From Wittenberg to the World. Essays on the Reformation and Its Legacy in Honor of Robert Kolb ed. by Charles P. Arand et al. (review)

The editors are to be congratulated for providing a magnificent volume of essays on the Lutheran Reformation and its legacy in honor of their colleague and friend, Robert Kolb. They have also given us not only a fine tribute to Kolb, the scholar and teacher, but also a glimpse of the humanum of Kolb the man. The bibliography at the end spanning twenty-eight pages (compiled by Ruth Mattson) is a head-spinning testament to his prodigious literary output—a truly remarkable achievement and worthy of the high commendation bestowed on him by this Festschrift.

The volume contains sixteen essays and is divided into two parts, reflecting the two parts of the title: From Wittenberg (11) to the World (5). Confronted with such a wonderful treasure trove of essays, it is a reviewer's nightmare to work out how to do it justice. Obviously, I can only offer a taste of this smorgasbord of delights and hope it will be enough to whet your appetite for more.

L'ubomír Batka has written a splendid chapter—"Luther's Exposition of Psalms 1–25 at Coburg (1530)"—in which he makes some interesting comparisons with Luther's Operationes (his second course of lectures on the Psalms) a decade earlier. He rightly notes that by 1530 Luther's emphasis had shifted to the external word and sacrament where we can be certain that God will be found true to his promise. He also gives other examples of shifts in emphasis where the Coburg Psalms testify to Luther's mature theology. But he holds that one emphasis that does not change is the theology of the cross. He asserts that "even though the term theologia crucis does not appear in the Exposition of Psalms 1–25, it can be assumed that this essential form of piety, recognizing divine actions sub contrario had become a steady component of Luther's theology" (27). On this point, however, I would beg to differ. Assuming an early dating of Luther's breakthrough, I believe that the theology of the cross, as expressed in his 1518 Heidelberg Disputation, is a central characteristic of his early theology of humility, and that after 1520 this gets left behind, although there are enduring elements such as deus absconditus/deus revelatus and the recognition that God acts sub contrario, which the author rightly points out are all found in the Coburg Psalms of 1530. I would prefer to reserve the term theologia crucis for Luther's early humilitas theology with its teaching of justification by humility, all of which belongs to his medieval Catholic heritage, which after 1518 undergoes transformation in the light of Luther's new understanding of the gospel.

Charles Arand's "I Am God's Creature!" is another excellent contribution giving attention to the first article of the Creed. He notes that the ancient church attended primarily to the relationship between the three persons of the Holy Trinity (theology) while the Reformation shifted the focus to how God relates to human beings and in particular to the article of justification by faith (soteriology). However, he points out that one of the unintended consequences of a strong focus on redemption has been a weaker doctrine of creation. Arand happily seeks to redress this problem by suggesting that we need to recover Luther's language of creatureliness and put greater emphasis on the doctrine of creation, including the non-human creation (231–36). This article does two important things: first, it engages in theological dialogue to recover the primacy of the First Article of the Creed, and second, it makes a solid contribution to theological anthropology and theological ethics, both of which are issues of great importance for the church today.

The other essays cover the following topics: communion preparation...