The theology of Martin Luther was instrumental in influencing the Protestant Reformation, specifically topics dealing with justification by faith, the relationship between the Law and Gospel (also an instrumental component of Reformed theology), and various other theological ideas. Although Luther never wrote a systematic theology or a "summa" in the style of St. Thomas Aquinas, many of his ideas were systematized in the Lutheran Confessions.
"This one and firm rock, which we call the doctrine of justification," insisted Luther, "is the chief article of the whole Christian doctrine, which comprehends the understanding of all godliness."[1]Lutherans tend to follow Luther in this matter. For the Lutheran tradition, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is the material principle upon which all other teachings rest.[2]
Luther came to understand justification as being entirely the work of God. Against the teaching of his day that the believers are made righteous through the infusion of God's grace into the soul, Luther asserted that Christians receive that righteousness entirely from outside themselves; that righteousness not only comes from Christ, it actually is the righteousness of Christ, and remains outside of us but is merely imputed to us (rather than infused into us) through faith. "That is why faith alone makes someone just and fulfills the law," said Luther. "Faith is that which brings the Holy Spirit through the merits of Christ".[3] Thus faith, for Luther, is a gift from God, and ". . .a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it."[4] This faith grasps Christ's righteousness and appropriates it for itself in the believer's heart.
Luther's study and research led him to question the contemporary usage of terms such as penance and righteousness in the Roman Catholic Church. He became convinced that the church had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity — the most important being the doctrine of justification by faith alone. He began to teach that salvation is a gift of God's grace through Christ received by faith alone.[5] As a result of his lectures on the Psalms and Paul the Apostle's Epistle to the Romans, from 1513–1516, Luther "achieved an exegetical breakthrough, an insight into the all-encompassing grace of God and all-sufficient merit of Christ."[6] It was particularly in connection with Romans 1:17 "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, to faith: as it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.'" Luther came to one of his most important understandings, that the "righteousness of God" was not God's active, harsh, punishing wrath demanding that a person keep God's law perfectly in order to be saved, but rather Luther came to believe that God's righteousness is something that God gives to a person as a gift, freely, through Christ.[7] "Luther emerged from his tremendous struggle with a firmer trust in God and love for him. The doctrine of salvation by God's grace alone, received as a gift through faith and without dependence on human merit, was the measure by which he judged the religious practices and official teachings of the church of his day and found them wanting."[7]
The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us...Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31).[8]
Law and Gospel
Law and Grace painting by Lucas Cranach
Another essential aspect of his theology was his emphasis on the "proper distinction"[9] between Law and Gospel. He believed that this principle of interpretation was an essential starting point in the study of the scriptures and that failing to distinguish properly between Law and Gospel was at the root of many fundamental theological errors.[10]
According to some interpreters, especially Philipp Jakob Spener, Luther developed the notion of all believers being "part of one body" as a means to claim the priesthood of all believers. While the notion and meaning is somewhat unclear, this concept was clearly developed in opposition against a prevailing medieval division of Christians into "spiritual" (the hierarchy) and "temporal" Christians (the laity). In this view all Christians are "priests" in the eyes of God. This notion is common to all Christian denominations generally labeled as "protestant".
Simul justus et peccator
(Latin simul, "simultaneous" + Latin justus, "righteous" + Latin et, "and" + Latin peccator, "sinner")[11] Roman Catholic theology maintains that baptism washes away original sin. However, "concupiscence" remains as an inclination to sin, which is not sin unless actualized.[12] Luther and the Reformers, following Augustine, insisted that what was called "concupiscence" was actually sin. While not denying the validity of baptism, Luther maintains that the inclination to sin is truly sin.[13]
Simul justus et peccator means that a Christian is at the same time both righteous and a sinner. Human beings are justified by grace alone, but at the same time they will always remain sinners, even after baptism. The doctrine can be interpreted in two different ways. From the perspective of God, human beings are at the same time totally sinners and totally righteous in Christ (totus/totus). However, it would also be possible to argue that human beings are partly sinful and partly righteous (partim/partim). The doctrine of simul justus is not an excuse for lawlessness, or a license for continued sinful conduct; rather, properly understood, it comforts the person who truly wishes to be free from sin and is aware of the inner struggle within him. Romans 7 is the key biblical passage for understanding this doctrine.
Luther also does not deny that the Christian may ever "improve" in his conduct. Instead, he wishes to keep Christians from either relying upon or despairing because of their own conduct or attitude.
