship between the two testa- theirIt is true conscience that ‘Moses, and were the ministerjustified byof ments has been a recurring issue. the law, has the ministry of law, which Some, such as the group that dis- he [the apostle Paul] calls a ministry turbed the churches in Galatia in the of sin, wrath, death, and damnation’,21 from the Old to the New Testament. firstOthers, century, such minimizeas Marcion any in transition the sec- 18 Galatians, 72. ond century, minimize any continu- 19 , Galatians, 73. ity between the testaments, believing 20 Luther, Galatians, 85. By the term ‘free in their Luther conscience’, Luther means awareness of a status Luther, of full acceptance before God. 17 Galatians, 159, 160. 21 Galatians, 147.

Calvin, Luther, Law and Gospel 59

to God on account of their faith, faith alone. still the Jews called Genesis togeth- yetThe Moses gospel preached in the justificationOld Testament, by er with the other books of Moses Luther claims, is also about Jesus ‘law’ because of that one law of cir- Christ. The faith of the patriarchs was cumcision.25 a faith that looked to the future acts Just as Luther claims that the Old Tes- of God for their salvation. ‘The sound of the promise to Abraham brings law in the New Testament, although Christ; and when he has been grasped thetament New is Testament full of gospel, is pre-eminently so he finds by faith, then the Holy Spirit is grant- gospel: ed on Christ’s behalf.’22 The gospel, however, is a procla- Though the promises related to the mation about Christ: that he forgospel were especially given to Abra- ham, these promises were also avail- and saves sinners. Although there able to whoever believed. In discuss- aregives commandments sins, grants grace, in the justifies, gospel, ing how the Roman centurion (Acts they are not the gospel; they are 9) was righteous before he heard the expositions of the law and appen- gospel from Peter, Luther claimed: dices to the gospel.26 Cornelius was a righteous and holy Calvin’s distinction between the man in accordance with the Old testaments is similar to that of Lu- Testament on account of his faith ther. At the beginning of his Galatians in the coming Christ, just as all the commentary, he complains that the patriarchs, prophets, and devout false apostles disturbing the church- kings were righteous, having re- es removed the distinction between ceived the Holy Spirit secretly on the two testaments, which is the dis- account of their faith in the coming tinction between law and gospel. ‘It 23 Christ. is no small evil to quench the light The main contrast between the gos- of the gospel, to lay a snare for con- pel in the Old Testament and in the sciences, and to remove the distinc- New Testament is that ‘the faith of the tion between the Old and the New patriarchs was attached to the Christ Testament.’27 who was to come, just as ours is at- Like Luther, Calvin regards the Old tached to the One who has already Testament as largely law, whereas the come.’24 Indeed, the book of Genesis New Testament is largely gospel: was primarily a book of gospel: In Jewish fashion Paul usually calls Moses consisted in laying down a ruleThat of office life whichand ceremonies was peculiar to be to though it has no law except that observed in the worship of God, whichthe first deals book with of Mosescircumcision, ‘law’. Even but and in afterwards adding promises and threatenings. Many prom- that the patriarchs were pleasing ises, no doubt, relating to the free chiefly teaches faith and testifies

22 Galatians, 255. 25 Galatians, 433. 23 Galatians, 210. 26 Galatians, 150. 24 Luther, Galatians, 239. 27 Luther, Galatians, 14, 15. Luther, Luther, Luther, Calvin, 60 Thomas K. Johnson

mercy of God and of Christ, are to making the difference between the be found in his writings; and these two testaments one of degree and promises belong to faith. But this is place in the history of redemption: to be viewed as accidental.28 The doctrine of faith, in short, is at- Though Calvin agrees with Luther tested by Moses and all the proph- that Moses is primarily a writer of ets: but, as faith was not then clear- law, Calvin’s statements about Moses ly manifested, so the time of faith are more positive than Luther’s. Cal- [Galatians 3:23] is an appellation vin genuinely loved the Law of Moses here given, not in an absolute, but and wrote a multi-volume study on in a comparative sense, to the time the last four books of the Pentateuch. of the New Testament.31 Luther chose to write more on the Indeed, the Old Testament ceremo- book of Genesis than on the other Mo- nies spoke of Christ and served as a saic books, probably because he saw schoolmaster to lead people to the Genesis as containing more gospel. coming Christ: For Calvin, the way of salvation Beyond all doubt, ceremonies ac- was the same under the old covenant complished their object, not merely by alarming and humbling the by faith alone: conscience, but by exciting them to as it is under the new, i.e. justification- the faith of the coming Redeemer. ing, because, when he received … The law … was nothing else than fromAbraham God wasa promise justified of by fatherly believ an immense variety of exercises, in kindness, he embraced it as cer- which the worshippers were led by tain. Faith, therefore, has a rela- the hand to Christ.32 tion and a respect to such a divine The Reformers agree in seeing con- promise as may enable men to tinuity of development from the Old Testament to the New Testament. Old 29 God. Testament believers looked forward Calvinplace explains their trust why and Moses confidence added the in to the redemption in Christ, whereas law so many years later if the gospel New Testament believers look back to had already been given to Abraham. His comment would have pleased Lu- by faith alone in the promise of the ther—to show people their sin and gospel.Christ, butAlthough all believers the New are Testament justified need for the gospel. ‘He means that is pre-eminently a book of gospel, that the law was published in order to gospel is properly understood only in make known transgressions, and in relation to the moral law contained in this way to compel men to acknowl- both testaments. edge their guilt. … This is the true Whether in the time of the Old or preparation for Christ.’30 the New Testament, Luther and Cal- Like Luther, Calvin hears the gos- vin see the biblical message as always pel throughout the Old Testament, having two distinct but inseparable dimensions: command and promise,

28 Galatians, 99. 29 Galatians, 84. 31 Galatians, 107. 30 Calvin, Galatians, 100. 32 Galatians, 109. Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, Law and Gospel 61 law and gospel. This is the continuous righteousness of the law. As soon structure of the biblical divine-human as reason and the law are joined, encounter. faith immediately loses its virgin- ity. For nothing is more hostile to 35 VI. Reason and Law faith than the law and reason. ‘Reason cannot think correctly about - God; only faith can do so.’33 Such state- ing religious propositions, though Lu- ments give Luther the reputation of therFor Luther, accepts faith such is notclassical merely Christian affirm being opposed to reason. Some view credal statements as the Apostles’ him as irrational. Calvin, meanwhile, and Nicene Creeds. Faith is personal is sometimes presented as an unfeel- reliance on the gospel. But during as- ing rationalist. Neither interpretation saults on the soul (German Anfechtun- is accurate, because they assume no gen), or temptations to doubt God’s differentiation in terms of the object grace, believers are prone to move to which reason must be applied. from trusting in the gospel to trust- Both Luther and Calvin see rea- ing in obedience to the law, and sinful son as properly pertaining to the reason supports this tendency. During law; when reason is used within this spiritual assaults, fallen reason con- realm, it is a tremendous gift of God. fuses law and gospel, so believers fall But when reason exceeds its proper either into despair of pleasing God bounds, going into the realm of gos- - pel, then reason becomes an enemy ing that they please God without the of faith. gospel:or else into false confidence, assum For Luther, the primary problem When it comes to experience, you with reason is its claim that people the law a constant guest in your rejecting the gospel: conscience,will find the whichgospel isa rarehabituated guest but to canHuman be justified reason by and works wisdom of the do law,not the law and the sense of sin; reason understand this doctrine [the gos- too supports this sense.36 pel]. Therefore they always teach Reason rarely overcomes the ten- the opposite: ‘If you want to live to dency to forget the gospel and rely God, you must observe the law; for on the law. Luther does not think that it is written (Matthew 19:17), “If people should become irrational. The you would enter life, keep the com- 34 solution is to employ reason to its mandments.” ’ fullest in its proper realm: everyday, Let reason be far away, that enemy practical affairs. Reason is properly of faith, which, in the temptations applied in the realm of the ‘orders’— of sin and death, relies not on the the realm of the civil use of the law. righteousness of faith or Christian Discussing a popular proverb, ‘God righteousness, of which it is com- does not require of any man that he pletely ignorant, but on its own do more than he really can’, Luther righteousness or, at most, on the tightly connected reason to everyday

33 Galatians, 238. 35 Galatians, 113. 34 Galatians, 156. 36 Galatians, 117. Luther, Luther, Luther, Luther, 62 Thomas K. Johnson affairs: lar to Luther’s with a subtle shift. Af- This is actually a good statement, ter celebrating the ability of human but in its proper place, that is, in reason in the natural realm, the result political, domestic, and natural af- of God’s general grace and general fairs. For example, if I, who exist in revelation, Calvin asked what reason the realm of reason, rule a family, knows of God: build a house, or carry on a gov- We must now analyze what human reason can discern with regard to I can or what lies within me, I am God’s Kingdom and to spiritual in- excused.ernment37 office, and I do as much as sight. This spiritual insight consists With this understanding of the proper realm of reason, Luther could God; (2) knowing his fatherly favor praise Greek political philosophy and chieflyin our inbehalf, three inthings: which (1) our knowing salva- Roman law, though he also describes tion consists; (3) knowing how to reason and philosophy very nega- frame our life according to the rule tively. Of itself, reason knows nothing about the gospel and tends to confuse and especially in the second—the ofgreatest his law. geniuses In the two are first blinder points— than law and gospel; nevertheless, reason 39 can know much about the moral law moles! and its application in everyday life. In Calvin distinguished knowing what this realm reason must be treasured. God is like (point 1 above) from The knowledge of the moral law pos- knowing how God relates to man in sessed by reason is the result of God’s the gospel (point 2). Though reason revelation through creation. Because is not always completely wrong about of sin and unbelief, this reasonable God’s being, statements on this topic knowledge of the moral law will need by philosophers ‘always show a cer- to be corrected by the command of tain giddy imagination’.40 But unaided God in the Scriptures; nevertheless, reason is ‘blinder than moles’ in re- reason can know the law. Therefore, gard to understanding God’s fatherly by reason, civil righteousness is pos- care and the gospel. To properly trust sible for many who do not know the in God’s fatherly care, the gospel, gospel: Scripture, and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit are needed. The sophists, as well as anyone Though reason is worthless in the else who does not grasp the doc- realm of the gospel, Calvin emphasizes reason in area 3, ‘how to frame of any other righteousness than our life according to the rule of his civiltrine righteousnessof justification, ordo thenot rightknow- law’. This is the realm of the civil use eousness of the law, which are of God’s moral law, the natural moral known in some measure even to law, and civil righteousness. the heathen.38 Calvin’s doctrine of reason is simi- 39 Institutes of the Christian Re- ligion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis 37 Galatians, 173, 174. Emphasis Battles John (Philadelphia: Calvin, Westminster Press, added. 1960), II, ii, 18. 38 Luther,Galatians, 261. 40 Institutes, II, ii, 18.

