Erlösung und Sunde im Neuen Testament by Alfons Kirchgässner (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 549 ErloBUng und Sunde im Neuen Testament. By ALFONS KrncHGAssNER. Freiburg: Herder, 1950. Pp. 336. D. M. 14. To obtain the grade of DoctOT Theologiae at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau, Dr. Alfons Kirchgiissner has presented a study about "Redemption and Sin in the Theology of St. Paul." This study forms the first and, in our opinion, the most important part of this book. (pp. 1-137) In the introduction (pp. 8-20) the author treats of the history of the problem in Protestant exegesis. Luther and his orthodox followers considered it to be the teaching of St. Paul that the Christian is at the same time sinner and righteous (si1nul peccatOT et justus). The author shows how in later times various Protestant theologians and biblical scholars did not agree with this Lutheran interpretation of the ideas of the Apostle. In different ways they explain the fact that in the Epistles the Christian is described as necessarily righteous and without sin, while, at the same time, the Apostle exhorts him to avoid sin and to attend to the things of God. These different opmions of the main Protestant scholars about the ".relation of indicative and imperative in the teaching of St. Paul" are related in their historical and logical connection.· The second section (pp. 21-157), entitled "The Problem" and divided into various chapters, studies the question of sin in the Christian life. Dr. Kirchgassner is lead by the desire to prove that neither the opinion of Luther nor the opinions of later non-Catholic authors are justified by the sayings of St. Paul; he refers especially to the theory of Windisch, who considers the Pauline teaching of the Christian as being holy and without sin and the fact of the exhortations in the Epistles as a contradiction, which historically has to be explained. The first chapter (pp. 21-82) treats of the idea of sin in the writings of St. Paul. The author shows here also that the Apostle does not consider every involuntary desire or concupiscence a sin. In the second chapter (pp. 33-42) , St. Paul's testimony about himself is studied. If this testimony would rirove a continuous consciousness of being " simul peccator et justus," then this consciousness would have been proved essential to the Christian, because the Apostle considers himself a true Christian. Kirchgassner shows convincingly that this consciousness of sin and guilt is absent in the Epistles. The Apostle knows that he has sinned by his persecution of the Church, but there cannot be quoted any text which would justify the supposition ef this specific consciousness of sin and guilt. Romana 7: 7-11 is not the testimony of St. Paul's personal experience since his conversion, but expresses the situation of the Jew-under-the-Law in general. The third chapter, a study about "The Struggle against Sin in the Christian Communities " (pp. 4Q-56) , shows that, according to St. Paul, the possibility of sin is not excluded in the Christian although it is much 550 BOOK REVIEWS lessened, because the force of the " Pneuma " came in the place of the weakness of the unredeemed man. " The Christian without Sin " is the title of the fourth chapter (pp. 56-136); which has various divisions. The author wishes to prove that St. Paul's general idea of a Christian is that of a man who is normally without sin. This does not signify that for the Apostle every Christian is always without even incidental sins, but it means that sin is by no means included in the" idea" of a Christian. Texts such as Galatians 5:17, II Corinthians 5:~0, etc., which often are quoted as proofs for the thesis that the Christian is "simul peccator et just-us," are particularly treated, and it is proved that no text supports the opinion that for St. Paul the consciousness of continuous sinning is essential to the Christian. After studying briefly the teaching of the Apostle about the expiatory death of Christ, the author considers different elements of Pauline theology in their relation to the problem. The texts and teachings concerning baptism,. the union with Christ, and the possession of the " Pneuma...