Lutheran Theology

A Grammar of Faith

Kirsi Stjerna

• Publisher: T&T Clark
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780567686749
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Theology

This textbook explores the Lutheran theological tradition. Kirsi Stjerna looks at Lutheran sources, vocabulary and focal points through the lens of the Augsburg Confession and the Large Catechism, developing a distinctive Lutheran faith language that resonates with contemporary contexts and inquirers. Lutheran Theology gives students the tools they need to understand Lutheran perspectives in the light of historical sources, to see the underlying motivations of past theological discourses and to apply this knowledge to current debates. Introducing the Book of Concord and Martin Luther's freedom theology, it shows them how to engage critically and constructively with key topics in theology and spirituality, such as freedom and confession. Stjerna pays particular attention to the contribution of women theologians, and empowers students to bring Lutheran theology into conversation with other faith languages and traditions. This textbook includes an extensive range of pedagogical features:
- A discussion guide for each chapter
- Chapter-specific learning objectives
- Key terms in bold, boxed text sections that identify points of debate, discussion of central topics, study questions and a glossary

1

Introduction

Reorientations in the Junction of Past, Present, and Future

Students on our Berkeley campus are invited to study Martin Luther’s theology and the Lutheran confessional texts from the sixteenth century as building blocks for their fresh constructive theologizing, courageous proclamation, and compassionate spirituality. Be it their first encounter or not, students are often pleasantly surprised how relevant they may find these sources and many of the questions elaborated in them. Theological time-traveling can be enthralling! With first-hand engagement with historical texts, they can experience the benefit of maintaining intellectually and spiritually stimulating conversations across the centuries. With the commitment to free Lutheran theology to be a transformative power in the world today, critical and creative engagement with the historical works in informative and free conversations can powerfully equip new voices to contribute, in their turn, to the layers of Lutheran theology and hermeneutics.

In the twenty-first-century contemporary context, many of the haunting problems of the Western Christian theologies have been amply identified, e.g., the past predominance of white and male voices, prioritizing heteronormative and binary thinking, Christian theologies’ role in different forms of oppression and unjust distribution of resources, the anti-Semitic elements imbedded in biblical hermeneutics and Christian proclamation, and human-centered ideologies and practices that endanger the entire creation. There would be a plenty of reasons to reject the past, start afresh, and pursue entirely new paths in theological discourse and spiritual seeking. Some feminist scholars have chosen this path, to the point of suggesting an entirely new vocabulary even. Another temptation is to stay with the old shoes and not get the blisters with trying new ones, to use a mundane metaphor. Yet another is to look into the theologies of the past with a clinical descriptive or historical analytical lens, without attempting to connect with contemporary questions too much, to avoid the terrible sin of anachronism! It makes a difference whether one aims to read historical sources as something strictly belonging to the past, or to hold onto them as guiding documents today, or to explore them as worthy of live engagement for developing historically respectful yet forward-looking faith talk for the present. In this book, the main interest is in Lutheran theological language and how it resonates today, in conversation with the sixteenth-century documents.

In this book, I wish to invite the readers to engage Lutheran faith talk with their feet in both worlds, history and today, and with eyes toward the future. Without attempting to develop a brand-new faith language with no roots, but rather responding to the need to communicate, critique, and reconstruct particularly Lutheran theological language in ways that respond to contemporary questions and experiences, I have chosen a middle path: to look into the roots of Lutheran theological language and its sources, to honor the work of the faith ancestors, but to do so in the spirit of reforming theology, to identify in the inherited legacy the ingredients that are still helpful and worth further kneading, as well as to note the unhelpful—or tainted—ones.

The title Lutheran Theology identifies the specific historical roots of the tradition and the sources addressed here. It also indicates my conviction and hope that there is space, material, and a rationale for a theology called Lutheran. The book is prepared especially keeping those readers in mind who are preparing themselves to lead Lutheran faith communities or speak Lutheran language in their vocations, but also those who wish to explore the dimensions of Lutheran theological language on their own and find support in their desire to clarify their own positions. Assuming very little previous knowledge, and drawing from the lively classroom, I have crafted the book as an accompaniment for those in the beginning stages of their journey.

The texts in the Book of Concord are an obvious start to explore the foundations of Lutheran theology. The 1580 collection of the confessional texts has served the Lutherans over the centuries by giving coherence to their theological voice and their faith communities worldwide. At the same time, most Lutherans would hardly know to speak to its importance, if even able to name it; many have probably never even opened the book. The texts are more familiar for the teachers of the faith and for those interested in the study of the Lutheran doctrine. That said, for any reader they offer a substantial exposure to what Lutheran theology has meant in the past, as well as a springboard for Lutheran faith language for today and tomorrow.

