The Word of the Cross

Martin Luther's Heidelberg Disputation

Charles Edward Fry

• Publisher: 1517 Publishing
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781945978180
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Konfessionen

A True Theology for the Twenty-First Century. “He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.
The law says, ‘Do this’ and it is never done. Grace says, ‘Believe in this’ and everything is already done.” These and other truths were presented by Martin Luther in his 1518 Heidelberg Disputation. The ideas presented would comfort and give clarity to the consciences of many; yet they would eventually disturb and challenge the foundation of the medieval church. In The Word of the Cross: Martin Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, Charles Fry presents a theological and historical exposition of this important document, explaining what Luther taught at Heidelberg and why it was so important to him—and to us. The ramifications of his argument have everything to do with the course of human history and with the trajectory and comfort of our own lives. May Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation be understood, and treasured in our own day for the theological health of Christ’s Church. May it raise up a generation that will boast not in human wisdom and reason, but only in the word of the cross—Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

1

Introduction

On the Way to Corinth

“How a revolution erupts from a commonplace event—tidal wave from a ripple—is cause for endless astonishment.”1 So wrote the historian Jacques Barzun as he reflected on the Reformation and western culture’s last five hundred years. The “tidal wave” that happened in the sixteenth century was the tearing apart of Europe and the Church that undergirded European society.2 The “ripple” was a relatively obscure monk from Saxon Germany who wanted a calm conscience before the holiness of God’s Law.3

Sixteenth-century Europe was a beehive of spiritual activity, energized by the Church’s belief that human nature was spiritually sick yet able to heal itself. The old Church believed that all people were guilty before God but that by cooperating with an elaborate religious system of works, man could be healed and ultimately stand justified before the majesty of God’s bar. By 1518, this religious system had become a religion of merit, a synthesis of Aristotle and the Bible, and a placing of reason and revelation on equal terms. The name given to this synthesis was scholastic theology. By cooperating with God’s grace and by carefully running through the gauntlet of scholasticism’s subtle theological system, one could shorten time in purgatory on the way to paradise. Gabriel Biel’s (c. 1420–1495) dictum seemed to be ubiquitous: God will not deny His grace to one who does all that is within him. “In accordance with God’s gracious goodness (ex liberalitate), he who does his best in a state of nature receives grace as a fitting reward (meritum de congruo).”4

Because of belief that human nature is sick but able to be healed, the Roman Church that dominated European society clung to the centrality of the Mass, purgatory, indulgences, the penitential system, relics, and a host of other means to appropriate God’s help. God’s grace was the medicine that enabled one to become attractive in His sight; human works of condignity and congruity were the means by which the medicine of His grace was appropriated. Such “loveliness,” then, made one acceptable to God. Therefore, as Euan Cameron observed with a subtle understatement, “traditional Europe was a busy place.”5

If the sixteenth-century Western church declared human nature to be merely sick, Martin Luther (1483–1546) declared the human heart to be spiritually dead, unable to will or to contribute one spark toward salvation. Humans were entirely dependent on the free and sovereign grace of God—a work that had its source entirely outside of a person, found only in the person and work of Christ. Aristotelian scholasticism was for Luther an illusion, a speculative sham. No human reason or works of the Law could be rendered to make man worthy in God’s sight—even works done with God’s help. God simply could not be known by human reason, wisdom, or merit. Man’s will itself was not free, Luther declared. Comparing Luther to Augustine, Diarmaid MacCulloch wrote, “Augustine called a human being such as himself ‘a lump of perdition’—a lump of lostness.”6 This concern to see the Church shorn of its misguided confidence in human reason and human works was lodged in Luther’s heart when, on April 11, 1518,7 he left Wittenberg, Germany, to give a disputation to a group of Augustinian monks in Heidelberg.

What is the message of the Heidelberg Disputation, and how did this message differ from the medieval church’s theology? The message of the Heidelberg Disputation is summarized as follows: God is not known by human wisdom, but He is revealed through suffering and the cross. God is not known by human wisdom—that is, by the belief that man can somehow reach God by rendering good works to Him and by a belief that is based on man’s reason or opinion. However, He is revealed through suffering and the cross—that is, as God humbles the sinner and brings a person to the end of human effort, He brings him or her to come to truly know Him by pure grace. And God can only be known in Christ—specifically, Christ crucified.

The Heidelberg Disputation was presented in forty theses on April 268 by Luther’s colleague, Leonhard Beier. The first twenty-eight were theological and the last twelve were philosophical, intended to address what Luther saw as the foundational error in scholasticism. The disputation’s theology would continue to be developed in Luther’s thought and eventually be reflected in the outline of all Protestant theology. Remarkably, this theology would also eventually tear Europe apart.