Luther, Calvin, Law and Gospel 63

There remains the third aspect important: of spiritual insight, that of know- Now that inward law [the natural ing the rule for the right conduct moral law], which we have above of life. This we correctly call the described as written, even en- ‘knowledge of the works of right- graved, upon the hearts of all, in a eousness.’ The human mind some- sense asserts the very same things times seems more acute in this that are to be learned from the two than in higher things. For the apos- Tables [the Ten Commandments]. For our conscience does not allow do not have the law, do the works us to sleep a perpetual insensible tleof the testifies: law, they ‘When are a Gentiles, law to them who- sleep without being an inner wit- selves … and show that the work of ness and monitor of what we owe the law is written on their hearts, to God, without holding before us while their conscience also bears the difference between good and witness, and their thoughts accuse evil and thus accusing us when them among themselves or ex- we fail in our duty. But man is so cuse them before God’s judgment’ shrouded in the darkness of er- [Rom. 2:14–15]. If Gentiles by na- rors that he hardly begins to grasp ture have law righteousness en- through this natural law what wor- graved upon their minds, we surely ship is acceptable to God. … Ac- cannot say they are utterly blind cordingly (because it is necessary as to the conduct of life. There is both for our dullness and for our nothing more common than for a arrogance), the Lord has provided us with a written law to give us in a right standard of conduct by clearer witness of what was too mannatural to law. be 41 sufficiently instructed obscure in the natural law, shake Reason often knows right and wrong off our listlessness, and strike based on the natural (God-given) more vigorously our mind and moral law, and this knowledge can memory.42 provide ‘a right standard of conduct’. There is a difference between how Calvin never suggests that this knowl- Luther and Calvin understand the in- edge equips people to earn God’s favour. Even though people often know natural moral law. Calvin emphasizes the good and are able to attain civil fluencethe way of in sin which on our the perception content of of ourthe righteousness, they are still sinful; the knowledge is darkened, while Luther natural knowledge of right and wrong emphasizes the way in which people received by reason renders people misuse this knowledge to earn God’s blameworthy before God. favour. They agree that knowledge of - God’s natural moral law is available son knows about the moral law. Sin to reason and allows people to know darkensCalvin ourcarefully knowing qualifies process. what reaWe right and wrong, but unaided reason do not always in fact know what we cannot know how to relate properly should in principle know by reason. to God. And the Bible is needed to The written moral law is extremely know more fully what kinds of good

41 , Institutes, II, ii, 22. 42 , Institutes, II, viii, 1.

Calvin Calvin 64 Thomas K. Johnson works should follow faith. all civic ordinances.43 Though the civic use of the law is im- VII. The Uses of the Law portant to make civic righteousness possible, it is not the most important Some see a large difference between use of the law. The ultimate use of the Luther and Calvin regarding the law is to show us our sin and need for proper uses of the law. The evidence the gospel: shows a difference in terminology, The other use of the law is the literary style, and personality-driven theological or spiritual one, which reactions to the moral law within a serves to increase transgressions. substantially similar perspective. Cal- … Therefore the true function and vin may have taken Luther’s doctrine the chief and proper use of the law is to reveal to man his sin, blindness, misery, wickedness, igno- withand refinedsome aspects the terminology, of this develop though- rance, hate, and contempt of God, ment.Luther might have been dissatisfied death, hell, judgment, and the well- If the moral law is not to be used to deserved wrath of God.44 earn God’s favour, what are its proper At this point Luther waxes elo- uses or functions? Luther speaks of quent about the value of God’s law, two proper uses of the law, the civic but his point is clear—there are two and the theological, with the theologi- uses of the moral law that must be cal use being primary. While discuss- distinguished from each other. In the ing Galatians 3:19, Luther claims: civic use, the law restrains sin to make One must know that there is a dou- civilization possible, whether the law ble use of the law. One is the civic comes directly from God or indirectly use. God has ordained civic laws, through human laws, civic authori- indeed all laws, to restrain transgressions. Therefore, every law theological use leads a person to de- was given to hinder sins. Does this spairties, or and other prepares humane him influences. for hearing The mean that when the law restrains the gospel. Because of its close relation to the gospel, the theological use of the law is primary. refrain from killing or from com- Calvin speaks about three uses of mittingsins, it justifies? adultery Notor fromat all. stealing, When I the law, but he does not discuss all or when I abstain from other sins, three uses in relation to Galatians I do not do this voluntarily or from because he does not think that Paul the love of virtue but because I am discussed all three uses there. In dis- afraid of the sword and of the ex- cussing Galatians 3:19, Calvin offers a ecutioner. This prevents me, as the rare criticism of Luther: ropes or chains prevent a lion or a bear from ravaging something that the mistake of acknowledging no - otherFor many, advantage I find, belonging have fallen to intothe standing and use of the law is to restraincomes along. the wicked. … The … firstThis underis why God has ordained magistrates, par- 43 Galatians, 308, 309. ents, teachers, laws, shackles, and 44 , Galatians, 309. Luther, Luther Law and Gospel 65

law, but what is expressed here. from the law and toward the gospel. Paul himself elsewhere speaks of The continuing, repeated assaults on - his soul are echoed in his language able for doctrine and exhortations about the law. Calvin seems to have the precepts of the law as profit gone through a one-step process, im- given of the use of the law is not mediately turning from the law to the complete,(2 Tim 3:16). and those The definition who refuse here to gospel without intermediate despair; make any other acknowledgment his language about the law does not in favour of the law do wrong.45 usually contain echoes of terror. Calvin agrees that Galatians teaches Calvin’s second use of the law is Luther’s two proper uses of the law. - cal use: Calvin insists that the rest of the Bible Luther’s first use—the civic or politi teaches a third use. The second function of the law is this: at least by fear of punishment the primitive function of the law, simi- to restrain certain men who are lar Calvinto Luther’s calls theologicalhis first use use: of the law untouched by any care for what is just and right unless compelled by hearing the dire threats in the and use of what is called the ‘moral law. But they are restrained not law’.Let us Now, survey so far briefly as I understand the function it, because their inner mind is stirred it consists of three parts. or affected, but because, being bri- dled, so to speak, they keep their shows God’s righteousness, that is hands from outward activity, and theThe righteousness first part alone is this: acceptable while it hold inside the depravity that oth- to God, it warns, informs, convicts, erwise they would wantonly have and lastly condemns, every man of indulged.47 his own unrighteousness. For man, The differences between Luther and blinded and drunk with self-love, Calvin are small but noteworthy. Lu- must be compelled to know and ther understands the moral law in its to confess his own feebleness and civic use as largely mediated through impurity.46 societal orders, whether the state, the Calvin compares the law to a mirror; family, the school or the church. Cal- as a mirror shows the spots on one’s vin conceives of the civil use of the face, so the law shows sin, though law as being largely unmediated, in with different results among believ- the direct encounter of an individual ers and unbelievers. Unbelievers with God. Of course, Calvin believes the civil magistrate had to prevent so- mercy in Christ. Calvin and Luther cietal chaos, which he regards as the useare terrified;different believerslanguage fleeto describe to God’s worst of evils. But when he turns to - - sonality. Luther seems to have gone siders each person’s direct encounter throughthis use, reflectinga two-step differences process, indrop per- hiswith second God. use of the law, he first con ping into despair before turning away Calvin says the third use of the law is primary:

45 Galatians, 99, 100. 46 Institutes, II, vii, 6. 47 Institutes, II, vii, 10. Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, 66 Thomas K. Johnson

The third and principal use, which to strive.51 pertains more closely to the prop- For Calvin, the law is a friend in a way Luther did not imagine. Calvin knows, among believers in whose hearts like Luther, that the law always accus- theer useSpirit of of the God law, already finds lives its place and es believers, but for Calvin this accu- reigns. For even though they have sation is in light of a deep, continuing the law written and engraved assurance of God’s fatherly care, so the threats and harshness can be re- God (Jer 31:33; Heb 10:16), that moved from the believer’s experience is,upon have their been hearts so moved by the and finger quick ofof the law. Like Luther, Calvin fully af- ened through the directing of the simul justus et Spirit that they long to obey God, peccator, that the believer is simulta- firms the principle of ways.48 the believer needs the law of God as a Calvin’sthey stilltwo profitways byin thewhich law the in twolaw neouslyguide to justifiedlife. But theand new sinful; obedience therefore, to helps believers are teaching the will the law is an expression of gratitude of God, which believers desire to fol- for the gospel without any hint of us- low, and exhorting believers to con- ing the moral law as a tool for self- tinued obedience. Though Calvin does not use this terminology, they Was Calvin’s gentle criticism of could be called ‘Use 3A’ and ‘Use 3B’. justification.Luther correct, assuming the validity Concerning Use 3A, Calvin claims the of Calvin’s threefold use? The answer law ‘is the best instrument for them is ‘probably not,’ because Luther’s to learn more thoroughly each day the view of the uses of the law is closer to Calvin’s than Calvin may have rec- nature of the Lord’s will to which they ognized, even though Luther does not use the term ‘third use’. The rea- understanding of it’.49 He uses vivid son for this claim is that the content languageaspire, and about to confirmUse 3B: them‘by frequent in the of Calvin’s Use 3B, that believers ‘be meditation upon it to be aroused to drawn back from the slippery path of obedience, be strengthened in it, and transgression’, is included in Luther’s be drawn back from the slippery path 50 civic use of the law, restraining sin. of transgression’. Luther and Calvin both think the sin Lest one think the desires of believ- of believers needs to be restrained. ers are all negative, Calvin explains: The difference in terminology is only For the law is not now acting to- where this theme appears in the outward us as a rigorous enforcement line. Then there is the question of the requirements are met. But in knowing the will of God, to which be- thisofficer perfection who is notto which satisfied it exhorts unless lievers should aspire; Calvin calls this us, the law points out the goal to- third use of the law ‘primary’, which ward which throughout life we are Luther does not. But for Calvin this use of the moral law is ‘primary’ in an ideal sense if God’s people were all 48 Institutes, II, vi, 12. 49 Institutes, II, vi, 12. 50 Calvin, Institutes, II, vi, 12. 51 Institutes, II, vi, 13. Calvin, Calvin, Calvin, Law and Gospel 67 walking by faith and merely question- Nevertheless, Luther also says, ‘the ing what they should do. In practice, works of the law must be performed Calvin makes the theological, con- demning use of the law very impor- 53 tant. In his Institutes, the insightful eitherWhen before outward justification duties must or be afterper- discussion of the Decalogue is includ- justification.’formed, then, whether you are a ed in the section analysing the human preacher, a magistrate, a husband, predicament, prior to his discussion a teacher, a pupil, etc., this is not of the gospel. Calvin is using the law time to listen to the gospel. You in its theological function to show must listen to the law and follow sin. If Calvin had emphasized only your vocation.54 the ‘third’ use of the law, he would Luther teaches that the works of have discussed the law only after his obedience to the moral law not only - - cation. In practice, Calvin’s use of the cal manner; obedience to the law is a discussionlaw is close of to ChristologyLuther’s recommenda and justifi- followfruit of faith: justification in a chronologi tions about which use is primary. At the same time, Luther’s notion Anyone who wants to exert himself of the ‘command of God’ found in Scripture as the norm for the Chris- exert himself in listening to the tian life resembles Calvin’s Use 3A, towardgospel. Now righteousness when he musthas heard first showing how Christians should live and accepted this, let him joyfully give thanks to God, and then let problem with the works Luther had him exert himself in good works indone gratitude as a monk for thewas gospel. that they The were first that are commanded in the law; intended to deserve or earn God’s fa- thus the law and works will follow vour; the second problem was that his hearing with faith. Then he will works were the wrong works. True be able to walk safely in the light good works have to be done in obedi- that is Christ; to be certain about ence to God’s word in the Scriptures choosing and doing works that are not hypocritical but truly good, substitute for faith in the gospel. This pleasing to God, and commanded andteaching flow offrom Luther faith approximates in the gospel, Calnot- by him; and to reject all the mum- vin’s Use 3A. mery of self-chosen works.55 Luther made negative statements After contrasting the righteousness about the law. In the preface to his of the law with the righteousness of study on Galatians, he claimed: faith, Luther declares: The highest act and wisdom of When he [Christ] has been grasped Christians is not to know the law, by faith, then the Holy Spirit is to ignore works and all active granted on Christ’s account. Then righteousness, just as outside the God and neighbor are loved, good people of God the highest wisdom works are performed, and the is to know and study the law, works and active righteousness.52 53 Galatians, 123. 54 Galatians, 117. 52 Galatians, 6. 55 Luther, Galatians, 214, 215. Luther, Luther, Luther, 68 Thomas K. Johnson