18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant's doctrine of radical evil has been described as an adaptation of the Lutheran simul justus et peccator.[14]
Martin Luther's doctrine of the two kingdoms (or two reigns) of God teaches that God is the ruler of the whole world and that he rules in two ways, both by the law and by the gospel.
God rules the earthly kingdom through secular government, by means of law and the sword. As creator, God would like to promote social justice, and this is done through the political use of the law. At the same time, God rules his spiritual kingdom in order to promote human righteousness before God. This is done through the gospel, according to which all humans are justified by God's grace alone.
This distinction has in Lutheran theology often been related to the idea that there is no particular Christian contribution to political and economic ethics. Human reason is enough to understand what is a right act in political and economic life. The gospel does not give any contribution to the content of social ethics. From this perspective Lutheran theology has often supported those in political and economic power.
New Finnish School
Finnish scholarship in recent years has presented a distinctive view of Luther. Tuomo Mannermaa at the University of Helsinki led "The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther" that presents Luther's views on salvation in terms much closer to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis rather than established interpretations of German Luther scholarship.[15]
Mannermaa's student Olli-Pekka Vainio has argued that Luther and other Lutherans in the sixteenth century (especially theologians who later wrote the Formula of Concord) continued to define justification as participation in Christ rather than simply forensic imputation. Vainio concludes that the Lutheran doctrine of justification can deny merit to human actions, "only if the new life given to the sinner is construed as participation in the divine Life in Christ. . . . The faith that has Christ as its object, and which apprehends Him and His merit, making Him present as the form of faith, is reckoned as righteousness".[16]
The Finnish approach argues that it is due to a much later interpretation of Luther that he is popularly known as centering his doctrine of human salvation in the belief that people are saved by the imputation to them of a righteousness not their own, Christ's own ("alien") righteousness. This is known as the theological doctrine of forensic justification. Rather, the Finnish School asserts that Luther's doctrine of salvation was similar to that of Eastern Orthodoxy, theosis (divinization). The Finnish language is deliberately borrowed from the Greek Orthodox tradition, and thus it reveals the intention and context of this theological enterprise: it is an attempt by Lutherans to find common ground with Orthodoxy, an attempt launched amid the East-West détente of the 1970s, but taking greater impetus in a post-1989 world as such dialogue appears much more urgent for churches around the Baltic.[17]
The New Finnish Interpretation has been challenged because it ignores Luther's roots and theological development in Western Christendom, and it characterizes Luther's teaching on Justification as based on Jesus Christ's righteousness which indwells the believer rather than his righteousness as imputed to the believer.[18] Kolb and Arand (2008) argue that, "These views ignore the radically different metaphysical base of Luther's understanding and that of the Eastern church, and they ignore Luther's understanding of the dynamic, re-creative nature of God's Word."[19] In the anthology Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther the topic of Osiandrianism is addressed because the Finnish School is perceived as a repristination of Andreas Osiander's doctrine of salvation through Christ's indwelling the believer with his divine nature.
Demonology
Luther continued a tradition of Christian engagement with the demonic from his medieval predecessors. For instance, during his Table Talks, he references Mechthild of Magedburg's The Flowing Light of the Godhead, an example of the pre-reformation piety which Luther was immersed in that associate the Devil with excrement. Luther references Mechtihild's work, suggesting that those in a state of mortal sin are eventually excreted by the Devil.[20] Joseph Smith states that Luther's advice regarding the Devil, is "that one should address the devil as such" quoting:
"Devil, I also shat into my pants, did you smell it, and did you record it with my others sins?’ (Tischreden 261,b)
Other instances include him rehearsing medieval scatalogical limericks:
Devil: You monk on the latrine, you may not read the matins here!
Monk: I am cleansing my bowels and worshipping God Almighty; You deserve what descends and God what ascends."[21]
He separately states:
Reader, be commended to God, and pray for the increase of preaching against Satan. For he is powerful and wicked, today more dangerous than ever before because he knows that he has only a short time left to rage.[21]
Althaus, Paul. The theology of Martin Luther (1966) 464 pages
Bagchi, David, and David C. Steinmetz, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Reformation Theology (2004) 289 pp.
Bainton, Roland H. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (1950) 386 pages
Bayer, Oswald, Martin Luther's Theology: A Contemporary Interpretation (2008) 354 pages
Brendler, Gerhard. Martin Luther: theology and revolution (1991) 383 pages
Gerrish, B. A. Grace and Reason: A Study in the Theology of Luther (2005) 188 pages
Kolb, Robert. Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method: From Martin Luther to the Formula of Concord. (2005) 382 pp.
