The Pastoral Luther: Essays on Martin Luther's Practical Theology (review)

This volume brings together essays first published in Lutheran Quarterly that deal with Martin Luther's pastoral theology and experience. They are directed not to a small group of scholars but to a more general audience, particularly Lutheran clergy and church workers with a professional interest in practical theology within the context of their own religious tradition. Luther's pastoral theology is a topic that has attracted increased interest in recent years, and several of the articles introduce or summarize the contents of more specialized studies by the same authors.

Wengert's introduction gives an overview of Luther as pastor and describes the book's five sections. The sole article in the first section, "The Theological Heart of the Pastor," explains Luther's theology of the Cross (Robert Kolb) in a way that contemporary American readers can understand. The three essays in "Preaching the Living Word" consider Luther's view of language and communication (Vitor Westhelle), his humor (Eric Gritsch), and his understanding of how God communicates through preaching (H. S. Wilson). "The Teaching Ministry" opens with a general overview of Luther on education (Robert Rosin). This is followed by five articles topically related to the parts of the catechism (only baptism is missing). Wengert includes two of his own essays, the first describing Luther's approach to explaining the Ten Commandments and the second examining how Luther's own experience of prayer informed his discussion of prayer in the Large Catechism. Charles P. Arand describes how Luther's explanation gave a Trinitarian structure to the Apostles' Creed; Reinhard Schwarz discusses the significance of Luther's understanding of the Lord's Supper as Christ's testament, and Ronald K. Rittgers uses a controversy in Nuremberg to illustrate the ambiguous place that private confession held in early Lutheran theology. "The Pastor and the People's Piety" contains articles discussing Luther's view of the Virgin Mary (Beth Kreitzer) as well as of Eve and women more generally (Mickey L. Mattox). Robin A. Leaver discusses Luther's view of music; Christoph Weimer describes how Lucas Cranach's altarpieces reflected the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith, and Jane E. Strohl describes Luther's pastoral advice on suffering in an early treatise written for Elector Frederick the Wise. Finally, "The Pastor in the World" has essays on Luther and monasticism (Dorothea Wendebourg) and on Luther's changing view of the responsibility of secular authorities for religion (James M. Estes).

Scholars will regret that the book has neither an index nor a bibliography, although this may not be so important for general readers. More unfortunate is the lack of illustrations, not only of the woodcuts described in Schwarz's essay on the Last Supper but also of the two types of images that Cranach developed to portray the theme of justification.

The essays tend to stress either the historical or the more abstractly theological, and several of them have at least the implicit goal of showing how Luther's insights might be helpful for Lutheran pastors in the twenty-first century. Wengert's articles are the most successful at meeting the volume's goal of joining historical and theological analysis with practical and pastoral relevance. The articles on preaching tend more toward the abstract and so are of less interest to historians. Those on confession, the Virgin Mary, and monasticism are most pertinent as contributions to ecumenical dialogue by shedding light on the complexity of Luther's teaching on issues that still divide Catholics and Lutherans.