cross is borne. This is really keep- a standard for discussions of the use ing the law … . Hence it is impos- of God’s law. sible for us to keep the law without the promise.56 VIII. Comments Luther elaborates: Luther and Calvin agree that the re- Moses, together with Paul, neces- lationship between law and gospel sarily drives us to Christ, through is central to the Christian faith for whom we become doers of the several reasons. They see this rela- law and are accounted guilty of no tion as central in the Bible, in both transgression. How? First, through the Old and New Testaments; in other the forgiveness of sins and the im- words, the biblical interpreter is not putation of righteousness, on ac- properly examining the Scriptures if count of faith in Christ; secondly, this relation between law and gospel through the gift of the Holy Spirit, is not perceived. This consideration who creates a new life and new im- must not be forgotten. Following di- pulses in us, so that we may keep the law.57 rectly from this, the ability to clearly distinguish and relate law and gospel Luther teaches that law-keeping by is regarded as central to recognizing believers had three important pur- a person as an evangelical theologian. poses: This ability enables a person to apply What is the purpose of keeping it the biblical message to human experi- [the law] if it does not justify? The from a central structure of the biblical law by the righteous is not right- proclamation.ence in a balanced manner that flows eousnessfinal cause in of the the sight obedience of God, whichof the Closely related is the apprehension is received by faith alone, but the that the biblical relationship between peace of the world, gratitude to- law and gospel addresses one of the ward God, and a good example by deepest existential dynamics within which others are invited to believe 58 human beings. People will always re- the gospel. spond to the moral law in some way, Like Calvin, Luther teaches that whether in despair because of inabil- keeping the moral law of God is the proper expression of gratitude for the because of supposed earned right- gospel. There are differences in ter- eousness,ity to keep or the by law, turning in false to confidencethe gospel. minology regarding the proper uses of the law, with differences of per- because believing a gospel is hard to sonality behind those differences in avoid.Others This may existentialturn to a deficient relation gospel, to law terminology, but the massive agree- and gospel is constant and dynamic ment between Luther and Calvin sets throughout a lifetime. For this reason, it is wise to address these issues 56 Galatians, 255. continually in preaching and pastoral 57 Galatians, 260. care. We should see law (in its multi- 58 Luther, Galatians, ple uses) and gospel as truly central cause’ Luther, was a way of talking about purpose to the application of the biblical mes- inspired Luther, by the terminology 273. of The Aristotle. term ‘final sage and central to the divine-human Law and Gospel 69 encounter.59 ure to distinguish how the moral law Some weaknesses in evangelical- relates to reason from how the gospel ism can be strengthened by Reforma- relates to reason. The claim that we tion teaching on law and gospel. One - weakness has been forgetting the con- ment of faith in the gospel, whereas nection between the moral law and arethe justifiedclaim that in Christ murder is purely is wrong a state is God’s general revelation.60 Forgetting based on reason as well as on faith. this connection can cause us to miss This leads to more differentiation in the way in which people without the our discussions of faith and reason. gospel already encounter God’s law This differentiation can strengthen in both its theological and civic uses, how we discuss integrating evangeli- thus weakening our approach to so- cal theology and ethics with learning cial ethics, culture, and missions. In social ethics, we should assume that A further weakness has been for- all people already encounter God’s ingetting the various the civil academic use of the fields. moral law. moral law through creation and con- - science; therefore, moral claims root- gelicals to develop social ethics that ed in the Bible clarify and strengthen Thisdo not makes sound it likemore either difficult an attempt for evan to moral knowledge that people already - have, though this knowledge is dark- nity) or an attempt to take over the ened or misused. fleeworld the (ethics world (ethicsof theocratic of holy dominacommu- In missions, we can expect that tion). There is a distinct and proper people will normally have questions relation of the moral law, given by and anxieties arising from their en- God, to human experience, reason and counter with the moral law in its the- society, which we must learn to use in ological use, proclaimed by God’s gen- our civic ethics. This will enable us to eral revelation; this is the cause of the talk and act as responsible citizens correlation or question/answer rela- contributing to the public good, being tion between the gospel and human open about our Christian faith, with- experience.61 In relation to culture, - each of the uses of the moral law, as ship to society.62 well as the gospel, implies a distinct outTherefore, adopting a it fight-or-flight is wise to see relation the re- relationship of the biblical message to lation between law and gospel as a culture. hermeneutical and homiletical key Another weakness has been a fail- in a twofold sense. Historically, this is the key to the Reformers’ hermeneutics and homiletics, needed to under- 59 stand the Reformation. Normatively, Heidelberg Catechism (1563) clearly used we should see the relation between this frameworkThe second forquestion preaching and answerthe Reforma of the- tion faith. 60 62 Natural promote this problem by his rejection of gen- Law Ethics: An Evangelical Proposal (Bonn: eral revelation. Unfortunately, Karl Barth did much to VKW, I have2005) addressed and in ‘Biblical these topicsPrinciples in in the 61 Public Square’, MBS Text 108, available at in Reformation-based theology without in- www.bucer.eu. This forms the background for tending It is everythingproper to use that the Paul term Tillich ‘correlation’ meant my Human Rights: A Christian Primer (World by that term. Evangelical Alliance, 2008). 70 Thomas K. Johnson law and gospel as a hermeneutical/ dernity. This distinction gives a sub- homiletical key to interpret, apply and proclaim the biblical message in a hermeneutics, theology, social ethics, balanced and full manner in late mo- practicalstantial and theology unified and structure homiletics. to our ERT (2019) 43:1, 71-86 The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry

Michael King, Bob Jamison and Bruce Barron

Upon entering the Trinity School for what God can do when a few gifted, Ministry library in Ambridge, Penn- - sylvania, USA, one sees an open area cially to a widely perceived need. to the right, designated as the Stan- determined people respond sacrifi way Africa Alcove in honour of the school’s founding dean. Against the I. Overcoming Functional back wall of the alcove, as is common Deism at organizations interested in world Stephen Noll was a young Episcopa- mission, a map of the world is posted. lian with a bright ministry future. But this is not a typical map—rela- Converted to Christ as a Cornell Uni- tive to most representations of our versity undergrad, he had earned planet, it is upside down. Africa and his master of divinity degree from South America dominate the viewer’s an Episcopal seminary in California attention in this arrangement, with Europe and North America dangling Truro Church, a vibrant northern Vir- nondescriptly at the bottom. andginia was parish active impacted in his first by charismaticministry at The map focuses viewers’ eyes on renewal. parts of the world where this young, Wanting to provide biblically modest-sized school has made an in- sound teaching to the Episcopal re- credible impact. It is also an apt im- newal movement, Noll had been ac- age for Trinity, which has specialized cepted to enter a Ph.D. program at in turning things topsy-turvy. In 40 Manchester, England in 1976 and years it has grown from a tiny, un- study under the esteemed New Testa- promising outpost to a globally prom- ment scholar F. F. Bruce. But he won- inent seminary, overturning the peck- dered how he would support his fam- ing order in theological education ily, with a third child on the way. Noll shared his concerns with John in the reshaping of Anglican relation- Rodgers, an evangelical professor at whileships worldwide also playing as awell significant as in world role Virginia Seminary, who calmly told mission. Trinity’s history embodies him, ‘If God is calling you, you just

Michael King is Managing Director–Investments for Wells Fargo in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. Bob Jamison is president of Adam’s Quest, a men’s ministry organization, and cofounder of the Greater Pitts- burgh Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast. Bruce Barron, editor of the Evangelical Review of Theol- ogy, has written extensively on Christianity in contemporary America. This chapter is taken from their book Steel Faithful: Stories of God at Work in Pittsburgh, 1952–2018. 72 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron have to trust the Lord.’ you have to go and pursue that call.’1 It was good advice—but little At the recommendation of John did Noll know that Rodgers was Stott, perhaps Anglicanism’s most re- simultaneously on the other side of spected evangelical theologian, Guest another very similar conversation, recruited Alf Stanway out of retire- struggling to apply that advice to ment in Australia and persuaded him himself. Alfred Stanway, an Australian to become the founding dean of a native who had been an Anglican non-existent dream. Stanway arrived bishop in Tanzania for 20 years, was asking Rodgers to leave his post at the Episcopal Church’s largest seminary inand 1975, attracting intending students to spend so that his firstthe and become one of the original yearschool hiring could faculty,commence finding operations facilities, in fall 1976. Pittsburgh. Thus, by late 1975, Stanway was professorsThe idea at of a startingfledgling a school new semi near- challenging Rodgers to take a leap nary had emerged from the highly of faith and lend his credibility to charged, ambitious atmosphere of the new, self-consciously evangelical the Pittsburgh Offensive, a citywide Trinity Episcopal School for Minis- Christian strategic planning group. try—so named to signal a departure Episcopal seminaries in the United from the heavy academic emphasis States had been strongly affected by and limited preparation for practical modern and liberalizing approaches, pastoral work typical of most semi- and the vibrantly evangelical Episco- nary programs. pal preacher John Guest was tired of In one sense, Rodgers was ready telling promising ministry candidates to take the leap. He had studied un- that they needed to travel across the der Karl Barth, one of the twentieth pond to his native Britain to obtain century’s most towering theological sound biblical education. icons and leader of the ‘neo-orthodox’ In 1974, fellow Offensive partici- reaction to liberal theology, at Basel, pant R. C. Sproul urged Guest to con- Switzerland. As an evangelical at Vir- sider founding a school in the United ginia, he felt frustrated that ‘we were States. Guest pitched the idea to one not turning out graduates who could of his wealthy parishioners at St. Ste- withstand the power of secularity. phen’s Church in Sewickley, Nanky They cared about people but had no Chalfant, who responded enthusias- supernatural resources, because they tically and jump-started the project didn’t believe in the supernatural and with a $250,000 gift. - As recounted in Janet Leighton’s ity.’ excellent history of Trinity School for wereRodgers not confident even ofconsidered biblical author leav- Ministry, Guest approached the pre- ing the world of Episcopal education siding bishop of the Episcopal Church, for more evangelical pastures but who expressed scepticism about the ultimately—’surprising even myself,’ need for another seminary but offered backhanded encouragement: 1 Lift High the Cross: The ‘If you have the sense that God is call- History of Trinity School for Ministry, up- ing you to do this, then even though it dated Janet and Leighton, expanded edition (Ambridge, PA: doesn’t seem wise to me, I know that Whitchurch, 2014), 10. The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 73 he commented—declined a job offer money never ran out, although the from Fuller Seminary in California. Trinity community lived quite frugal- But in another sense, he was not ly in its early years. ready for Stanway’s recruiting visit in January 1976. By his own admission, Rodgers was theologically evangelical II. A God-Ordained Location deist; that is, he wasn’t certain that Sewickley, home to Guest’s church, but,God inwould financial intervene matters, directly functionally in his Trinity’swould make first the leaders most logical thought perma that- nent location. Sewickley was (and still their conversation as follows: is) a quaint, fashionable, well-mani- financialRodgers: situation. How can Leighton I accept records such a cured town along the Ohio River, 13 call and place my wife and children miles downstream from Pittsburgh. Historically, it had been the community of choice for managers who Stanway: Do you believe God loves in such a shakily financed venture? oversaw the big industrial operations your wife and children? farther downriver—the steel mills of Rodgers: Well, yes. Aliquippa and U.S. Steel’s American Bridge factory in Ambridge. Stanway: If he’s calling you, isn’t he God, however, obviously thought committing himself to provide for your wife and children? the doors to Sewickley. Some Se- Rodgers: Well, that is what Christ otherwise,wickley residents, because perhaps he firmly confusing shut teaches, but we’ve never lived that the clientele of an Episcopal divinity way. school with stereotypical college un- dergrads, actively opposed permit- Stanway: Maybe it’s time to start!2 ting Trinity to move in, fearing an on- Rodgers agreed to come. So did Peter slaught of noisy seminarians. Davids, a biblical scholar who had also During Trinity’s second year, a church building and a former grocery a Purdue University history professor became available in Ambridge, by then studiedcontemplating under F. a F. career Bruce. change, Les Fairfield, came a town in socioeconomic decline. The as both church history instructor and properties were anything but glamor- student. With them as the main fac- ous, but they were highly affordable. ulty and 17 students enrolled, Trinity Trinity bought both properties and opened in September 1976 in rented has made Ambridge its home since facilities at Robert Morris University. 1978. School leaders contemplated - relocation to a more attractive site at dentials immediately established the times during the next seven years, but Rodgers,school’s academic Davids, andquality. Fairfield’s cre after Trinity was miraculously spared As for Noll, he took the leap of faith from substantial damage during two - ing his Ph.D. at Manchester, he joined the former grocery in early 1985, they too—moreTrinity’s faculty than once.in 1979. After And finish the firesconcluded at a factory that God immediately wanted them behind to stay. Downtown Ambridge is not an 2 Lift High the Cross, 47. ideal school location—for decades,

