-
8. Identity: ''Both Sinner and Justified''
- Augsburg Fortress Publishers
- Chapter
- Additional Information
8 Identity: “Both Sinner and Justified” The doctrine of justification is regarded as the article by which the church stands or falls—articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae. In the Orthodox churches this place seems to belong to the Eucharist. Roman Catholic theology would point to the centrality of orders for ensuring that the church stands and does not fall. The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification subscribed to by the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation in was thus on a slippery slope from the outset, since in Roman Catholic understanding the article on justification can never be the sole foundation on which the church “stands or falls.” But that was Luther’s conviction: if the church ceases to communicate the message of justification it has lost its very essence, its right to exist. In the message of justification the true church finds its identity. Certainly as regards the Lutheran churches as well one may ask whether this is a realistic view. The message of the justification of the ungodly is by no means central to their thinking and acting. In the nineteenth century the doctrine of justification for the most part led only a shadowy existence. In the twentieth century, especially in its second half, there were repeated attempts to make it comprehensible and present it as central, but thus far with limited success. The efforts of the world congress of the Lutheran World Federation in Helsinki in remained as ineffective as the theological discussions connected with the joint declaration. Apparently people in church and society nowadays have different issues. Contemporary Questions The difficulties begin with the terminology itself. The word “justification,” as a theological concept, has long since departed from everyday language. Its original meaning belonged, in fact, to the juridical context; in the Middle Ages “justification” was understood to mean the making and application of 157 158 The Theology of Martin Luther law, which could certainly include the carrying out of a verdict. Theologically, “justification” is an artificial term, both in the rare usage in koine Greek of the word dikaiøsis (which appears only twice in the New Testament itself) and in its Latin equivalent, iustificatio. Translating the Confessio Augustana into modern Greek for the purpose of the exchange of letters between the Tübingen theologians and Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople required the creation of a special term. At present the term “justification” is scarcely usable outside professional vocabularies . Moreover, the theology of justification depends on intellectual and philosophical presuppositions that apparently no longer exist, or at any rate not as a matter of course. It presumes faith in a personal God who demands a reckoning of human beings and confronts them after death with a “last judgment .” The eschatological horizon that represented a given for late medieval Christians has been almost entirely lost to many people today, including those associated with the church. The “last judgment” is no longer something they think about, scarcely even “eternal life.” If at all, the idea of a reincarnation in which the karma built up in the previous life is worked off, or of Allah, “the compassionate, the merciful” (Qu’ran, Sura ), refined into the image of a fundamentally loving and forgiving God, seems more plausible. The result for human self-understanding is that they no longer need feel obligated to give account to a superior authority, but are instead to affirm and realize themselves within the limits of the given. They see themselves in the best case as responsible to themselves, their fellow human beings, possibly also coming generations and the environment. Judgment on their actions, insofar as they do not allow it to be given by other people or by society, must be formed by themselves. In the social realm people speak of the necessity of legitimation, which in some sense adopts a concern of the old concept of justification. It is a matter of justifying oneself for particular behavior or attitudes; to that extent the pressure for legitimation is universal. Depending on particular ethical or ideological givens, the need for legitimation of one’s own behavior may be greater or less. Even one’s existence may require legitimation: what about the rights of unborn life or the claims of handicapped and aged human beings? There may be specific measures needed to legitimate the right to life of unproductive, suffering people. But one scarcely expects to find...