Encounters with Luther: New Directions for Critical Studies ed. by Kirsi I. Stjerna and Brooks Schramm (review)

Reprinted from Seminary Ridge Review, the nineteen essays presented in this volume were all lectures given in various years at the annual Luther Colloquy sponsored by the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. The essays are clustered around the following themes: common ground between Luther and the Catholic tradition, wrestling with demons and violence, reimagining theologies of the cross, sex and marriage, sacraments, spiritual care, ethics and government, and critical issues (such as Feminism and Luther's anti-Judaism).

Drawing on a theme favored by the new Finnish Luther research, Eero Huovinen advocates a Luther who is a common teacher for the entire church catholic. But such ecclesial communion can be had only through a path that embraces "the truth in love." The goal of visible unity demands that we dig deeper into the foundation of our common Christian faith (12). With respect to spiritual trial, Dennis Janz presents Luther's Christ as one who experienced "the high Anfechtung, which is called being forsaken by God" (23), but Christ experienced this hell precisely so that those who apprehend Christ in faith can become new creatures for whom Christ and not spiritual trial defines life (27). Voelker Leppin argues that for Luther such spiritual attack is derived from none other than the devil who uses God's own word to judge sinners (38). In an exegesis of Luther's biblical commentaries, Mickey Mattox shows that for Luther God punishes sinners precisely by withdrawing his care administered through governmental authority (55). In any case, the Christian life is defined at every turn by battle with evil. Christ assists believers in this warfare (58).

Douglas John Hall revisits his pioneering work of a contemporary theology of the cross which he defines as a theology of faith (not sight), hope (not consummation), love (not power), in contrast to a theology of glory which highlights the opposites (84). Vítor Westhelle notes that the effect of the cross on life is to open hearts so that sinners can see how others have been victimized and how they can live in solidarity with the injured. Deanna Thompson and Anna Madsen read the theology of the cross through a feminist lens. For Thompson, this leads her to embrace the suffering Jesus as a friend and the church as a community of friends.

John Witte claims that while Luther did not have a modern egalitarian theory of marriage, he did acknowledge "love … as a necessary and sufficient good of marriage" (119). Kirsi Stjerna reinterprets Luther's affirmation of marriage, in opposition to medieval disdain for marriage, but claims that contemporary people are apt to see masculinity and femininity as fluid, and so are open to same sex marriages (136–7).

Brian Gerrish sees affinity between Luther's view of the Lord's Supper and Calvin's (in distinction to Zwingli's) since for Calvin the Lord's Supper is no "empty sign" but instead a sacramental union of the sign and the thing (157), thus spiritually conveying a present Christ. Kurt Hendel develops Luther's affirmation of the communicatio idiomatum or reciprocity of traits between the divine and the human in Christ to illustrate the deep embodiment of God at the core of the gospel. Developing Luther's view of prayer, Mary Jane Haemig claims that for Luther victory for the prophet Jonah was not had when the fish spit him up, but instead when Jonah took his trouble to God in prayer. Using the story of Jesus praying in Gethsemane, Luther made the point that "It pleases God, when we are in terror and misery that we do not despair but open our hearts to him and seek help from him" (186). In a masterful interpretation of the rapport between Luther and contemporary psychological theories, Peter Krey sees a parallel between Luther's coincidence of opposites, such as simultaneously saint and sinner, with Carl Gustav Jung's...