Read more
Much mainstream Luther scholarship (and Lutheran theology) holds that Martin Luther downplayed, denied, derided, or just plain ignored "the holiness without which no one shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). Phil Anderas advances a revisionist thesis: from the first inklings of his "Augustinian turn"
c. 1514 to his death in 1546, Luther held and taught a robust theology of progressive renewal in holiness, carefully calibrated to the sober reality of residual sin and the astonishing gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. As it is set forth in the works that embody Luther's most considered judgments (
c. 1535-46), this gospel-centered and irreducibly trinitarian dogmatics of real renewal in holiness is "Augustinian" and "evangelical" in equal parts. As such, it commands the regard of theologians who stand in the tradition of the Church's
doctor gratiae. The argument proceeds in three steps: first, an exposition of the mature Luther's dogmatics of sin, grace, and holiness; second, an investigation of the roots of this dogmatics in the theology of the "420s Augustine," with whom a younger Luther was busily engaged
c. 1514-16; third, an account of the continuities and discontinuities that characterize the development of Luther's theology from its embryonic state in the mid-1510s through the breakthroughs of the 1518-21 period to the settled position of the old Doctor.
About the author
Dr. Phil Anderas hat an der Marquette University promoviert und ist derzeit Pastor der City Reformed Church in Milwaukee.Herman J. Selderhuis ist Professor für Kirchengeschichte an der Theologischen Universität Apeldoorn, Direktor von Refo500, Wissenschaftlicher Kurator der Johannes a Lasco Bibliothek sowie Präsident des Internationalen Calvinkongresses.Dr. Christopher B. Brown is Associate Professor of Church History at Boston University.Dr. Günter Frank ist Direktor der Europäischen Melanchthon-Akademie Bretten und außerplanmäßiger Professor am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie.Dr. Bruce Gordon is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale Divinity School.Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer ist Professorin em. für „Neuere deutsche Literatur“ an der Universität Bern.Tarald Rasmussen ist Professor für Kirchengeschichte an der Universität Oslo.Dr. Violet Soen is Associate Professor for Early Modern History at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Leuven.Dr. Zsombor Tóth is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Literary Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.Dr. Günther Wassilowsky ist Professor für Kirchengeschichte an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Prof. Dr. Siegrid Westphal ist Inhaberin des Lehrstuhls für Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit an der Universität Osnabrück sowie Direktorin des Forschungszentrums Institut für Kulturgeschichte der Frühen Neuzeit.
Summary
Much mainstream Luther scholarship (and Lutheran theology) holds that Martin Luther downplayed, denied, derided, or just plain ignored “the holiness without which no one shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Phil Anderas advances a revisionist thesis: from the first inklings of his “Augustinian turn” c. 1514 to his death in 1546, Luther held and taught a robust theology of progressive renewal in holiness, carefully calibrated to the sober reality of residual sin and the astonishing gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. As it is set forth in the works that embody Luther’s most considered judgments (c. 1535-46), this gospel-centered and irreducibly trinitarian dogmatics of real renewal in holiness is “Augustinian” and “evangelical” in equal parts. As such, it commands the regard of theologians who stand in the tradition of the Church’s doctor gratiae. The argument proceeds in three steps: first, an exposition of the mature Luther’s dogmatics of sin, grace, and holiness; second, an investigation of the roots of this dogmatics in the theology of the “420s Augustine,” with whom a younger Luther was busily engaged c. 1514-16; third, an account of the continuities and discontinuities that characterize the development of Luther’s theology from its embryonic state in the mid-1510s through the breakthroughs of the 1518-21 period to the settled position of the old Doctor.
Foreword
Martin Luther is not often regarded as a theologian of holiness. “Be a sinner and sin boldly,” after all – and leave sanctification for the Catholics, the Orthodox, the Finns, and the Reformed. On the basis of painstaking work in the sources, Phil Anderas’ Renovatio advances a revisionist thesis: from the first inklings of his “Augustinian turn” c. 1514 to his death in 1546, Luther held a robust theology of renewal in holiness, carefully calibrated to the sober reality of residual sin and the astonishing gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. This irreducibly trinitarian dogmatics of sin, grace, and holiness is “Augustinian” and “evangelical” in equal parts, and as such commands the regard of theologians in the tradition of the Church’s doctor gratiae.