Leighton, 74 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron there was no nearby recreation pened to the town in years. After all, area—but it offered affordable hous- students were getting to know their neighbours and serving them in hum- mission. Students gained practical ble ways, and buying things in their ingministry and proved experience a great in fit servingfor Trinity’s the stores as well. Council promptly re- needy community surrounding them versed its position.’ through food and clothing distribu- tion, door-to-door evangelism, and after-school activities for children. III. ‘Determination Is Better The favourable local response to Than Frustration’ those actions led to the founding of Alf Stanway provided remarkably the Church of the Savior in 1985, with disciplined, determined leadership Trinity student Joe Vitunic as pastor. (Until then, Trinity was an Episcopal seminary in a town with no Episco- as Trinity’scaptured firstin one dean. of Hishis favourite personal pal church.) Vitunic would serve the devotionalphrases: ‘No life wasBible, fervent no breakfast.’and fixed, From his long association with the Noll found that most of the early Anglican Church Mission Society, he church for its first 20 years. derived the principle of ‘start small, quite well. ‘We felt like pioneers, and even while intending great things.’ He facultywe all had fit a into radical their side, humble so we setting didn’t made money a secondary issue, be- feel out of our element in Ambridge’, lieving that if one obeyed God in min- he said. ‘We didn’t mind carpooling istry, the money would follow. in someone’s broken-down vehicle. Guided by unshakable reliance on After all, the students, most of whom a sovereign God, Stanway refused to had come to Trinity without an en- become frustrated by apparent set- dorsement from their bishop, were backs. Leighton tells of one instance when Stanway and Trinity’s treas- Trinity eventually constructed two urer made an appointment to visit makingadditional sacrifices buildings too.’ on land formerly an available property. When they ar- occupied by a used car lot and two rived, praying that God would give stores. During the planning process, them unmistakable direction, they school leaders discovered the extent learned that the property had already to which locals’ initial suspicion of a been sold. Showing no sign of disap- religious school moving in had turned pointment, Stanway exclaimed, ‘A to appreciation. Trinity asked the bor- clear indication!’3 ough council to vacate a one-block al- Stanway retired from Trinity in ley so that the school could develop 1978 due to the onset of Parkin- the property. When the council re- son’s disease. D. A. Carson, of Trin- fused, Trinity representatives sug- ity Evangelical Divinity School near gested that maybe they would have Chicago, described visiting Stanway to move. ‘Immediately’, Noll recalled, in Australia: By then, his Parkinson’s ‘signs saying “Save Trinity Seminary” had progressed to the point where started appearing in shop windows, he could not talk and had to answer and there was a big meeting at the high school with 200 people saying we were the best thing that had hap- 3 Lift High the Cross, 73.

Leighton, The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 75 questions in barely legible writing. clergy lead the way; when Protestant Carson asked Stanway how, after such denominations hold their national a powerful and productive life, he was assemblies, the clergy display more dealing with virtually complete inca- progressive voting patterns than the pacity. Stanway had to write out his laity. Trinity intended to reverse the response three times before Carson process by sending pastorally effec- could decipher it: ‘There is no future tive, spiritually renewed, theologi- in frustration.’4 cally evangelical graduates into Epis- John Rodgers replaced Stanway copal parishes. as dean and president in November The results were impressive. Over 1978. As a symbol of Trinity’s hard- the next 30 years, the Episcopal Dio- earned acceptance, Episcopal bishop cese of Pittsburgh moved in a mark- Robert Appleyard hosted and partici- edly conservative direction, both at pated personally in the installation the parish level and at the top. The di- ceremony at downtown Pittsburgh’s ocese called theologically charismatic majestic Trinity Cathedral. Three Alden Hathaway—who would have years earlier, Rodgers had shown re- lost the election without the votes of spect for Appleyard by telling him, ‘If Trinity faculty—as bishop in 1981 you don’t want this seminary to start, and, upon Hathaway’s retirement in I won’t come.’ Appleyard had not 1997, chose staunchly orthodox Rob- stood in the way, but neither had he ert Duncan to replace him. Moreover, sent Trinity any ministry candidates from 1984 to 1992 the Episcopal Dio- while waiting for the school to prove cese of Pittsburgh planted nine new itself. Now he told Rodgers that the churches, six of them led by Trinity Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh was graduates. open to him and to Trinity. With that promise of support, and change it helped to produce in the diocese,Trinity as Pittsburghbenefitted providedin turn from a path the graduate in 1979, the school could to ordination for Trinity graduates withembark Trinity’s in earnest first studentson its mission ready toof whose home bishops, viewing them reshaping the Episcopal Church. As as too conservative, had not endorsed historian Jeremy Bonner said of the them as candidates for ordained ministry. since the nineteenth century, an ex- school’spressly countercultural opening, ‘For theseminary first timehad been established under Episcopal IV. Surmounting Tensions auspices.’5 Typically, when religious From its beginnings, Trinity, though organizations drift off their original solidly committed to biblical faith- moorings toward more liberal views, fulness, has had to build bridges between competing views. Some of its early leaders had been deeply impact- 4 A Call to Spiritual Reforma- ed by charismatic renewal (which put tion: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers (Grand D. A. Rapids:Carson: Baker, 1992), 141. 5 Called Out of Darkness: A at odds with the more staid British History of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, theirversion forms of evangelicalof expression Anglicanism); significantly 1750–2006 Jeremy Bonner, (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, others had not. One of the founding 2009), 267–68. trustees objected strongly to the char- 76 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron ismatic practice of seeking baptism in who doesn’t respond to demands. the Spirit subsequent to salvation, ar- If you would like to rewrite this as a guing that it introduced a false, two- discussion piece, the faculty will be tiered view of Christian piety. happy to talk with you.’ ‘We had some very aggressive The hot-button issues on charismatic students who brought campus change over time, but the frequent ‘words from the Lord’ to commitment to collegiality and chapel and prayer meetings’, Rodgers seeking community-wide consensus said. ‘We had to write a manual has not. Thompson encountered a on biblically faithful openness to new area of sensitivity a few years extraordinary gifts.’ ago after a celebrant at a chapel Trinity overcame potential threats service told participants where to to harmony by remaining anchored in take their children should they make classic Reformation doctrine and in- noise during the liturgy. (Ironically, tentionally practicing charity in non- the gospel reading that day was essential matters. ‘Suffer the little children to come unto ‘John Rodgers set the course’, said me.’) The following week, a group of ‘Laurie’ Thompson, a charismatic students brought Thompson a four- Trinity faculty member since 1997 page discussion paper. ‘We discovered and now the school’s dean and presi- that the younger generation is very dent. ‘He developed an ethos early on protective of children’, he remarked. that made us all feel welcome, mak- ‘It became clear that we need to ing it clear that neither high-church include family-focused spaces in our people, charismatics, nor evangelicals long-range planning.’ would be stigmatized.’ At moments of internal tension, Rodgers would call the Trinity com- V. Navigating Disagreement munity to refocus. ‘We knew some- on Gender Roles thing was going on’, Thompson re- The issue of women’s ordination called, ‘when John walked into class aroused particularly strong feelings at Trinity. The Episcopal Church God." We learned to pray.’ had voted to ordain women in 1976. singingTrinity’s "Seek constant ye first theeffort kingdom to keep of For many conservatives, the deci- Bible, tradition, and subjective inspi- sion itself was discomforting but the stated rationale, grounded more in carefully worded motto: ‘Evangelical civil rights than in Scripture or tradi- rationin faith, in catholic balance in order, is reflected Spirit-led in itsin tion, raised deeper concerns that the mission.’ denomination was placing cultural Legitimate differences of opin- considerations above theological in- ion are welcome at Trinity; creating tegrity. disorder is not. Rodgers related one As a widely respected leader who occasion when four female students had supported women’s ordination while bishop of Tanzania, Stanway with a list of written demands. Rodg- established a pattern of openness to cameers gave to histhe office piece and of presentedpaper back him to Christians on both sides of the issue. - Trinity accepted female students into ing calmly, ‘You are looking at a dean all degree programs from the begin- them and defused the conflict by stat The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 77 ning, taking the position that it was a ministry anywhere in the world. He training institution, not an ordaining directed the program as a Trinity body, and would equip all Christians faculty member from 1991 to 2006, for what they felt called to do. What- modelling his curriculum on the ever their personal opinion, all stu- work of Gordon-Conwell Seminary dents grew by interacting with deeply professor Dean Borgman. Whis Hays committed fellow believers who held estimates that more than a thousand a different view. teens found Christ through the re- But keeping the peace wasn’t easy. treats that he and Trinity students co- When Mary Hays arrived as Trinity’s ordinated during those 15 years. - ing pastoral theology, some students firstopposed female to professorwomen’s inordination 1989, teach de- VI. Gracious amidst Division clined to take communion from her Trinity and its faculty played promi- or to attend chapel when she was nent roles in the intense debates that preaching. ‘They would hold their would ultimately divide the Episcopal own morning prayer in the chapel Church. Noll was Trinity’s academic basement’, Hays said, ‘so I had to walk dean in 1987 when the Episcopal right past them to hang up my vest- Church sent proposed new liturgies ments.’ written in inclusive language (i.e., - avoiding the use of male pronouns rience because she understood that when referring to God) to its 11 semi- theHays dissenters endured from that women’s difficult expeordi- naries for comment. ‘If we don’t ex- nation were seeking to follow their press our objections, no one else will’, conscience. She believed in Trinity’s he told the faculty. Noll received ap- mission and was convinced that to proval to write a paper representing function effectively, Trinity needed to Trinity’s views on language for God. be open to multiple points of view. Trinity students also reviewed the lit- ‘The Scriptures are not univocal urgies and submitted their responses, on women’s roles’, Hays stated, ‘so although the denomination declined someone who is thoughtful and biblically grounded could have a different decided not to actually use the texts view from me. I think they are wrong, forto count worship. them officially since Trinity but that is not the same as saying you In the early 1990s, Noll entered the can’t have a different position.’ fray again, drafting a document on the Hays stayed at Trinity for nine Anglican doctrine of Scripture at the years before becoming an assistant request of a Trinity board member to Bishop Duncan; Trinity has had at who was on the Episcopal House of least one woman on its faculty at all Bishops’ theology commission.6 Then times since then. Interestingly, Trin- in 1996, John Howe, Bishop of Central ity got a two-for-one deal when Hays came. At Rodgers’s encouragement, Florida and previously on staff with her husband, Whis, created a youth ministry training organization, Rock 6 the World, and spent two years devel- Stephen Noll, The Global Anglican Commun- ion: This Contending and other for papersAnglicanism are collected1993–2018 in master’s degree program in youth (Newport Beach, CA: Anglican House, 2018). oping what became the first Anglican 78 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron

