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Chapter 23 CHRISTOLOGY LUTHER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD TRADITIONAL DOGMA In all essential points christological dogma was not a matter of dispute between Ludier and Rome. Within the various Reformation groups diere were certain dif­ ferences, as especially between Ludier and Zwingli over die doctrine of die Lord's Supper. Neverdieless, die doctrine of die two natures was not in dispute. There were differences regarding die consequences to be drawn from Christology for die Lord's Supper. Even die differences from some of die fanatics on christological questions remained totally widiin bounds. Neverdieless, with reference to Christology, it is somewhat more difficult to trace Ludier's position from a systematic point of view dian is the case widi his adherence to trinitarian doctrine. He obviously affirmed die christological dogma of die ancient church and adopted it in his own formulations of die Credo.' When we search his writings in die order of dieir origin for central christological motifs,2 however, a variety of accents appears. In his early period "Christ is die simul who unites all contradictions: God and humanity, judgment and grace, etc. And he is that, not only as an image or figure of an ultimate unity diat lies beyond him. But he is in trudi diat place where all diese diings and contradictions have found dieir unity!"3 In die indulgence controversy it is chiefly die idea diat Christ is Lord, over die church as well as over every Christian, diat Ludier emphasized in attacking die indulgence doctrine of die late medieval church and die arbitrariness of die papacy ' See the passages cited above, p. 209. 2 M. Lienhard, LuthetiWiiness toJesus Christ, has pioneered in this respect. 'Ibid. ,43. 219 220 LUTHER'S THEOLOGY IN ITS SYSTEMATIC CONTEXT and hierarchy.4 In this attack Luther first gave preeminence to this theme.The theme can also be documented from his early lectures, so that they may not merely be claimed for the view that God always acts hiddenly under his opposite. At the same time, in the dispute widi Rome, the theologia crucis took on sharp profile, particu­ larly in the Heidelberg Disputation* but also in die Explanations of the Ninety-jive Theses.6 This means diat die theologia crucis cannot at all be viewed as an early form of Luther's dieology, where possible to be dubbed "pre-Reformation."7 In die Lord's Supper controversy Luther more precisely developed his view of die presence of Christ's body and blood "in, widi, and under" die bread and wine, and in diis context set fordi his "doctrine of ubiquity," a furdier development of die traditional two-natures doctrine. Alongside diese motifs we need to consider die numerous christological state­ ments and aspects contained in Ludier's lectures, in his sermons, in die postils, in his translation of die Bible, and not least in his letters of pastoral care. Here he adopted essential features of die Christology of Augustine and of Bernard of Clairvaux, not to speak of late medieval passion piety.8 Above all, he appropriated die various chris­ tological statements of die New Testament.9 In view of diis variety of motifs, which can scarcely be outbid, it would be arbi­ trary to declare diis or diat idea as original, from which dien all furdier ideas devel­ oped or derived. Ludier's devotion to Christ was so central and at die same time so closely linked to die entire christological tradition diat a wealdi of features had been integrated from the outset, and from which one or the other for various reasons assumed center stage. If we mention first Ludier's acceptance of ancient church dogma, it is not to support die view that he assumed die ancient church's "dieology of mysteries," in order then to insinuate his own christological ideas.I0 Similarly, we should not adopt 4 See Lohse, Lathers Christologie im Ahlassstreit, 287-99. 5 LW, vol. 31, pp. 39-70; WA 1, 353-74; Studlenausgabe 1, 186-218. 6 IH( vol. 31, pp. 83-252. WA 1,525-628. 7 It was the abiding service of the work of Walther von Loewenich, Luther's Theology of the Cross, trans. J. A. Bouman (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1976), to have pointed this out. 8 More detail in Martin Elze,"Zuge spatmittalterlicher Frommigkeit in LuthersTheologie,"Z7WC 62 (1965), 381-402; idem, "Das Verstandnis der Passion Jesu im ausgehenden Mittelalter und bei Luther," in Geist und Geschichte der Reformation: Festgabefur Hanns Riickert zum 65. Geburtstag (Berlin: de Gruyter...

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