The Theology of Martin Luther: A Critical Assessment

17. What Endures

17 What Endures If we ask about what remains, we must be clear about one thing first of all: for whom should we demonstrate that it is enduring, and for whom must it be secured? Germanists and students of culture may regard Luther’s translation of the Bible as something “enduring”; students of the history of religion might ask whether the Reformation, which was so essentially shaped by him, signifies a new step in the development of religion. Roman Catholics may find the provocation his theology represents for them as something “enduring.” What in Luther’s theology is of enduring value for Lutheran Christians and their churches? “Existence” Theology Those who consider Luther without prejudice may at first not be so much moved by what he says theologically as by the way he says it. When Luther’s German was closer to everyday life, that may have been felt more strongly than it is today. In the year  the President of the Bavarian High Consistory, Hermann Bezzel, asked: “Why does our soul rejoice when it savors his words, which move along so simply and yet seem like pure music, which so often touch the deepest nerve of our minds and speak to our hearts?” We do not write that way any more. Nevertheless, the loving immediacy of the way in which Luther brings his theological thought into the present context is still perceptible today and may even be communicable, at least in part. Even those like Goethe who stand rather at a distance from the Reformation faith can sense something of what is special about Luther: “Between us, there is nothing in the whole business [of the Reformation] of any interest except Luther’s character, and that is also the only thing that really makes an impression on a crowd. All the rest is a confused rubbish.” Luther represents an authentic theology; he does not teach “like the scribes” (cf. Matt :). Since Luther’s time theology has been professionalized and divided into sub-disciplines, but at the same time it has been emancipated 461 462 The Theology of Martin Luther from faith. It is regarded as a function of faith and in the service of faith. Faith and theology, especially scholarly university theology, remain related and yet have diverged. There is justification for that, but it should not lead to the impression that it is possible to study and teach theology without reference to one’s own faith. Luther emphasizes that vehemently: “experientia facit theologum”—experience makes the theologian. Theology is shaped not only by the experience of faith but also by the perception of resistance to faith, experiences with the experience of faith, something that, namely, at least for a time may not even be possible to experience, so that faith may be sustained against all experience and non-experience. Luther’s theology grows out of a faith under siege that does not flee to false security but allows itself to be challenged ever anew by concrete life and the questions it poses. It is aware of God’s hiddenness, it is familiar with “consoled” and even “salutary despair.” It is a theology of the cross, the cross of Christ, the cross of human beings, of humanity, not a theology one could suspect of being wishful thinking, even if Ludwig Feuerbach tried to interpret it in that sense. It has something to say to suffering, confused, distressed people who are not simply living vegetative lives on a superficial level. Therein lie both its opportunity and its limits. Here is a person dealing with his own resistance. He has not gently resolved all recalcitrance within the self, perhaps like Francis of Assisi, nor is he in the process of fighting down all his resistance as Ignatius of Loyola attempted to do. Here is a person doing theology, thrown into a muddle of fears and doubts and yet in all of it knowing himself entrusted to the saving hand of his God. The early Sören Kierkegaard would very probably have understood him. It is about life and death, about existence and therefore a theology of existence that does not seek an aesthetically satisfying system. From the outset it takes into account that theological ideas on earth can never be smoothly resolved. Perhaps it is the fault of this Lutheran heritage that the Lutheran tradition has not produced a sweeping and comprehensive dogmatic system, a “Summa” like that of Thomas Aquinas, an “Institutes” like that of Calvin, a...