John Guest at St. Stephen’s, asked Noll Church’s structure of diocesan over- to write briefs for the church trial of sight. But the approval of practicing Bishop Walter Righter, who had been homosexual Gene Robinson as bishop charged with knowingly ordaining a homosexual for ministry. Many con- evangelicals’ desire to pursue new af- servatives in the Episcopal Church of New Hampshire in 2003 solidified believed that the trial was their last In this context, Trinity and its chance to reverse the liberalizing tide filiations.alumni took on an increasingly stra- in their denomination. tegic role. According to Duncan, then Noll prepared two briefs, on church Pittsburgh’s bishop, ‘the national doctrine and church discipline, for leadership exercised by Trinity alum- the Righter trial. He also coordinated ni was such that two-thirds of those Trinity’s response in 1997 when the who were on stage at A Place to Stand Episcopal Church asked seminaries [a fall 2003 conference organized in for their opinion on ‘same-sex bless- response to Robinson’s ordination] ings’ of homosexual couples. were Trinity grads, giving encourage- After Righter was acquitted, con- ment to the more than two thousand servatives in the Episcopal Church orthodox attendees gathered from all began to consider creating alterna- across the United States.’ In 2008, Duncan indicated his in- American Anglican Council in 1996 tention to remove the diocese from tiveto advocate affiliations. for classicalThey had biblical formed doc the- the Episcopal Church and align it with trines, but up to this point they had the Anglican Province of the South- still sought to work within the Episco- ern Cone, which comprised six South pal denomination. Now, increasingly American countries. (Tito Zavala, a viewing that course as fruitless, they Trinity graduate, was Bishop of Chile turned overseas, where their posi- within this province and would serve tions were still overwhelmingly sup- as presiding bishop of the province, ported within worldwide Anglican- now known as the Anglican Church of ism. In fact, the Lambeth Conference South America, from 2010 to 2016.) (the international convening of Angli- Before the diocese could act, the Epis- can bishops, held every 10 years) of copal bishops called a special meeting 1998 had declared homosexual prac- and removed Duncan from his posi- tice incompatible with Scripture by tion. 526 votes to 70. Within two weeks, the Pittsburgh In January 2000, some Anglican Diocese voted 240–102 to withdraw conservatives took a bold step by from the Episcopal Church and align consecrating two Americans, includ- with the Southern Cone; another ing John Rodgers, as missionary month later, it elected Duncan as its bishops under the authority of archbishop. Remarkably, the margin in fa- bishops from Rwanda and Singapore, vor of withdrawal was greater among respectively. The purpose was to of- clergy (79 percent) than among lay fer alternative ecclesiastical over- participants (63 percent). Trinity sight to Episcopalians in the United School for Ministry—which removed States. This action was controversial the word Episcopal from its name in even within conservative circles, as 2007—played a major role in this re- it directly challenged the Episcopal sult. The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 79

Also in 2008, more than a thou- mous in Africa. sand conservative Anglicans met in With Stanway at its helm, Trinity had African connections—and a few Future Conference (GAFCON), with African students—by its second year. JerusalemDuncan representing for the first GlobalNorth AnglicanAmerica Its very early establishment of a two- and Noll serving on the conference’s year master of arts in religion pro- statement drafting committee. GAF- gram, alongside the three-year M.Div. degree required of American semi- the rhetoric had become, explaining narians seeking ordination, helped CON’sthat the website conference reflects occurred how because heated to attract overseas students too. But ‘moral compromise, doctrinal error the global connections mushroomed and the collapse of biblical witness in parts of the Anglican communion had burnished Trinity’s image as the best reached such a level that the leaders asoption ecclesiastical for African conflicts Anglicans in Americawishing of the majority of the world’s Angli- to study in the United States. cans felt it was necessary to take a In 1996, the Archbishop of Uganda, united stand for truth.’ Livingstone Nkoyoyo, visited Trinity and expressed his desire to expand convictions about Scripture, Trinity an existing theological college in his hasWhile always holding sought firmly to serve to evangelical all con- homeland into a full-blown Christian cerned parties with grace. In 1992, it university. In 1997, he asked Noll, invited proponents of a liberal, social Trinity’s academic dean, to become justice–oriented Episcopal magazine, its vice chancellor. Noll said he would The Witness, to celebrate their publi- pray about the possibility, but he and his wife didn’t get around to visiting Trinity, where they engaged in hon- Uganda until two years later. cation’sest but respectful seventy-fifth dialogue anniversary with their at By the end of that trip, they sensed hosts. It remains an approved Episco- that God was calling them. ‘I wrote to pal seminary and continues to receive the archbishop’, Noll explained, ‘say- Episcopal students, although mem- ing that I will come under the con- bers of the Anglican Church in North dition that this will be a Christian America (ACNA), founded in 2009, university not just in name but in outnumber them. substance.’ By fall 2000, he was the Duncan, who served as the ACNA’s vice chancellor of Uganda Christian University (UCU). He would stay for been a Trinity trustee since 1996 and 10 years as the school grew to over firsthas taught archbishop the school’s through Introduction 2014, has 10,000 students on four campuses. to Anglican Worship course since Even though they felt called to 2017. Uganda, the Nolls wondered why; after all, Steve Noll knew how to manage a theological school, but not VII. An Expanded Global departments of engineering, law, or Profile business. But he knew one crucial The tensions within the worldwide thing very well: how to obtain ac- Anglican communion had an upside creditation, which he had overseen at for Trinity that no one could have Trinity. In 2001, the Ugandan govern- planned: they made the school fa- ment passed legislation giving private 80 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron universities a path to accreditation; Macdonald was profoundly shaped three years later, UCU became the by two of Pittsburgh’s most promi- - nent Christian leaders. He grew up at ments. St. Stephen’s in Sewickley and com- firstAt institutionUCU, Noll toreplicated meet the much require of mitted himself to Christ under John what he and his colleagues had done Guest’s youth ministry. During his at Trinity. Departing from the Ugan- college years, he frequently drove dan academic system, which followed 65 miles to the Ligonier Valley Study the British emphasis on college as a Center on summer evenings to learn place for professional specialization, from R. C. Sproul. he introduced four foundation cours- Macdonald enjoyed a highly mis- es in Bible and Christian thought, sion-oriented environment when drawing directly from Trinity’s syl- studying at Trinity in the 1980s, but labus for two of them. ‘The Old Tes- when he returned as a professor in tament course I constructed in 1990 2002, the Stanway Institute’s initial has been taken by hundreds of Ameri- energy had waned. Not until several cans and thousands of Ugandans’, Noll months later, when he inquired about pointed out. taking a group of students to Uganda He also developed an ‘Instrument for short-term mission, did Macdon- of Identity’ document that went be- ald learn that he had a travel budget. yond a simple statement of faith, But after the watershed moment of encompassing morals and spiritu- Gene Robinson’s ordination, forming ality along with essential Christian a network of recognizably orthodox doctrine. He met with each faculty mission agencies that Global South member, just as he had seen John archbishops could trust became a Rodgers do at Trinity, to discuss their high priority. Macdonald became faith commitment and secure their af- Trinity’s ‘secretary of state’, representing the school about six times Noll believes that UCU was only the a year in international contexts and firmationsecond university of the identityin all Africa statement. to take building a huge set of contacts. such steps. The crisis in the Episcopal Church Actions that made Trinity an epi- actually helped Macdonald overcome centre of global mission included the sense of paternalism that often the creation of the Stanway Institute pervades First World mission efforts for World Mission and Evangelism in in Africa. When preaching in Uganda 1989 and the relocation of two mis- shortly after Robinson’s election, sion organizations to Ambridge: the Macdonald said, ‘For decades, white South American Missionary Society Europeans and North Americans have (now the Society of Anglican Mis- told you that they are the experts and sionaries and Senders, with a broader that you need to learn from them. But global reach) in 1988 and the New now I come to you with hat in hand, Wineskins Missionary Network in because you are the guardians of the 1990. John Macdonald, a 1986 Trin- historic, biblical Christian faith. We ity graduate, further invigorated this need your prayers and support.’ emphasis when, after twelve years as Macdonald sees relationships be- a missionary to Honduras, he joined tween American and Global South the faculty in 2002.

Christians as mutually beneficial. On The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 81 one hand, areas of the Global South community leaders would back the where Christianity is growing rapidly project, discovering that coinciden- have demonstrated expertise in evan- tally, an Anglican priest with a similar gelism; on the other hand, Americans vision had been raising animals on a offer a higher level of theological small plot for 20 years to protect it training, which Macdonald considers from Kenya’s land expropriation poli- especially important today as theo- cy. With initial support coming entire- logical liberalism and shallow ver- ly from Trinity students and alumni, sions of the prosperity gospel com- the school opened on that property in pete for adherents. 2011 and now enrols 450 students in grades K-8, about 80 percent of them for Trinity in Africa was Grant LeMar- from Muslim families who value the quand,Another who influentialserved as a ambassadormissionary high-quality education regardless of in Kenya before joining the Trinity its Christian component. faculty in 1998. From 2012 to 2017, In 2016, Qampicha became Angli- LeMarquand was Bishop of the Horn can Bishop of Marsabit. His territory, of Africa (which includes Ethiopia, ironically, bordered that of one of his Somalia, and Eritrea). Stationed near Trinity instructors, Bishop LeMar- Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, he and quand. his wife Wendy, a medical doctor, re- Trinity is also delivering both on- sponded to the spiritual and physi- line and on-site instruction to Nigeri- cal needs of thousands of refugees an theological students in partnership from the Sudanese civil war and es- with the Christian Institute of Jos, Ni- tablished a theological college there. geria, led by Bishop Benjamin Kwashi, LeMarquand has since resumed a Trinity doctoral degree holder and teaching at Trinity. board member. Kwashi has said that Trinity now requires all M.Div. stu- Africans used to aspire to go to Oxford dents to participate in at least one or Cambridge, England for theologi- overseas mission trip, typically two to cal training, but now they all want to three weeks long, which can include drop the C and go to Ambridge. preaching, leading Bible studies for In September 2018, Macdonald adults or children, or mentoring local (newly retired from Trinity and in- ministry candidates. Recent destina- tending to devote himself more fully tions have included Kenya, Tanzania, to international theological training) and Indonesia. In addition, Trinity and Noll met with the archbishop funds scholarships for about eight of Rwanda to discuss revitalizing a international ‘Stanway Scholars’ each seminary there. It was déjà vu for Noll year. when the archbishop said, ‘I want one In 2008, Qampicha Daniel Wario, a of you to be my vice chancellor.’ Stanway Scholar from northern Ken- ya, told a classmate that the best way to bring the gospel to his home com- VIII. Ambassadors for munity would be a Christian school. Anglicanism Too Two years later, they started sharing Trinity’s motto as ‘an evangelical the idea with others at Trinity, and seminary in the Anglican tradition’ interest grew rapidly. Macdonald hints at its dual identity. It promotes evangelical conviction among Angli- travelled to Kenya to confirm that 82 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron cans, but it also promotes the treas- ures of historic Anglicanism to evan- New Testament scholar who has also gelicals, many of whom tend not to colleagueswritten about like hisWesley gay sexualHill, a first-rate orientation and his commitment to celibacy. little value in church history between Scandrett’s efforts to promote appreciate liturgical worship and find traditional Anglicanism and Trinity Trinity upped its game on this in a broader ecumenical context are thefront first in and2012 sixteenth by attracting centuries. the Rob- bolstered by two interesting partner- ert E. Webber Center for an Ancient ships. The North American Lutheran Evangelical Future, named for the late Church, a breakaway from the main- evangelical Anglican theologian and line Evangelical Lutheran Church in long-time Wheaton College professor, America, has its own seminary ad- to Ambridge. ministrative centre collocated with Centre director Joel Scandrett, Trinity; its students are overseen by who also teaches historical theology two Lutheran professors on the Trin- ity faculty, one of whom is the North been ordained by the American An- American Lutheran Seminary’s presi- atglican Trinity, Council was and a perfectplaced under fit. He Rob had- dent. In addition, the Evangelical ert Duncan’s oversight, making him Presbyterian Church’s Presbytery of ‘canonically resident’ in Pittsburgh the Alleghenies has partnered with even before he moved there. But be- Trinity as an approved seminary; yond that, his presence and that of the faculty member and EPC pastor Rich Webber Center have helped Trinity to Herbster serves as director of Presby- strengthen its liturgical formation of terian studies. students, balance the evangelical and ‘The Lutherans are happy because catholic elements of Anglicanism, and we are more sacramental than oth- attract young evangelicals interested er evangelical schools’, Thompson in reclaiming the tradition of the early stated. ‘And the Presbyterians—with church so as to renew today’s church. whom our polity is very much in line The Webber Center holds an annu- except for who has the authority to al Ancient Evangelical Future Confer- appoint pastors—know they are free ence and is also developing resources to express their leadership in their to improve catechesis—that is, sound own style as well.’ - Herbster indicated that the EPC dition, in Christian doctrine and prac- training,tice. Its firmlylonger-term rooted plansin church include tra compatible, geographically conveni- training courses in catechesis and a benefitsent educational from having partner a theologicallythat values lecture series in early Christian stud- the planting of new churches and the ies. intentional training and formation Scandrett sees Trinity as capital- of Christian leaders. ‘They’re not on izing on evangelicals’ recovery of the Canterbury trail’, he said of the the church fathers, an emphasis that approximately ten Presbyterian stu- Evan- dents at Trinity, ‘but they take a great- gelicals on the Canterbury Trail. His er appreciation of liturgical worship Webberwritings prefiguredhave helped in to his raise book Trinity’s into their ministry and their personal visibility in the U.S. evangelical com- devotions.’ munity, along with those of faculty The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 83

