Psalms of the Faithful: Luther’s Early Reading of the Psalter in Canonical Context by Brian T. German (review)

This book is the product of the author’s doctoral work at Wycliffe College, University of Toronto, under Christopher R. Seitz, who himself has been one of the most prolific and influential students of Brevard S. Childs. The influence of Childs’s original and controversial hermeneutical work in articulating a canonical approach to the Christian Old Testament and Seitz’s appropriation and development of that work are everywhere evident in German’s penetrating new study of Luther’s Dictata super Psalterium (1513–1515). Taking his bearings from James Samuel Preus and Scott H. Hendrix, chiefly in terms of their understanding of Luther’s use of “faithful synagogue” (fidelis synagoga) in the Dictata, German pursues the argument that the generally acknowledged difference in character between the latter part of the Dictata and its earlier portion is attributable—and traceable—to the coercion of the canonical shape of the Psalter itself on Luther as he lectured his way through it in sequential fashion over a two-year period.

Chapter 1, “A Fresh Look at Luther,” serves both to sketch the structure and argument of the book as well as to introduce the reader to recent research in contemporary Psalms scholarship that has begun to take strong interest in the final form or canonical shape of the five-book Psalter. It is this latter that gives the book its distinctive methodological character, for in addition to reading Luther’s Psalms interpretation in light of the influence of Augustine (and Cassiodorus), German is also examining how an aspect of modern critical biblical study can “expand our knowledge of a premodern series of psalm lectures” (21).

Chapter 2, “The Origins of the Faithful Synagogue,” focuses on what is the turning-point in the Dictata and in the canonical structure of the Psalter itself, namely, Book III (Pss. 73–89). Analysis of Luther’s treatment of the Asaphite Psalms (Pss. 73–83) in particular, where traditional exegesis had tended to identify the name Asaph with the synagogue, serves to demonstrate that this is the precise point where the concept of “faithful synagogue” becomes both prominent in the lecture series as well as distinctive over against Augustine and Cassiodorus. Chapter 3, “Joining the Faithful Synagogue,” focuses on Luther’s treatment of the remaining Psalms in Book III and in Book IV (Pss. 90–106), showing how the concept of “faithful synagogue” as developed in the Asaphite corpus now exercises hermeneutical influence on Luther’s interpretation of immediately succeeding Psalms. In Chapter 4, “Reading Scripture with the Faithful Synagogue,” German turns to Book V (Pss. 107–150) and explicates “the most immediate hermeneutical implications of Luther’s increasing preoccupation with the Old Testament perspective” (26, 185), the most significant of which is that the interpretive lens of the “faithful synagogue” eventuates for Luther in “a reappraisal of the literal sense of Scripture” (186). In the concluding Chapter 5, “What Does This Mean?,” German summarizes the arguments of the book and states his central claim: “[. . .] the second half of Martin Luther’s Dictata super Psalterium exhibits a noticeably different character than the first half because of (emphasis added) the profound effect that the canonical shape of the Hebrew Psalter had on Luther’s journey from Psalm 1 to Psalm 150” (191).

This book is a serious piece of scholarship. Combining methodological sophistication with absolute lucidity, German demonstrates that interaction between critical and pre-critical approaches to the biblical text can yield fresh and compelling insights. Highly recommended for both scholars and motivated students alike.