In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • An Uncompromising Gospel: Lutheranism's First Identity Crisis and Lessons for Today by Wade Johnston
  • Mark Mattes
An Uncompromising Gospel: Lutheranism's First Identity Crisis and Lessons for Today. By Wade Johnston. Irvine: New Reformation Publications, 2016. 113 pp.

Wade Johnston, Assistant Professor of Theology at Wisconsin Lutheran College, offers a popular exposition of Lutheran identity.

In his first chapter Johnston interprets two of Luther's most important writings, the Heidelberg Disputation (1518) and The Bondage of the Will (1525) in order to show that Luther develops a theology of freedom. Counter to the medieval and Roman Catholic supposition that we must acquire merit before God, we learn in the Heidelberg Disputation that even our best cannot earn us status with God. Indeed, God does not need our good works (though our neighbor does need them). Instead, what God wants is to claim sinners as his own. But the only way for that message to hit home to sinners is for them to despair of themselves, helping them see by means of the accusations of the law that they have nothing of their own, not even their best, that could count before God. But in the gospel we learn that God takes sinners, adopts them into the story of Jesus Christ, crucifies but also raises them in Christ, and so justifies them.

Against Erasmus, Luther teaches in the Bondage of the Will that humans think that they are free since they make their own decisions. If we are not free, then we can hardly be held accountable for our behavior. But Luther shows that the core of our alleged "free will" is nothing other than our own self-will. Exercising the will does not make people to be free but instead only re-enforces that the will is nothing other than an expression of the self. Again, God's purpose in giving the law, ultimately, is for no other reason than to work such self-despair that Christ alone is proven to be the only path to freedom. As Johnston explains,"… it's not mostly grace, but all grace" (43).

Having staked out Luther's theology of the cross, Johnston in chapters two and three deftly presents and analyzes the disputes that arose amongst Luther's and Melanchthon's disciples: the Adiaphorist, Synergistic, Osianderian, and Schwenkfeldian Controversies. In each, Johnston underscores the historical events and theological underpinnings that led the Reformers' students to disagree. Crucial [End Page 222] to these debates was the fact that the Holy Roman Emperor wanted to re-establish Roman Catholicism in those territories which had become Lutheran. Additionally, in contrast to Luther, Melanchthon by 1535 had wanted to affirm a role for the will in conversion which significantly contributed to the strife. Johnston points behind the scenes to the steady work of Matthias Flacius who supplied a way to respond to Melanchthon's attempt to retrieve a free will in spite of the fact that the authors of the Formula of Concord ruled out Flacius' perspective on original sin, in which nothing good remains in human nature. Given the fact that the Concordists acknowledged the will as an "instrument" but not a "cause" of conversion (Epitome II.18, 494), their views were influenced by Flacius.

Johnston's final task is to make the core identity of Lutheran theology relevant to today's parish. What is clear for Johnston is that there is no place for self-righteousness in the Christian community. God's mercy equalizes sinners. Counter to so many views of the faith, God's Spirit seeks not to transform sinners into something far better through a program for self-improvement, but instead to make them altogether new (83).

At its best, Wisconsin Synod theology has teeth. No doubt that is due to the fact that it feels so strongly about grace. Johnston bears that mantle ably in this volume.

Mark Mattes
Grand View University, Des Moines, Iowa
...

pdf

Share