IX. Perspectives from Recent palian raised in Connecticut, worked internationally on human rights and Students relief issues and kept running into Austin Gohn graduated from North- people connected to Trinity—Ste- gate High School just outside Pitts- phen Noll in Uganda, a professor at burgh; his father pastored the non- Oxford, Anglican priests in Nigeria. denominational Bellevue Christian When he decided that his human Church, and Austin joined that rights discourse needed stronger the- church’s staff after his undergradu- ological underpinnings, Trinity was ate study. When he began considering the logical choice. seminary and a friend told him about As an Episcopal Church ministry candidate, Osborne represented Trin- out what Anglicans are. ity at various events hosted by other Trinity,Gohn hewanted visited a Wikipediaschool that to findwas Episcopal seminaries, where his ex- theologically conservative but not too periences led him to a surprising con- insular; Trinity met his desires per- clusion: ‘At Trinity, you have the free- fectly, even though his background dom to think differently.’ Some might was so low-church that when Robert have assumed exactly the reverse— Duncan, then ACNA presiding bishop, namely, that freedom of thought came to campus to visit with students, would be more restricted at the most Gohn asked him, ‘What’s a bishop and evangelical seminaries. But Osborne why do we need them?’ observed that whereas the more pro- By his third year, Gohn knew the gressive schools tend to develop their Anglican Book of Common Prayer own orthodoxies to which everyone is well enough to step in and assist with expected to adhere, at Trinity, within leading evening prayers on short the boundaries of classical theologi- notice. He hopes that one day the cal orthodoxy, all economic, political, curriculum might include a nonde- and social views are welcome. nominational track without the cur- Osborne treasured Trinity’s ‘beau- rent handful of required courses on tiful community’ of students who Anglican history and theology. (Pres- lived in low-budget houses all over byterian and Lutheran students avoid town, with their doors open to each that inconvenience because Trinity other and to their Ambridge neigh- offers alternative courses rooted in bours. Some of his classmates took their traditions.) But he has gained people battling addiction into their an appreciation of the liturgical year homes; Osborne volunteered on the that he said will permanently impact his preaching, especially at Lent and and assisted refugees in Pittsburgh. Advent. borough’s‘I heard a beautificationlot of sermons committee at other ‘One of my closest friends in Belle- schools about caring for refugees,’ he vue is an Anglican priest’, Gohn stat- said, ‘but Trinity actually does it.’ ed. ‘My personal network now goes Rosie (last name omitted for se- far beyond my nondenominational curity reasons), a New Zealand na- circles, and I can relate to other Chris- tive, found the healing experience she tian traditions easily because of my needed at Trinity after doing relief Trinity experience.’ and development work in the Mid- Robert Osborne, a cradle Episco- dle East during the Arab Spring up- 84 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron heavals of 2011 and thereafter. She bridge. also appreciated studying at a school Generous scholarship assistance where instructors ‘get emotional in makes Trinity more accessible. The class when talking about the nature of average Trinity student pays less God. It is not just heavy theology—it than one-third of the total tuition touches their heart.’ cost; Justyn Terry, the dean and presi- Because of its focus on training dent before Thompson, energetically Christian mission leaders, Trinity fac- raised funds to provide full-tuition ulty embraced Rosie’s penchant for writing essays as if speaking directly students each year, in addition to the to the Muslims who had asked her scholarshipsoverseas students to five supported new domestic by en- about Christ amidst the Arab Spring dowment monies. ‘It is immoral to turmoil. Trinity challenged her to ‘let send students into ministry with huge the [biblical] text create your world’ rather than the reverse, she said. As - of September 2018, Rosie was return- debt’,erage Rodgersage of Trinity stated students, flatly. Thanks now 34 in ing to New Zealand to be ordained a largeand dropping, part to this is financialmuch lower aid, thanthe av at deacon. In the Anglican tradition, she most seminaries. noted, ‘Deacons take the presence of Christ outside the church. Trinity has prepared me to do that.’ XI. Learning from a Great Ride Trinity School for Ministry happened because gifted people with big visions X. Amazing Growth exercised faith in a big God. But it didn’t come easily. Even John Rodgers, Trinity’s student body is incred- of whom the middle-aged Scandrett Asibly thesediverse student geographically, profiles illustrate,socioeco- said that ‘I want to be like him when I nomically, and denominationally. Its grow up’, could trust God theological- growth has also been impressive. Of- jerked him out of his comfort zone. total enrolment of 199, ranking Trini- ly butStanway not financially lived by untilthe dictumAlf Stanway that ficialty second 2016–2017 behind statisticsonly Virginia indicated among a ‘money follows ministry’—in other words, serve people well and the counts only those enrolled in degree funds will come in. But Trinity has Episcopalprograms; hundreds seminaries. more This participate figure also reduced its dependence on in online coursework or come for spe- money by not spending lavishly. The cial courses during brief sessions in school purchased two buildings in a January and June. humble location and deployed con- The ‘Jan and June terms’ have be- siderable sweat equity to renovate a come effective feeders into the resi- former grocery. Today, Trinity’s three dential programs, as students who buildings plus a chapel across the spend three weeks experiencing the street actually look like a small cam- Trinity community usually want to - come back for more. Short-term visi- ity was a brave outpost amidst urban tors help to sustain a new hotel con- pus,blight. but for the first 20 years Trin structed immediately adjacent to the Unintentionally, the school’s ap- seminary—an economic boost to Am- pearance may have strengthened its The Little Seminary That Could: Trinity School for Ministry 85 spiritual intensity by causing those suspended classes and went to the chapel to pray for a student’s serious- look elsewhere. To paraphrase from ly ill wife (who recovered). Her inter- lessSamuel’s firmly anointing devoted of to David their (1 call Sam to actions with faculty at other seminar- 16:7), some prospective students may ies reinforced her sense that Trinity’s look at outward appearance, but the intense emphasis on prayer and spir- Lord looks for committed hearts. itual formation is both invaluable and Trinity’s story shows that there distinctive. - Many American and European tween spiritual fervor and academic Christians struggle to make mean- isexcellence. no contradiction The quality or of conflict scholars be it ingful investments in economically has consistently attracted to its fac- needy areas of the world without ap- ulty dispels any suspicion that Trin- pearing to be patronizing. This prob- ity maintains an outmoded or anti- lem is particularly acute in theological intellectual worldview. ‘We are not education. In this regard, Trinity has found a silver lining in the unfortu- Rodgers explained. ‘We use critical nate division within Anglicanism, as fightingscholarly contemporarytools, but we do knowledge’, not marry it has enabled Americans who value them to anti-supernaturalist princi- Global South Christians’ upholding of ples.’ In fact, Rodgers turns the anti- biblical orthodoxy to build true part- intellectual arguments against scep- nerships based on mutual apprecia- tics, claiming that ‘there is nothing tion. more ridiculous than a reductionist Finally, Trinity’s history illustrates worldview.’ powerfully that God’s vision is always However, Trinity has looked be- bigger than ours. John Guest, when yond academic credentials and seeking to launch Trinity in 1974, theological orthodoxy, selecting in- envisioned a school that would be a structors who also have a deep pas- credible exponent of evangelical the- toral concern for enabling students ology within the Episcopal Church to apply Christian truth to their own and would function as a school for lives, their ministries, and the society ministry rather than a seminary. That around them. That combination of sounded ambitious enough. But he priorities has enabled Trinity to enjoy never imagined three other things a close-knit learning community from that Trinity has become: a globally its beginning (Rodgers described the - initial faculty as ‘a crazy, happy group, invigorating a struggling community. starting a new thing and believing significant,To John ecumenicalMacdonald, institution this pattern re that the money would come in’) to of God doing more than we could ask today. ‘We had our regular faculty prayer meeting yesterday’, Thompson obedience should be the norm. ‘What said when we interviewed him, ‘and orTrinity think is once now wewas take in God’s the first mind step from of nobody left for ten minutes after it the beginning’, he stated, invoking Old ended. We are a family who care for Testament interpretation to prove each other.’ his point. ‘Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Mary Hays similarly described word is a lamp for my feet, a light on Trinity as a ‘place of prayer’, recalling my path.” Back then, people used oil the occasion when the whole school lamps that only illuminated their 86 Michael King, Bob Jamison, Bruce Barron next step forward; they didn’t have read more like a roller-coaster ride a spotlight showing the whole path. through battle zones—both theologi- We need to keep that visual image in cal and literal—than a smooth path. mind, because that is how the Lord But its people have never lost faith. works.’ They’ve had quite a trip, but God has unmistakably led them at every step.