Kramm, H. H. The Theology of Martin Luther (2009) 152 pages
Lehninger, Paul. Luther and theosis: deification in the theology of Martin Luther (1999) 388 pages
McKim, Donald K., ed. The Cambridge companion to Martin Luther (2003) 320 pages
Osborne, Thomas M. "Faith, Philosophy, and the Nominalist Background to Luther's Defense of the Real Presence," Journal of the History of Ideas, Volume 63, Number 1, January 2002, pp.63–82
Paulson, Steven D., Luther for Armchair Theologians (2004) 208 pages
Trigg, Jonathan D. Baptism in the theology of Martin Luther (2001) 234 pages
Wengert, Timothy J. The Pastoral Luther: Essays on Martin Luther's Practical Theology (2009) 380 pages
Zachman, Randall C. The Assurance Of Faith: Conscience In The Theology Of Martin Luther And John Calvin (2005), 272pp
Notes
↑ Herbert Bouman, "The Doctrine of Justification in the Lutheran Confessions," Concordia Theological Monthly 26 (November 1955) No. 11:801. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2009-03-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
↑ Herbert J. A. Bouman, "The Doctrine of Justification," 801-802.
↑ Martin Luther, The Smalcald Articles in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 289, Part two, Article 1.
↑ Ewald Plass, "Law and Gospel", in What Luther Says: An Anthology (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), 2:732, no. 2276
↑ Olli-Pekka Vainio, Justification and Participation in Christ: The Development of Justification from Luther to the Formula of Concord (1580) Studies in Medieval and Reformation Traditions (Leiden: Brill, 2008). p 227
↑ Diarmaid MacCulloch, "Protestantism in Mainland Europe: New Directions," Renaissance Quarterly, Volume 59, Number 3, Fall 2006, pp. 698-706
↑ William Wallace Schumacher, "'Who Do I Say That You Are?' Anthropology and the Theology of Theosis in the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa" (Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 2003), 260ff.
↑ Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand, The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2008), 48
↑ Mechthild of Magdeburg, Das fliessende Licht der Gottheit ("The Glowing Light of the Godhead"), Chapter 3, 21 in Schmidt, Joseph with Mary Simon. "Holy and Unholy Shit: The Pragmatic Context of Scatological Curses in Early German Reformation Satire". In Fecal Matters in Early Modern Literature and Art: Studies in Scatology. Edited by Jeff Persels andRussell Ganim, 109-117. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2004. see page 170 EPUB edition
1 2 D. Martin Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Tischreden [Table Talk], vols. I -6 (Weimar, 1912-21). WAT no. 2307; 413, 14-19; 1531. in Oberman, Heiko Augustinus. Luther : Man Between God and the Devil New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. page 154,
Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians. It emphasises the sovereignty of God and the authority of the Bible.
Justificatio sola fide, meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches. The doctrine asserts that it is on the basis of faith that believers are made right of their transgressions of the law of God rather than on the basis of what Paul calls "works of the law", sometimes called good works. This forgiveness is known as "justification". In classical Lutheran and Reformed theologies, works are seen to be evidence of faith, but the works themselves do not determine salvation. In contrast, the Methodist doctrine affirms a belief in justification by faith that offers God's forgiveness, but holds that holy living with the goal of Christian perfection (sanctification) is essential for salvation.
In Christian theology, merit is a good work done that is "seen to have a claim to a future reward from a graceful God". The role of human merit in Christian life is a point of dispute between Catholics and Protestants.
In Western Christian theology, grace is created by God who gives it as help to one because God desires one to have it, not necessarily because of anything one has done to earn it. It is understood by Western Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people – "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God.
The five solae of the Protestant Reformation are a foundational set of Christian theological principles held by theologians and clergy to be central to the doctrines of justification and salvation as taught by the Reformed and Lutheran branches of Protestantism and Pentecostalism. Each sola represents a key belief in these Protestant traditions in contradistinction to the theological doctrine of the Catholic Church, although they were not assembled as a theological unit until the 20th century. The Reformers are known to have only clearly stated two of the five solae. Even today there are differences as to what constitutes the solae and how many there are, not to mention how to interpret them to reflect the Reformers' beliefs.
In Christianity, salvation is the "saving [of] human beings from sin and its consequences, which include death and separation from God" by Christ's death and resurrection, and the justification following this salvation.
