Luther and the Papacy: Stages in a Reformation Conflict by Scott H. Hendrix (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 148 Cook's insistence on the identity-in-being of Jesus with the Father underscores the fact that it is God himself who is given to us and for us in the incarnation. This concern preserves the important patristic soteriological principle that only God saves us and is a needed perspective if one is to remain true to the New Testament conviction that in Jesus and his ministry God himself is among us and for us. Given Cook's emphasis on the concrete particularity of the historical Jesus, one would perhaps expect some consideration of praxis as the transforming effect of faith in Jesus upon society. Theologians as different as Sobrino and Nolan, who, incidently, begin their christologies with the concrete Jesus, might suggest praxis as an additional ingredient to ihe elements considered necessary in an adequate christology for today. One might add the ingredients of worship and witness too, as in van Beeck's christology. Many will find this work very significant as a review of much contemporary christology and as an aid in introducing graduate level students to a study of Jesus Christ. Cluster of Independent Theological Schools Washington, D. 0. LEWIS s. FIORELLI, 0.S.F.S. Luther and the Papacy: Stages in a Reformation Conflict. By SCOTT H. HENDRIX. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981. Pp. xii + 211. $14.95. Martin Luther's well-known polemics against the papacy, especially during the last years of his life, have been the subject of a variety of studies. Most recently, Remigius Baumer, a Roman Catholic scholar at the University of Freiburg, Germany, presented the view that the young Luther radically changed his mind in 1518-19 from a tolerant, if not propapal , stance to a deep personal hatred of the papacy as the embodiment of the anti-Christ in his time (Martfo Li~ther und der Papst, 1970). In contrast to Baumer, Hendrix, who is Associate Professor of Church History at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminarv in Columbia, N.C., concentrates on the question of Luther's motive. Why did Luther attack the papacy~ The answer to this question evolves in the carefully argued thesis of the book that Luther's opposition to the papacy is dee-ply grounded in the conviction that the p0pes and other ecclesiastical officeholders did not exercise their legitimate pastoral function, namely, to nurture the people by communicating the word of G0 d to them. Hendrix shows how Luther developed this conviction in finely differentiated stages between 1517 and 1522, concluding that all hopes for a rapprochement 144 BOOK REVIEWS between Rome and Wittenberg were lost since Rome refused to heed the call to return to a proper exercise of pastoral authority. Hendrix presents his thesis in seven chapters, each headed by a wellselected Luther quotation and a detailed chronology of events. Starting with a brief analysis of Luther's own recollections about his early years (1505-17), Hendrix sums up Luther's early views of the papacy with the term "ambivalence'' (ch. 1). A basic shift in Luther's attitude occurred in 1517 when Luther encountered the very unpastoral trafficking in indulgences , promoted by Bishop Albrecht of Mainz with the support of Rome. This shift is linked to Luther's breakthrough to a Reformation theology which rediscovered the powerful message of Paul's gospel of justification by faith apart from the works of law. Aware of the jungle of contradictory interpretations with reference to the precise date of Luther's breakthrough, which he called his " tower experience " (Turmerlebnis ), Hendrix refuses to make a calculated guess, but tends to lean towards 1517 as a terminus ad quem. Whereas Luther ignored rather than intentionally excluded the papacy in his new, budding ecclesiology before 1517, his famed Ninety-Five Thesis of 1517 intended to establish the limits of ecclesiastical authority. Luther tested papal authority in the context of canon law when he attacked the indulgences, calling for a return to the .word of God as the highest authority in the church. Hendrix describes this period from October 1517 to June 1518 under the heading "protest" (ch. 2). Luther's first personal encounter with Roman authority, his meeting with Cajetan in Augsburg, led Luther to open " resistance...