Three key observations—three subthemes—emerge from this study of the Heidelberg Disputation. First, in 1518, Luther was still developing in his understanding of the gospel; therefore, the Heidelberg Disputation was a transitional work. While his “evangelical breakthrough” had already begun by the time he arrived in Heidelberg, Luther was still “focusing the lens” of his understanding of justification. Second, while in 1518 Luther could not have known his future or the future of western Christianity, the Heidelberg Disputation became a paradigmatic outline of what would later be known as Protestant theology. It is an embryonic representation of the theology that would shape and undergird his remaining life and the future of Protestantism. The third observation is perhaps the most important of the three. In the Heidelberg Disputation, Luther made the claim that human nature is spiritually dead and therefore God cannot be known or approached by anything or any good in us. Salvation is entirely outside of us, found in Christ alone. If this is true, then not only was the entire scaffolding of medieval religion a rusted shamble; every civilization or culture that had built on the belief that human nature is good had built with a presuppositional lie—a rusted shamble. The Heidelberg Disputation gives us a baseline by which we may evaluate all cultures, all ideology, all theologies, and all history.

Chapter 1 presents the flow of the argument of this book as well as a brief review of scholarship that has been done on the disputation. The chapter ends with a study of Luther’s “baseline” for the Heidelberg Disputation: the apostle Paul’s message of the cross as found in 1 Corinthians 1:18–31, which describes the strangeness of the message of the cross and the unlikely people whom God chooses by this message.9 Chapter 2 examines the context of the disputation in the areas of Aristotelian philosophy, scholasticism, mysticism, and Augustine’s theology. Luther’s personal life up to 1518 is also considered. On his way to Heidelberg, Luther had clearly given much thought to these issues and how to untangle the apostle Paul’s message of the cross from the errors of medieval theology and its ensuing scholastic religion of merit.

The third chapter seeks to give exposition to the forty theses in light of the medieval and Renaissance context in which he lived. This exposition shows how the disputation stripped scholastic theology and the religion of his day of all human effort and pride, leaving only Christ. In doing so, Luther echoed Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 1 and defended the power and wisdom of God, which the world considers to be foolishness. Chapter 4 summarizes the arguments of this study by illustrating the development of Luther’s view of the gospel after Heidelberg: How was the Heidelberg Disputation a paradigmatic outline of future Protestant theology? An appendix containing Martin Bucer’s letter about the disputation and a glossary of key terms are also included.

Plowing Hard Ground: What Others Have Taught Us

Jacques Barzun observed, “In the flood of material within even one field, the scholar is overwhelmed. The time is gone when the classical scholar could be sure that he had ‘covered the literature’ of his subject, the sources (once) being finite in number.”10 I have felt this overwhelming sense when writing on Martin Luther, for the sources seem to be unending. However, in focusing on the disputation itself and its immediate context, the sources available in English are significantly reduced. Gerhard Forde noted in 1997 that “the disputation has never received the comprehensive commentary that it deserves.”11 The following list of available sources seeks to share some of the scholarship available for the study of the Heidelberg Disputation—and how this present work has been helped by the men who have plowed hard ground for our benefit. A brief description of each work is also given.

The main primary sources provided for us are as follows: Disputatio Heidelbergae Habita and Probationes, found in D. Martin Luthers Werke 1, Weimar, 1883, 353–374. This was specifically helpful in studying Luther’s teaching on grace (viz., the word infusa). “The Heidelberg Disputation and Proofs,” Harold Grimm (trans.), found in The Annotated Luther, Volume 1: The Roots of Reform, was the main text used for the study of the disputation itself. Luther’s Disputation against Scholastic Theology, presented on September 4, 1517, revealed more explicitly Luther’s objections against scholasticism. This provided much help in learning the context of the disputation. Philip Melanchthon, Loci Communes 152112 was also used. Written three years after the Heidelberg Disputation, this work offered much aid in seeing how the early Lutheran Reformation viewed scholastic theology as well as key figures such as Aquinas, Biel, Scotus, and Aristotle. Another key primary source used in seeing the influences made upon Luther in 1518 was Augustine’s On the Spirit and the Letter (discussed at length in chapter 2), which ran concurrently with Luther...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• The Text of the Heidelberg Disputation
• 1. Introduction: On the Way to Corinth
• 2. Context: On the Way to Heidelberg
• 3. Exposition: “Distrusting Completely Our Own Wisdom . . .”
• 4. Conclusion: Luther after Heidelberg
• Afterword
• Appendix: Martin Bucer’s Letter to Beatus Rhenanus
• Glossary
• Select Bibliography