Luther on the Christian Life by Carl R. Trueman (review)

Yet another book about Luther and his theology? Why bother? I decided to write a review for two reasons; first, the title is similar to the subtitle I used for my book, Ordinary Saints: An Introduction to the Christian Life, one that incorporates more than ethics into its concerns and I wanted to see how he handled them; and second, it was written by a young Reformed professor and pastor from Scotland who is also something of a hero to American evangelicals. The book promised to look at Luther from a different angle, which was highly praised by Robert Kolb in the Foreword and Martin Marty in the Afterword. All that made the book intriguing.

The author is Carl Trueman, currently a professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary and pastor of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Since earning his Ph.D. in 1991 from Aberdeen in Scotland, he has been incredibly prolific, having written sixteen books on a wide variety of subjects. In this book he writes on Luther from a Reformed perspective but to an evangelical readership—an interesting mix.

He begins with a brief sketch of Luther’s own Christian life but then immediately focuses on what he thinks is central to Luther: his work as a theologian of the cross. Whenever I hear that phrase, “theologian of the cross,” I worry that it is used as a “brand marker” that superficially depicts Luther and Lutheranism as some sort of masochistic enterprise. That worry was misplaced in this case, because Trueman gets it right. God makes himself weak and vulnerable in his revelation in Christ, subject to abuse and death at the hand of the powers of evil. “This transformed everything for Luther. Both theological language and human expectations of God are inverted by the great inversion of the cross. God’s strength is revealed in God’s weakness; and we are declared righteous extrinsically even as we are intrinsically sinful.” (76)

From that pivotal chapter Trueman takes up Luther’s thought by organizing it into categories that are fresh and a bit unusual for a Reformed theologian: theology of the Word preached; the liturgy of the Christian life; freed from Babylon—baptism and the mass; life and death in the earthly realm; and life as tragedy, life as comedy. Running through all these subjects is Trueman’s persistent emphasis on the objectivity of Word and Sacrament in Luther’s thought, and his insistence that the Christian life is characterized above all by clinging in faith to their objectivity. Time and again he challenges evangelicals to overcome their reliance on subjective religious experience and heed the objectivity of God’s revelation in Word and Sacrament. Although Trueman himself claims he cannot follow Luther in his high view of the sacraments, it is clear that he understands Luther’s teaching on them. Indeed, he explicates them so clearly without reservation it is hard to detect where he might disagree.

Another plus for the book is that Trueman is attracted to the man, Luther, and gives us a vivid account of that volcanic man, warts and all, but with a lot of charm in between. I learned a number of new details in the unfolding of Luther’s life, namely that he and Katy had stools built at the door of their home so that they would engage in conversation in the morning and evening as he left and returned to their home.

I was disappointed that the book mostly focused on what I would call preparation for the Christian life rather than that life itself. He has only one chapter on vocation. But that is a small complaint. The book is an excellent account of Luther and his thought, one that I will use as a text in one of my courses on Christian ethics. It is appropriate for use at the upper levels of college and seminary. Lay study groups would find it edifying with a bit of professional help. I commend it...