"Faith from Hearing" in Luther's Sermons on the Visitation

A recent study from the Finnish school of Luther research argues that the early Luther used the imagery of light and darkness to depict faith as a Realist version of interior divine illumination. While helpfully situating Luther's understanding of faith within medieval approaches to illumination, the work's method and scope risk obscuring Luther's increased emphasis in the 1520s on the agency of the external word in the generation of faith. Luther's sermons on the Visitation (of Mary to Elizabeth) are important sources in this debate, because they deal specifically with the topic of illumination in relation to faith. This study tracks an increased emphasis in Luther's preaching on the Visitation from a description of Elizabeth's faith as light to one of hearing in darkness.