The sources in the Book of Concord are still named as the guiding foundation for Lutheran proclamation, ministry, and spirituality globally speaking. By themselves, they serve as a helpful introduction to the Lutheran ways of theologizing and hermeneutics and to understanding how Lutheran Christian expressions of faith in communities and in private lives have been organized and guided since the sixteenth century. For contemporary uses as a source for critical reflection for what the word “Lutheran” means today in theological discourse and spirituality, they are limited if left standing on their own; they need reinterpretation in new contexts and with new readers.

Over the centuries, strong traditions have developed about the accurate interpretation of the Lutheran sources, and Lutherans have found themselves in endless debates about the meaning and parameters of genuinely Lutheran perspectives and practices. This reality manifests itself in the differences between the diverse live Lutheran constituencies around the world. Time has come to break free from such binds and take a fresh look, and not just one but several looks, with new questions and new partners. This book is one such look and an invitation for further discourse.

In terms of understanding Lutheran faith communities and commitments today, the sixteenth-century sources give an orientation into why and how Lutherans got to be the way they are, theologically speaking. They also provide stimulus to constantly reconsider the Lutheran pillars and emphases in theology, as well as to reckon the growing edges of that tradition today, especially in the company of other religious traditions that offer vitally important illumination on shared matters that matter. In this book, I hope to present the historically formative Lutheran texts as helpful sources for developing contemporary faith languages that can equip individuals and communities with theological clarity for themselves and toward developing transformative theologies that can nurture church communities, individuals’ spiritualities, as well as theological imagination vis-à-vis the care of the common affairs in the world.

In the following pages, the main texts engaged are the Augsburg Confession and Large Catechism, both included in the Book of Concord. The topics arise from the texts, particularly the Augsburg Confession, while their explanation involves Luther’s insights from the Large Catechism and, to a lesser degree, from his Smalcald Articles. Other texts from the Book of Concord are included in various places, but only modestly so. The red thread throughout the discourse is Luther’s theology, rather than an even treatment of all the texts in the Book of Concord.

This is so for many reasons. For one, the texts and the theological visions contained in the Book of Concord have their roots in Luther’s teachings, which are explicitly clarified, extrapolated, and debated in the sources included in the collection of the confessional texts. Second, the Book of Concord is more historically bound as a whole, and especially so its uses in the beginning decades of the Lutheran movement, particularly in Germany, whereas Luther’s voice offers the sustained melody (so to speak), which can speak beyond the geographical, linguistic, and cultural locations of the first Lutherans. Theologically and historically, Luther is the unifying voice for Lutherans, with his reformation calls and freedom theology, the interpretation of which has only multiplied and which lives on in many expressions. That said, the organization of the topics arises from the Augsburg Confession, the first shared public exposition of Lutheran theology as a rationale for sweeping church reforms, and the text still used as the most authoritative guide for Lutheran ministries today.

The Word “Lutheran”

Throughout the book the word “Lutheran” is used broadly to speak of a tradition and viewpoints that draw from the legacy of Martin Luther and are associated with faith communities that bear the name Lutheran. The word is employed also when referring to the developments in the Reformation era, even if the term “evangelical” would be most historically accurate, as the sixteenth-century Protestant Christians were identified as evangelicals for their emphasis on the gospel and grace in their proclamation, in distinction from the Catholic teaching of salvation and Christian life. Originally a slandering label from the opponents, the word “Lutheran” was nothing that Luther himself would have welcomed. Apropos, while the term “Lutheran” stuck, the word “evangelical” is used as an adjective in the names of many Lutheran churches around the world. (The word in these cases has a different meaning from, e.g., what it means with the North American faith communities categorized as expressions of evangelical Christianity with a fundamentalist bending.¹)

The word “Lutheran” calls for a rationale in contemporary religious parlance.² Why call oneself or a denomination Lutheran, why not Christian or Protestant or evangelical or something else? One reason for these questions is the religious situation of the day. The word “Christian” itself requires explanation, just as different expressions of Christian faith face the challenge to argue for their distinctive contribution amid different world views and in relation to other traditions. Naming is not insignificant in this process.