Actually, Trinity’s first 43 years ERT (2019) 43:1, 87-96 Books Reviewed Philip G. Ziegler Mike Higton and Jim Fodor (eds.) Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic Turn The Routledge Companion to the and the Future of Christian Theology Practice of Christian Theology Reviewed by Brian H. Tung Reviewed by Michael Borowski Hans Boersma John Jusu (ed.) Scripture as Real Presence: Africa Study Bible Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Reviewed by Judith L. Hill Church Keith Ferdinando Reviewed by Kenny Silva The Message of Spiritual Warfare Raymond Ibrahim Reviewed by Tim Stabell Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Stephanie A. Lowery Centuries of War between Islam and Identity and Ecclesiology: Their the West Dario Fernandez-Morera Relationship among Select African Theologians The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise: Reviewed by Gregg Okesson Muslims, Christians, and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain Reviewed by David Upchurch Book Reviews ERT (2019) 43:1, 87-89 Ziegler considers apocalyptic theology to be ‘uniquely suited to articulate the Militant Grace: The Apocalyptic radicality, sovereignty, and militancy of Turn and the Future of Christian adventitious divine grace’, and he sets Theology out to unveil apocalyptic Paulinism in an Philip G. Ziegler ‘ardently Protestant’ way. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018 The work has three major sections. Pb., 238 pp., bibliog., indices First, Ziegler outlines the features of his apocalyptic theology. In chapter Reviewed by Brian H. Tung, PhD 1, he establishes the necessity of an candidate in systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, eschatological dogmatic for Christian Illinois, USA theology. Drawing from Gerhard Forde, Ziegler observes the radical discontinu- In Militant Grace, Philip Ziegler (current- ity introduced by the in-breaking of God ly chair in dogmatics at King’s College, through the death and resurrection of University of Aberdeen) seeks to recover Jesus Christ. Salvation is a divine act that a vision of apocalyptic theology that, turns the world on its head and thus rather than being morosely pessimistic, requires an ‘eschatological grammar’ in is vibrantly committed to the eschato- order to ‘do justice to the very logic and logical content of the gospel of God, who form of divine grace’. Apocalyptic theol- has interrupted the world and over- turned the passing age. In particular, placing Jesus Christ as the crux around ogy flies in the face of historicism by 88 Book Reviews 88 which the ages turn. Lord’s Prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come.’ In chapter 2, Ziegler turns his attention Drawing from Calvin and Barth, Ziegler to the features of a Pauline apocalyptic. notes the eschatological character of A ‘fresh hearing’ of Paul’s apocalyptic the request for God’s kingdom to break tenor will recover the radical nature of into the fallen world. This is a prayer the gospel, focus intently on Christology ‘propelled by grace’ that ‘draws the as its center, emphasize the disjunc- supplicant into an agonistic situation of tive nature of salvation, account for the spiritual and moral struggle’. redemption of humanity from the pow- Closing his thematic explorations, Zie- ers of sin, death, and the devil, see the gler explores judgement unto eternal life cosmic scope of salvation, and anticipate in chapter 7. Both Jüngel and Moltmann God’s ultimate victory over the powers connect divine justice to eternal life, see- which oppose him. In part two, Ziegler engages in thematic ultimate defeat of death itself. Rather explorations of apocalypse. Chapter 3 thaning that ‘being the merelyfinal judgement a retrospective involves the explores the apocalyptic nature of the cementing of the fates’ of human beings, ‘the last judgment is actually another God’s people into ‘the present struggle decisive step in the outworking of God’s betweenkingship theof Christ, old and finding new ages’ that itas directs people gracious salvation.’ claimed by divine love, dispossessed The concluding section explores various from the world and conscripted into implications of apocalyptic theology God’s service. for Christian living. Chapters 8 and 9 the Christus victor model of redemp- law, which ought to be located under tionChapter through 4 argues apocalyptic for the sufficiencyradicalization. of theexamine redemption ramifications and lordship regarding of Christ natural A broader understanding of Christ’s rather than the doctrine of creation. Do- victory does justice to the full range of ing so imbues the teaching with greater salvation themes in the New Testament ‘dogmatic density’, setting it near the when theological anthropology is sub- heart of the gospel and anchoring Prot- sumed under an apocalyptic cosmology. estant ethics in the reality of the world ‘Salvation comes on us as liberation that, that is being recreated by divine grace, precisely because it translates the sinner as opposed to abstract notions of ideal from one sphere of lordship to another, behavior. gives radical evangelical substance to Chapters 10 through 12 present three lenses through which to discern an new life.’ apocalyptic ethic: Calvin on moral Chapternotions of5 reorientsforgiveness, the justification, Reformed doc and- agency, Kierkegaard’s inverse dialectic, trine of effectual call as not merely an interior work of the Spirit but also an in- concludes by highlighting apocalyptic dication of his triumph by the enactment theology’sand Bonhoeffer emphasis on justification. on the Christian Ziegler life of a faithful confession (1 Cor 12:1–3). as discipleship, as the Christian faith- Effectual call, therefore, is apocalyptic in fully inhabits ‘the world being remade that the creature shares in divine victory by the living lordship of Christ’. through the gift of the Spirit and demon- Militant Grace deserves great commen- strates it through public declaration. dation. Ziegler’s erudite and clear prose Chapter 6 engages in an apocalyptic enhance his insightful and provocative reading of the second petition of the exploration of apocalyptic Paulinism. Book Reviews 89

This book can be heartily recommended sense located in the author’s intention. for the seminary context (especially Second, reading is a transformative courses on soteriology and eschatology) process in which we participate with as it will undoubtedly stoke spirited and God morally and spiritually. Third, the depth of our Christian maturity impacts variety of topics. Regardless of the ex- the results of our biblical interpreta- tentfruitful to whichtheological one agrees reflection with on Ziegler’s a wide tion. Fourth, history is an indispensable construction and applications of apoca- dimension of interpretation, because lyptic theology within the Protestant God’s providence ensures the sacra- context, Militant Grace is a thoroughly mental presence of heavenly realities stimulating read. in earthly events. Modernity, with its Even so, a word of caution is necessary: (anti)-metaphysical commitment to while this work will surely whet one’s naturalism, cannot abide such a thor- appetite, it might not fully satiate due to oughly enchanted world. the constraint of space. Ziegler is well Boersma then proceeds to expound the aware of this limitation and offers ad- many facets of sacramental exegesis. He ditional avenues of exploration through- draws from a broad sweep of patristic out the book. But this is not a critique; sources: Athanasius, Augustine, Basil the rather, it indicates the promising theo- Great, Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, logical soil that has yet to be tilled and Melito of Sardis, Origen and more. While calls for the apocalyptic task to continue. not glossing over the legitimate differ- Only time (and much more research and ences between interpreters, Boersma writing!) will determine the ultimate labours to show that they all share a success of this venture. I, for one, will be common sacramental sensibility. The anxious to see what comes next. distance between Antiochene ‘literalism’ and Alexandrian ‘allegory’, in particular, is not as great as many have been led to ERT (2019) 43:1, 89-90 believe. Scripture as Real Presence: Rather than pinning sacramental Sacramental Exegesis in the Early exegesis down with a single descriptor, Church Boersma devotes chapters 2 through 10 to describing the many forms this Hans Boersma reading of Scripture took among the Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017 church fathers and could take today: Hb., 316 pp., bibliog., indices literal, hospitable, other (i.e. allegorical/ typological), incarnational, harmonious, Reviewed by Kenny Silva, PhD student in systematic theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois, USA Boersma’sdoctrinal, nuptial, readers, prophetic given the and modern beatific. Hans Boersma, J. I. Packer Professor of sensibilityPerhaps the he most wishes significant to redress, form is forthe Theology at Regent College, calls for a Fathers’ version of ‘literal’ reading. A retrieval of the sacramental hermeneu- common misconception surrounding tic that drove patristic exegesis. In his premodern exegesis is that there was introductory chapter, he lays out the little concern for the literal meaning of four main features of this sacramental a text and its historical referent(s). As approach to reading Scripture. First, Boersma shows in chapter 2, however, meaning must not be limited to a single both Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine 90 Book Reviews evinced a clear concern for the literal obedience of Christ, but does that entail sense in their commentaries on creation. the adoption of a Christian-Platonist However, they understood that literal metaphysic? Must a world in which sense much more broadly than we do Scripture’s readers participate with God today. covenantally also be one in which all For moderns, the literal sense refers to things participate with God sacramental- what lies behind the text. For premod- ly? Boersma, it seems, would answer in erns, however, it more fully considers the text’s divine referent: ‘only by taking of his hope for retrieval is the convic- the affirmative. Indeed, the very ground into account the theological subject mat- tion that patristic exegesis ‘is based on a ter of the text can one do true justice to theologically informed metaphysic that the literal meaning of the text’ (28). This is—to put it bluntly—true’ (275). For conviction demands a thick conception of the literal sense such that clean lines vision for ressourcement without jetti- readers who wish to affirm Boersma’s between it and the ‘spiritual’ senses (i.e. soning their reservations about Platonic allegory, anagogy, tropology) cannot eas- - ily be drawn. wise helpful jar of ointment for biblical interpretersmetaphysics, in this both is thethe flychurch in an and other the Boersma proposes not so much an academy. exegetical method as an interpretive sensibility—a mode of reading that takes seriously the participatory reality ERT (2019) 43:1, 90-92

Although such a metaphysic would be Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen consideredin which we odious find ourselves to modern and sensibili the text.- Centuries of War between Islam ties, it nevertheless describes the real and the West Raymond Ibrahim very heart of sacramental reading is New York City: Da Capo Press, 2018 theworld conviction as we find that it inChrist, Scripture. from whomAt the and through whom and to whom are 334 pages all things, is the treasure hidden in the The Myth of the Andalusian all Scripture—including the Old Paradise: Muslims, Christians, Testament (Irenaeus; cf. Matt 13:44). and Jews under Islamic Rule in Insofarfield of as the written word participates in the divine Word, Christological read- Medieval Spain ing is both good and necessary. Dario Fernandez-Morera Scripture as Real Presence is as im- Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2016 pressive in its scope as in its depth. 358 pages Boersma’s presentation of the Fathers’ Reviewed by David Upchurch, M.Div., sacramental reading betrays an apolo- retired secondary school history teacher getic thrust; it regularly challenges our and retired U.S. Army chaplain modern assumptions and asks whether they comport with the realities in- scribed in Scripture. could have been ‘1,400 Years of Jihad To that end, I highly recommend this againstThe subtitle the West’. of Ibrahim’s The author fine historytells us - not only of the importance and military tion. Boersma is right to take every strategy of eight ‘turning-point’ battles, hermeneuticalbook, but with athought word of captive qualifica to the but also of the motivations and eth- Book Reviews 91 ics of Christians and Muslims in these raping their women, enslaving those me a far greater appreciation of the whoma ‘win-win’ they scenario.conquered By and killing enriching infidels, courageconflicts. and Ibrahim‘s boldness writing of those has present- given themselves with loot, they would win day Muslims who have renounced jihad, - seeking religious tolerance and an end ing, because they were engaged in jihad, to persecution of non-Muslim religions. theyin an would earthly immediately sense. If they go died to paradise fight These Muslims wrestle with a cultural history that has been consistently and them. profoundly hostile to the non-Islamic Thewhere resulting similar style fleshly of rewardswarfare wasawaited ruth- world. less, brutal and barbaric. Muslims used A one-page map near the beginning of terror tactics such as mass beheadings the book shows the extent of Islamic and impalings to discourage their en- conquest of formerly Christian lands, emies. They deceived, agreed to treaties along with the areas raided for plun- they had no intention of keeping, and der and slaves during the last fourteen at times even feigned conversion to centuries. That map alone is worth the Christianity when it suited their pur- price of the book for its boldness and poses. Ibrahim argues persuasively that clarity. Beginning in the Arabian desert regardless of their tribal background or in the seventh century, continuing as far the particular Muslim ruler, all Muslims north and west as Tours in north central consistently used the same rationale and France in 732, and including the reduc- approach to conquest. Ibrahim gives two compelling illustra- have suffered from astounding brutality tions of Muslim beliefs and practice. andtion destructionof Vienna to in rubble Allah’s in wars. 1683, infidels First, Islamic rulers during their centu- Sadly, as Ibrahim also points out, the ries of rule in Iberia became noticeably Christian response to jihad has itself ‘whiter’ with each generation. Originally been immoral at times. In fact, Thomas Aquinas composed his now-famous white concubines for their harems. They rules of just warfare while wrestling eitherfrom North enslaved Africa, whites they from preferred within infidel, with this problem. or near their territories or purchased Ibrahim, a Hoover Institution scholar, them from Viking raiders who captured writes from primary sources, many of them from northern Europe. Addition- which he translated from Arabic. He ally, white slaves from conquered Slavic quotes contemporaneous accounts of Europe were so popular that the etymol- the battles he describes, including both ogy of the English word slave Muslim and Christian sources on the millions carried off from this region. same events. The considerable agree- As a second example, in the 1683 reflects siege the ment between these sources lends weight to the presumption that Ibrahim resistance, used his artillery to reduce understands and accurately depicts theof Vienna city to therubble. caliph, He in then his orderedrage at infidel these events. wave after wave of attackers against the walls. The caliph promised his soldiers the means’ underpinning of all these the spoils of war or paradise, knowing MuslimHis evidence campaigns points against to an ‘ends the West. justifies that eventually, even with the death of When Muslim soldiers were preparing thousands of his own men, the Chris- for battle, their leaders promised them tians would be overwhelmed. Only the 92 Book Reviews last-minute arrival of the Polish Catholic who go against the tide of their own army overcame the attackers and drove history deserve our admiration and our them east toward Constantinople. prayers. The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise provides additional understanding of life during and after the Muslim conquest of ERT (2019) 43:1, 92-93 Spain. Fernandez-Morera, an associate The Routledge Companion to the professor of Spanish and Portuguese Practice of Christian Theology at Northwestern University, addresses the currently widespread notion that Mike Higton and Jim Fodor (eds.) tolerance, creativity and harmony London: Routledge, 2015 characterized southern Spain during the 978-0-415-61736-9 conquest. pp 463, index Contemporary tour guides, historians and politicians often speak of this era Reviewed by Michael Borowski, in history as some kind of golden age ERT Review-Editor and Lecturer in which everyone got along and the in Systematic Theology and Ethics writings of ancient civilization were at Martin Bucer Seminary and the preserved by Islamic scholars. The gross University of Applied Sciences for Public inaccuracy of this view becomes obvious Administration Nordrhein-Westfalen as the author quotes and summarizes (Germany) primary sources and contemporaneous accounts of life in Andalusia throughout Over the last decades, evangelical- the hundreds of years of Islamic rule. ism has spent much time and energy, For example, the routine destruction of churches and the killing of priests and hermeneutics and exegesis. However, justifiably, on the nature of Scripture, monks alone show that harmony did not moving from Scripture to theology is a prevail. The author also demonstrates more complex procedure that calls for that ancient literature was preserved greater attention to the actual practice primarily by Greek and Latin Christian of ‘doing Christian theology’. Mike Hig- monks and scholars; Islamic scholars ton (Durham University) and Jim Fodor learned of it from them. (St. Bonaventure University) edited this book with that purpose in mind, seeking When Ibrahim addresses Moorish rule to address ‘the ongoing habits, the per- in Spain, on several occasions he quotes sisting patterns of activity, involved in Fernandez-Morera and his sources. the pursuit of Christian theology’ (p. 1). Questions regarding how to relate to The book is structured around four present-day Muslims abound in these sources of Christian theology: reason, histories. Muslim religious views justifying jihad against all who oppose Allah Scripture, tradition and experience. As remain very much with us. Indeed, Higton and Fodor readily confess, this according to the Islamic worldview, such structure derives from John Wesley. The conquests please Allah and reward the result is an exciting contribution with conqueror in this life or the next. Both - of these books challenge us to look more nary setting. Each section has a skilfully significant value for an evangelical semi appreciatively at Western civilization composed editorial introduction. and its Christian foundation, as well as In the section on reason, the contribut- to recall that those peaceful Muslims ing authors lay out the nature, relevance Book Reviews 93 and application of reason for the prac- theologians—their particular ques- tice of theology. For instance, theology closes the section by challenging the J. Kallenberg, Nicholas Adams), and churchtions, benefits to take anda bifocal dangers. perspective Paul Murray that itis mustaffirmed be done to be according an argument to certain (e.g. Brad is both empirical and doctrinal, focus- rules of which clarity may be the most sing on a given community’s tradition important (Karen Kilby). Theology and its actual practice. has always engaged with philosophy The section on experience is more through the church’s history, and Oliver extensive than the others, encompassing lays out some of these developments interaction with feminist, black, libera- in one concise chapter. C. C. Pecknold tion and post-colonial theology as well claims that theology can be done in as with the arts and popular culture. the public square even within secular Some of these chapters might lie outside societies, and he outlines an approach the boundaries of evangelical thinking, for doing so. but they exemplify thought-provoking In the next section, the Companion applications of the fourth pillar of Wes- ley’s quadrilateral. Garrett Green opens Scripture, reading Scripture critically yet the section with a chapter on interweav- primarilyaffirms a personal as a means interaction of discipleship with (Fo- ing personal work with one’s theology, dor and Higton). Gerard Loughlin wres- a topic that should stir critical, relevant tles with the quest for the literal sense debates within evangelical settings. of Scripture while seeking to preserve The book seems to be brief in some its sense. Kevin J. Vanhoozer draws on crucial areas; in particular, section two David Kelsey, proposing ways to defend is rather short (but maybe that is actu- doctrine biblically. William T. Cavanaugh ally an advantage for evangelicals, as outlines dangers in applying Scripture to we tend to focus on this area anyhow). political questions (a very timely chap- On the other hand, some included areas ter in particular for evangelicals). were not necessary in my judgement, The section on tradition begins with an particularly in section four. Perhaps essay by Jason Byassee, who presents some examples of drinking from the are quite discrepant with evangeli- ‘well of faith handed on’ that he hopes calmost convictions. significantly, But some that lastchapters feature is will lead to faithful worship by the valuable in a way, because it forces us Christian community. Other questions to engage critically with other theo- posed in this section include the fol- logical constructions. The Companion’s lowing: How and why should we read contributors interact as faithfully as classic texts (Morwenna Ludlow)? How they know how with Scripture and the can we apply creeds and confessions other sources of Christian theology. Such (John Bradbury)? How do we work with interaction is overdue in many parts of tradition that may be damaging in some the evangelical (sub-)culture, and the way (Rachel Muers)? Stephen Plant Companion is a great tool for facilitating addresses interaction with modern these needed discussions. 94 Book Reviews

