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Chapter 22 THE VIEW OF GOD LUTHER'S ATTITUDE TOWARD TRADITIONAL DOGMA Generally, trinitarian dogma was not in dispute, either between Luther and Rome or between Luther and the other great reform movements. Specific questions, of course, were at times the object of controversy. For Luther, debates with antiTrinitarians were of relatively little concern.' Neverdieless, in his last years he reg­ ularly allowed for the discussion of trinitarian doctrine in conjunction with promotion disputations.2 The danger of anti-Trinitarianism formed die back­ ground. All in all, statements on trinitarian doctrine seldom appear in Ludier. There are, however, enough passages in which Luther stated that the "great arti­ cles of the divine majesty," as he called them in his Smalcald Articles,3 are the foun­ dation for Christian faith and theology. After a brief evaluation of the doctrine's content, he said: "There is no quarrel or dispute over diese articles, since we bodi share the same (faith and) confession. So mere is no need to deal furdier widi diem now."4 There are also passages in which Luther referred emphatically to trinitarian doctrine. In The Bondage of the Will, he stated against Erasmus: 1 But see especially his preface to Bugenhagen's text of Athanasii libri contra idolatriam, 1532, WA 30 III, 528-32. In addition, see Bernhard Lohse,"Luther und Athanasius,"in Auctoritas fatrum-.Zur Reception der Kirchenvater im IS. und I6.jahrhundert, ed. Leif Grane, Alfred Schindler, and Marlcus Wriedt, VIEG 37 (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1993), 97-1 IS. 2 See J. Koopmans, Das altkirchliche Dogma in der Reformation, 60. 3 WA 50,197, 1-3; HansVolz, ed., Urkunden undAktenstiicke zur Geschichte von Martin Luthers SchmalkaldischenArtikeln (1S36-1S74), KIT 179 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1957), 37,4. 4 Ed.Volz, 37, 23-25; WA 50, 198, 13-16. Luther first of all wrote the words "(gleuben und)" but then struck them in preparation for printing. The omission reflects Luther's view that the traditionalists did not have authentic faith in the Trinity. 207 208 LUTHER'S THEOLOGY IN ITS SYSTEMATIC CONTEXT For what still sublimer thing can remain hidden from the Scriptures, now that the seals have been broken, the stone rolled from the door of the sepulcher [Matt. 27:66; 28:2), and the supreme mystery brought to light, namely, that Christ the Son of God has been made man, that God is three and one, that Christ has suffered for us and is to reign eternally? Are not these things known and sung even in the highways and byways?Take Christ out of the Scriptures, and what will you find left in them?s We should also note that the "doctrine" as such had considerable weight with Luther.6 In his debate with the fanatics he once wrote that at the Lord's Supper one should know and preach two things: First, what one should believe, that is, the objectumjidei, that is, the work or thing in which one believes or to which one is to adhere. Secondly, the faith itself, or the use which one should properly make of that in which he believes. The first lies out­ side the heart and is presented to our eyes externally, namely, the sacrament itself, concerning which we believe that Christ's body and blood are truly present in the bread and wine. The second is internal, within the heart, and cannot be external­ ized. It consists in the attitude which the heart should have toward the external sacrament. Then he said: Up to now I have not preached very much about the first part, but have treated only the second, which is also the best part. But because the first part is now being assailed by many, and the preachers, even those who are considered the best, are splitting up into factions over the matter .. . the times demand that 1 say something on this subject also.7 This statement forces us to the conclusion that some of Luther's assumptions in his polemical writings have particular weight precisely because they were not in dis­ pute and thus were scarcely mentioned by him, to say nothing of being discussed. The doctrine of the Trinity as well as the doctrine of the two natures are among these. We dius need to take note that for Luther the trinitarian and christological dogmas of the ancient church always formed the basis for his arguments. These dog­ mas he took to be fundamental. It was his firm conviction that they appropriately...

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