In Christian theology, justification is the event or process by which sinners are made or declared to be righteous in the sight of God.
Sanctification or in its verb form, sanctify, literally means "to set apart for special use or purpose", that is, to make holy or sacred. Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or process of being set apart, i.e. "made holy", as a vessel, full of the Holy Spirit of God. The concept of sanctification is widespread among religions, including Judaism and especially Christianity. The term can be used to refer to objects which are set apart for special purposes, but the most common use within Christian theology is in reference to the change brought about by God in a believer, begun at the point of salvation and continuing throughout the life of the believer. Many forms of Christianity believe that this process will only be completed in Heaven, but some believe that complete holiness is possible in this life.
As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In Protestant Christian doctrine, the term "assurance", also known as the Witness of the Spirit, affirms that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit allows the Christian disciple to know that he or she is justified. Based on the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, assurance was historically a very important doctrine in Lutheranism and Calvinism, and remains a distinguishing doctrine of Methodism and Quakerism, although there are differences among these Christian traditions. Hymns that celebrate the witness of the Holy Spirit, such as "Blessed Assurance" are sung in Christian liturgies to celebrate the belief in assurance.
This is a sub-page for the Justification (theology) page.
Imputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology proposing that the "righteousness of Christ ... is imputed to [believers] — that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of Jesus' righteousness that God accepts humans. This acceptance is also referred to as justification.
In Protestant Christianity, the relationship between Law and Gospel—God's Law and the Gospel of Jesus Christ—is a major topic in Lutheran and Reformed theology. In these religious traditions, the distinction between the doctrines of Law, which demands obedience to God's ethical will, and Gospel, which promises the forgiveness of sins in light of the person and work of Jesus Christ, is critical. Ministers use it as a hermeneutical principle of biblical interpretation and as a guiding principle in homiletics and pastoral care. It involves the supersession of the Old Covenant by the New Covenant and Christian theology.
Lutheranism as a religious movement originated in the early 16th century Holy Roman Empire as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The movement originated with the call for a public debate regarding several issues within the Catholic Church by Martin Luther, then a professor of Bible at the young University of Wittenberg. Lutheranism soon became a wider religious and political movement within the Holy Roman Empire owing to support from key electors and the widespread adoption of the printing press. This movement soon spread throughout northern Europe and became the driving force behind the wider Protestant Reformation. Today, Lutheranism has spread from Europe to all six populated continents.
The doctrine of the Trinity, considered the core of Christian theology by Trinitarians, is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325 in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings. The most widely recognized Biblical foundations for the doctrine's formulation are in the Gospel of John.
Free grace is a Christian soteriological view that anyone can receive eternal life the moment they believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Free Grace advocates believe that good works are not the condition to merit, maintain, or to prove eternal life, but rather are part of discipleship and the basis for receiving eternal rewards.
In Christian theology, good works, or simply works, are a person's (exterior) actions or deeds, in contrast to inner qualities such as grace or faith.
Tuomo Mannermaa was professor emeritus of ecumenical theology at University of Helsinki. He is known especially for his theological criticism of the Leuenberg Concord and his research on the relationship between justification and theosis in the theology of Martin Luther. His initiating and furthering this research caused him to be regarded as the father of "The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther" or "the Finnish School of Tuomo Mannermaa".
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying with the theology of Martin Luther, a 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched the Protestant Reformation. The reaction of the government and church authorities to the international spread of his writings, beginning with the Ninety-five Theses, divided Western Christianity. During the Reformation, Lutheranism became the state religion of numerous states of northern Europe, especially in northern Germany, Scandinavia and the then Livonian Order. Lutheran clergy became civil servants and the Lutheran churches became part of the state.
Sola gratia, meaning by grace alone, is one of the five solae and consists in the belief that salvation comes by divine grace or "unmerited favor" only, not as something earned or deserved by the sinner. It is a Christian theological doctrine held by some Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, propounded to summarise the Protestant Reformers' basic soteriology during the Reformation.
The two kinds of righteousness is a Lutheran paradigm. It attempts to define man's identity in relation to God and to the rest of creation. The two kinds of righteousness is explicitly mentioned in Luther's 1518 sermon entitled "Two Kinds of Righteousness", in Luther's Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians (1535), in his On the Bondage of the Will, Melanchthon's Apology of the Augsburg Confession, and in the third article of the Formula of Concord. It is also the implicit presupposition governing Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian as well as other works.
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