(The following three reviews are re- tion of a French version of this study printed with permission from BookNotes Bible is anticipated for 2019.) for Africa.) the educational aspects of the ASB. ‘AfricanMore than Touch 2,600 Points’ added correlate features Scrip define- ERT (2019) 43:1, 94-95 ture with Africa in one of three ways: by Africa Study Bible noting biblical references to Africa, by quoting early church fathers who lived John Jusu (ed.) in Africa (such as Athanasius), or by Wheaton, IL: Oasis International, 2016 explaining insights into passages pro- 2144 pp. vided by African culture. Also, each book begins with introductory material about Reviewed by Judith L. Hill, professor of New Testament, Faculté de Théologie the author and the original audience. At- Evangelique de Bangui (FATEB), tached to many passages are application Yaounde, Central African Republic notes, pinpointing relevant implications for daily life in modern Africa. This major production from Oasis African proverbs and stories illuminate International uses the modern New Liv- biblical truths with wisdom passed ing Translation of the Bible (NLT), with down through oral culture. Longer additional expertise from the creators - of the Life Application Study Bible. Valu- terests, such as ‘The Sovereignty of God andarticles Colonialism’ highlight orspecifically ‘African Traditional African in organizing committee members, includ- Beliefs and the Bible’. ‘Learn Notes’ pro- ing variousthe Bible African as the Christianfinal authority, leaders, the vide commentary on various Christian established as a basic principle an intent beliefs (such as ‘The Great Commission’ to mirror the diversity of the church in or ‘Tithes and Offerings’), written from Africa. an African perspective. Theologically, they grounded the ASB on The ASB concludes with an account ‘correct and accepted Christian beliefs … of the history of Christianity in Africa, while allowing for differences in opinion followed by a narrative timeline of God’s on non-essential issues’. The goal was work in Africa from Abraham through to provide a study tool that would 2016. Charts, maps and a Bible reading anticipate and answer readers’ ques- plan contribute further to its overall tions, indicate practical applications and usefulness as a study tool. advice, and explain truths in readable, The long process of evaluating the need culturally relevant ways. for such a study Bible and the many lev- Contributors to this work, from the els of editing have produced a theologi- initial planning through the writing, cally responsible, well-presented tool for translation and editing stages, included African pastors, lay leaders and other hundreds of African pastors, leaders and Christians desiring to understand biblical content and theology while discover- many denominational perspectives. The ing how the Bible relates to everyday 350theologians, contributors from (offifty whom countries sixty-nine and reality in today’s Africa. The abundance were women) composed in English, of study helps and the strong ties to French, Portuguese, Arabic or Swahili, African life make the ASB a unique and and their materials were then translated valuable resource, a basic study guide into English as necessary. (The publica- which can then be complemented by the Book Reviews 95

Africa Bible Commentary (described in lical passages that address the question Hans-Georg Wuench’s article in this ERT of spiritual warfare. Each of the twenty- issue) for deeper insights into biblical one chapters of the book provides texts. in-depth exposition of one such passage. All of this is organized into four parts. In part one, Ferdinando examines passages ERT (2019) 43:1, 95 indicating that even where the enemies The Message of Spiritual Warfare are doing their worst, God remains in control of the situation and will use Keith Ferdinando even enemy efforts to accomplish his London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2016 own purposes. In part two, he discusses 283 pp. the crucial role that Jesus assumes in the battle with the enemy forces. Part Reviewed by Tim Stabell, pastor of three looks at passages on the deliver- Prairie Winds Church in Moose Jaw, ance that believers have experienced Saskatchewan, Canada and instructor at from the powers of darkness, and it then Briercrest Seminary examines our role in bringing the good This book is a robust defence of the news of this deliverance to others still ‘classical’ understanding of spiritual held captive by the enemy. Finally, part warfare. This view stands over against four considers ways in which believers contemporary interpretations that are called to engage in spiritual warfare either take the biblical language of so as not to give ground to their enemies - in their own lives. sions to impersonal, oppressive human Ferdinando’s extensive teaching experi- institutionsspiritual conflict or see as spiritual metaphorical warfare allu ence at Shalom University in the Demo- exclusively in terms of deliverance from cratic Republic of the Congo makes him the power of demons. The classical view sensitive to issues particular to the Afri- can context. Although his emphasis is on believers must engage in as they live in the moral dimensions of spiritual war- afocuses world ratherthat is onin rebellionthe moral against conflict its that fare, he is no rationalist who would deny Creator. the reality of demonic powers or the The enemies that Christians are called to possibility of being possessed by them. resist include not just Satan and his de- He discusses this dimension of spiritual mons, but also their own sinful desires and the temptations or lies that charac- Jesus’ ministry of deliverance. terize the societies in which they live. Thisconflict book particularly is a valuable in the resource chapter for on any who want to deepen their understand- because God himself is committed to ing of this important biblical theme, and In this struggle, they can be confident in particular for those who teach on this enemies and the enemies of his people. topic in contexts where narrower views Ferdinandofighting and hasultimately structured overthrowing his presenta- his of spiritual warfare prevail. - tion around a number of significant bib 96 Book Reviews

ERT (2019) 43:1, 96 and then provides her own suggestions as to how a social identity approach Identity and Ecclesiology: Their strengthens ecclesiological understand- Relationship among Select African ing. Theologians The book is both delightful and rather Stephanie A. Lowery Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2017 analysis and dealing with a thick array 254 pp. ofdense, integrated filled with literature. thoughtful, Its density probing is in some respects intentional, as Lowery set Reviewed by Gregg Okesson, Asbury out with the explicit purpose of integrat- Theological Seminary, USA ing biblical studies, systematic theology, and social-science approaches to the Lowery is a lecturer at Scott Christian study of identity in African ecclesiology. University in Kenya, and this is the Nevertheless, the book is also eminently published version of her PhD disserta- readable. The chapter exploring how tion, completed at Wheaton College in theologians interpret Scripture helps the USA. Here she lays out an impressive to anchor the entire book upon a more historical-theological analysis of litera- empirical framework, unearthing not ture dealing with the subject of identity just what theologians think but also how in African ecclesiologies. She attempts to they actually interpret different biblical make explicit what African theologians mean by identity, especially as it relates passages to make their arguments. It to the church, and in relation to the might be interesting to see whether the social challenges that people experience topic of identity can be discerned not on the continent. only from scholars writing to a global audience, but also through the voice of Lowery begins by charting the theologi- the churches of Africa, with their varied cal terrain in Africa, showing that while theological resources of doxology, song, the topic of community plays such a dance, prayer and preaching. central role on the continent, the theme of ecclesiology is relatively underdevel- This study is the most comprehensive oped. She traces what scholars actually scholarly treatment of African ecclesiol- mean by identity and then examines ogy available today. Lowery effectively how theologians interpret various bibli- trumpets the voices of African theological passages in relation to identity. Five ans for all to hear. But rather than just theologians are reviewed: from Nigeria, summarizing what is already present Elochukwu Uzukwu and Agbonkhian- in the literature, she also integrates meghe Orobator; from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Augiustin Bish- and offers new resources to advance our insights from different fields of study wende and Tire Ande; and from Kenya, appreciation of the multifocal nature of Paul Mbandi. In a concluding chapter, identity in African ecclesiology. Lowery analyses all these writers’ works