Commemoration of Martin Luther: Doctor and Confessor . . . Why is Martin Luther One of the Greatest Theologians in the Church’s History?
Lutheran theologian Hermann Sasse answers the question well:
“Why is Luther the greatest in what has been a long line of teachers in the church who have proclaimed the Word of God from generation to generation? It is because none of the others understood the Word of God so profoundly. The Word of God is greater than human words, which have limitations. The time will come when nobody remembers Homer, or Shakespeare or Goethe, but the Word of God will endure forever. Human words can certainly accomplish much – the command of a powerful ruler or of a general can decide the fate of nations, but sooner or later their power ceases to be. No mere human word is almighty. But God’s Word is always living and active because it is the Word of the eternal, almighty God, the Word through which all things were created. It is the Word of the Judge of all who live. It is the Word of forgiveness, the Word of redemption, the Word which no human word can contradict. It is the Word which, as John says, has become flesh in Jesus Christ. He is himself the eternal Word of God; ‘his name’, it is written in Revelation (19:13), ‘is called the Word of God’. To proclaim the Word of God is to proclaim Jesus Christ. ‘To him all of the prophets bear witness’, according to the apostle Peter (Acts 10:43). ‘We preach Christ crucified’ says Paul in regard to the preaching of the apostles (1 Cor 1:23). He, Jesus Christ, is the content of the church’s preaching – that he is the Redeemer and the Lord is the proclamation of the teachers of the church from its very beginning. That is the message which has been handed down from one generation to another. The proclaimers come and go, but the proclamation itself remains the same: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. That and nothing else is the content of the Christian proclamation. Luther again and again reminded the church of this – a church which had forgotten it, and indeed which had almost buried the one Word of God under so many human words of religion and philosophy.
Luther is one of the great Christologists, the great witnesses to Christ in the church. Like the great theologians of the early church – an Irenaeus or an Athanasius – he stood in reverence before the great mystery of God’s revelation: ‘the Word became flesh’ (John 1:14); ‘great is the mystery of godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh (1 Tim 3:16). All of his life Luther stood prayerfully and reverently before the incomprehensible mystery of the person of Jesus Christ, ‘where God and man meet and all fullness appears’. What the Greek fathers of the 4th and 5th centuries acquired by deep study of Holy Scripture with reverent and prayerful meditation, what the ancient church confessed in her ecumenical councils and stated contrary to the reasoning of philosophy – that Jesus Christ is true God, God from God, Light from Light, very God of very God, of one being with the Father, and at the same time true man – Luther thought through these powerful truths and took them even further in his theology in connection with the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. However, he tried to speak of these things so clearly and simply that even the simplest Christian – yes, even a child – could grasp them. ‘He whom the world could not contain, lies on Mary’s lap. He who upholds all things becomes a little child’. That is the teaching of Nicea. Or we think of how Luther expressed the doctrine of Chalcedon, the teaching of the two natures of Christ, in his catechism – ‘I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord…’ This explanation of the second article of the creed has been called by some the most beautiful sentence in the German language – it is the most beautiful sentence in the German language, but not only because of its structure, which reveals a master of language, but also because of its content. Here we find the eternal Word of God, the eternal Gospel: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.
From a sermon given on Reformation Day 1943 in Erlangen, Germany.
HT: Pastor Mark Henderson
This is quite good. I could add that Luther understood the task of theology as primarily one of knowing God and then answering theological questions. This is what Sasse referred to as “reverent and prayerful meditation.” He stood under the Scriptures because he stood under God Himself and therefore understood both.
This is, by the way, why the apostles and most especially Jesus, were the greatest theologians ever. Not because they were smarter than other people, but because they knew God. Jesus’ own answers to theological questions in the Gospel show Him not only answering with clever reason, but most importantly answering from His deep, personal knowledge of the Father and all things.
He recovered the method of the Church’s proclamation.
The Church had tried to force the cross to answer within this or that metaphysic, within this or that epistemology, within this or that logic, within this or that ethic, and so on. But then everything became nauseating speculation that turned ordinary people away from Jesus, and then from philosophy, and then back to Paganism.
When the cross is forced to explain itself in, say, metaphysical terms, metaphysics are never forced to explain themselves in cross terms. When the cross is forced to explain itself in epistemological terms, epistemology is never forced to explain itself in cross terms.
All this is solved by Luther’s theology of the cross (besides all the other things this theology solves that are more commonly known). By “theology of the cross” I do not mean what men, though theologians, say of the cross. Hallesby says of it, “I do not mean now what men say of the cross, but what the cross says of men.” (Religious or Christian, Augsburg edition, p. 110.) The cross speaks.
The cross is the totalizing category. Metaphysics exist, if at all, within the category of cross. Epistemology exists, if at all, within the category of cross. The cross speaks of everything, and everything is what the cross says it is.
Luther re-revealed that the cross, along with being the redemptive acts of the Persons of the Trinity and the way of Christian life, is a word. The cross speaks. This is the condition of proclamation.
@George
George,
Mention of the connection between the Word of God and meditation in Luther reminds us that as well as effecting a ‘Copernican revolution’ in theology by placing the Gospel squarely in its centre, he also re-oriented Christian spirituality back to a focus on knowing God through meditation on the Word. Until Luther medieval spiritual theology was largely absorbed by apophaticism and strongly coloured by the neo-Platonism of the pseudo-Dionysius. Luther returned spirituality to a Biblical basis. It is particularly important that we follow in his steps today in what is increasingly a neo-Gnostic spiritual atmosphere.
Thank you, Pr Henderson, for mentioning apophaticism and pseudo-Dionysis. This gave me an avenue for further study. An article on Wikipedia (which I realize can be flawed and badly) says, “Pseudo-Dionysius is quoted by Thomas Aquinas 1,760 times in his Summa Theologica.” The author cites for that proposition Bishop Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Church, London: Penguin Group, p. 73, ISBN 0-14-020592. While I have works by Ware, I don’t have that one and have not been able to check it. But if that number is even in the ballpark, you probably would know already whether pseudo-Dionysius has a prominent part in Thomism. Can you tell me if that is so? If so, in turn then, what would you say is the impact of that part of Thomism on the present state of Roman Catholicism?
T.R.,
That is indeed an interesting area of research. Firstly, in regard to Wikipedia, I find it a good and handy reference source but you’re right, you do need to check the references. Now, I’m no expert on Aquinas but I have read him and I think that figure would be in the ballpark. The thing about Aquinas is that he is a great synthesiser of what went before him; so, in regard to apophaticism, yes it’s there in his theology, but he also attempts to balance it out by allowing for the God who reveals himself through his word. This synthetic methodology has certainly shaped Roman Catholicism even into the modern period, not least because Aquinas is their model theologian. Also to be considered in this area is the impact of John of the Cross, who might be called the “doctor of spiritual theology” in RCism, who certainly allows apophaticism a great role (dark night of the soul). As for the present state of RCism, they are struggling with their revisionists also, but if the conservatives win theat struggle, which they look like doing, I think we will see reassertion of Thomism with its apophatic-cataphatic mix – in fact, we already are, and it has been simmering away for decades. It’s important to note, I think, that this approach means that RCism can absorb just about anything and “Christianize” it!
From a different perspective, I look at the date of Herman Sasse’s sermon here and marvel at how such solid Lutheran, Biblical theology could still find voice and audience under Hitler at that time. I’ve become a bit foggy about the historical details of church life in Germany during the throes of WWII, but as we face the growing potential for some serious “throes” of our own maybe not too far down the road, we pray that such voices will not be silenced or cowered into compromise in such times.
Jon Rupprecht
Perhaps I’m posting the obvious, but the commemoration of Martin Luther yesterday marked the anniversary of his death on February 18, 1546, 467 years ago.