With the word “Lutheran” the roots go back to the sixteenth-century Europe and to the teachings of Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German ex-monk and a Catholic priest, a biblical scholar, a professor, and a father of six children and a husband of Katharina von Bora, a theologian and a reformer. Given that he lived and wrote in a particular cultural, geographic, and linguistic context, what would be the rationale or benefit, or problem, of continuing to use the word “Lutheran”? In testing the relevance of the term, different paths could be taken. First, one could revisit the story of Luther and see what in his experience as a human being and a spiritual seeker resonates with individuals today. Second, one could look at the decisions Luther and his peers had to make with their eyes toward the future, as they set the foundations for (what they understood as) a new expression of the ancient Christian faith. Lutherans today stand on those shoulders, for better and for worse. Third, one could consider Luther’s theological vision and assess to what extent it can feed theological imaginations for the future. Fourth, one could begin new conversations with the sources that have historically shaped the Lutheran tradition and take another look in an effort to communicate what is so distinctive and promising about Lutheran religious language and orientation. Last but not least, one needs to address the negative connotations of the word “Lutheran” specifically vis-à-vis the history of anti-Semitism. These possible paths have shaped the decisions made in the creation of this book.

The Plan

In the following, Part One starts with an encounter with Luther via a chronology and a synopsis of his theology from one of his most influential treatises. Part Two offers an orientation to the Lutheran confessional sources and the guiding principles in Lutheran hermeneutics around the central doctrine of justification. Part Three engages the Lutheran confessional sources for critical reflection on the fundamentals of faith and to lay out a current working-grammar for Lutheran theology, mainly employing the Augsburg Confession and the Large Catechism and the topics they address.

The main sources engaged are the most recent English edition of the Book of Concord, by editors Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2000) and the revised or retranslated Luther’s texts in The Annotated Luther, Vols. 1–6, eds. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, and Timothy J. Wengert (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2015–17). The latter, with the annotated texts that aim for inclusive translations, is recommended for the Large Catechism and Smalcald Articles.³ In light of the intended classroom uses of this book, only English sources are referenced and recommended, and quite frugally so. Those aiming for in-depth scholarship on Luther or the confessional texts will naturally consult the texts in their original languages.⁴

In the end, brief conclusions are offered about the promise of Lutheran theology particularly as a freedom theology. The bibliography lists the sources used and those recommended for further reading. Each chapter ends with guiding questions for discussion and review, keywords, and reading suggestions from the sources.

 

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¹ The word “evangelical” in particularly American context is used to refer to those often charismatic groups or fundamentalist movements among Protestant Christians who are oriented with the gospel of salvation by the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the infallible authority of the Scriptures, and personal faith commitment and experiences.

² In total, in 2019, about 83 million people were members of Lutheran churches, in over 100 countries, with over 230 church bodies worldwide that identify as Lutheran about 1 percent of the world’s population. Also, 75 Lutheran church bodies worldwide were members of the World Council of Churches. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF, since 1947) gathered 75.5 million Lutherans worldwide, in 99 countries, with 148 member churches, 2 associate member churches, 10 recognized churches and congregations, and 2 recognized councils. The International Lutheran Council (ILC, since 1993) had 7.15 million members, with 54 member churches. (United Nations, “Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Population Division,” in World Population Prospects 2019.)

³ The Book of Concord, eds. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert et al. (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000) and The Annotated Luther, Vols. 1–6, gen. co-eds. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015–17). For the Smalcald Articles and Large Catechism, and Small Catechism, texts from The Annotated Luther are used. Also for other texts, when available, The Annotated Luther translations are used. For LC and SA quotes, references to the Kolb and Wengert edition are given in the footnotes for the readers’ benefit.

⁴ The German/Latin edition is the foundation for critical work on the confessions; see Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, hrsg. Irene Dingel (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014). For Luther’s works, Luthers Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 65 vols. (Weimar: H. Böhlau, 1883–1993) (abbreviated WA) is the standard source and also the basis for the revised English translations in The Annotated Luther, which aims to facilitate access to Luther scholarship for those who operate with other languages.

PART ONE

Partnering with Martin Luther

2

Martin Luther’s Voice as the Foundation

Martin Luther’s life and works would require their own treatment.¹ Simply for the purposes of orienting the reader to the study of Lutheran theology with the sixteenth-century confessional texts, a brief introduction is offered to Luther as a reformer par...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents 
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• Part One: Partnering with Martin Luther
• Part Two: Lutheran Confessions—A Road Map
• Part Three: Lutheran Faith Language—An Orientation
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint