Lutheran Theology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsi Stjerna
Keyword(s):  
Lutheran Theology

Transformative Christian Education: New Covenant, New Creation. An Essay in Constructive Theology

1998 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Wright
Keyword(s):  
Christian Education ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
New Covenant ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Constructive Theology ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
The Holy Spirit

A TRANSFORMATIVE THEOLOGY of Christian education is defended against reconstructionist alternatives. Any authentic theology of education should be grounded in the ontic reality of the divine economy of salvation. Though important, noetic questions of theological epistemology, together with pragmatic issues of pedagogic strategy, are not to be taken as foundational. Certain traits of Lutheran theology lend superficial support to a reconstructionist theology, but only at the expense of introducing a crippling dualism between faith and creation. The Biblical picture of the completion of the new covenant and new creation through the work of the Holy Spirit lends strong support to a transformative theology.

Contours for a Public Lutheran Theology in the Face of Empire

Dialog ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-107
Author(s):  
Guillermo Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
The Face

Martin Luther in Finland and the Baltics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Raunio
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Baltic Countries ◽  
Real Presence ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Revival Movement ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
The 19Th Century

Martin Luther’s thought has had strong influence on the religious and churchly life in the Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, as well as in Finland. Its impact has not been restricted just to the Church but also has had deep social and political aspects. However, the role of Luther’s theology has been quite different in the Baltics and in Finland, mostly because the Reformation occurred in a totally different ways in each area. In the Baltics, the biggest towns had already turned to the Reformation by the 1520s, but in Finland the change was part of King Gustav Vasa’s work for strengthening the state. In the Baltics, the Reformation took place in direct contact with Luther and his colleagues, whereas in Finland the first influences came through some of his writings and the theologians who had studied in Wittenberg. During the 17th century, almost the whole area, except Lithuania, belonged to the Swedish kingdom. Theologically, this was the time of the Lutheran Orthodoxy, which was based on the Confessional Books of the Lutheran Church. From Luther’s works, the catechisms were known and used. In the Baltics, the time of Confessional Lutheran theology lasted until the 1910s. In the 19th century, certain Baltic German theologians, especially Theodosius Harnack, practiced remarkable Luther research. Harnack opposed the Neo-Protestant Luther interpretation and strongly influenced the understanding of Luther’s theology of the cross. Only in the 1910s did the Neo-Protestant Luther interpretation of Albrecht Ritschl and Adolf von Harnack get some support. In the 20th century, the Baltic theology was not very much concentrated on Luther, though some presentations of his person and thought were published and a clear consciousness of his thought was present. The Soviet time from 1940 to the beginning of 1990s was difficult for all types of theology. Nevertheless, for example, Elmar Salumae managed to translate international Luther research into Estonian and maintain the knowledge of Lutheran theology. In Finland, the 19th century did not produce academic Luther research, but Luther’s theology was important for the pietistic revival movement, and it played a central role in the disagreement of the revival leaders, which led to a division of the movement. Academic research on the Reformation began in Finland at the end of the 19th century, first as a historical study of the Finnish reformer Mikael Agricola and the Reformation in Finland. Research on Luther’s theology followed the German Luther Renaissance and began in the 1920s. The fruits of this research were published in the 1930s by Eino Sormunen and Yrjö J. E. Alanen and some years later by Lennart Pinomaa. After Pinomaa, Finnish Luther research played some role at the international level. It was first attached especially to the Swedish Lundensian approach and later, from the beginning of the 1980s, became more distant from it. Today Finnish Luther research refers above all to the work of Tuomo Mannermaa and his pupils. This theology, which stresses the real presence of Christ in faith and the participation in the Divine love, is not only academic research but also it has been applied to many churchly and ecumenical questions.

Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Political Theologies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. DeJonge
Keyword(s):  
Political Theology ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Social Ethics ◽  
State Power ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Dietrich Bonhoeffer ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
Two Kingdoms

Contemporary political theology often defines itself against Lutheran social ethics, which is portrayed as politically disengaged and overly deferential to state power. At the same time, contemporary political theology often embraces the Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer as an exemplary political theologian. This incongruity is generally resolved by distancing Bonhoeffer from his tradition, at least on matters of political theology. But Bonhoeffer’s political theology was thoroughly Lutheran. Throughout the years of his political-theological engagement, from the Nazi rise to power in 1932–1933 to the drafting of Ethics and related writing in 1940–1943, he participated in ongoing conversations within Lutheran social ethics on the issues of, among others, the two kingdoms and the orders. In the process, he critically appropriated these elements of Lutheran thinking into an especially dynamic and christocentric framework that in turn informed his positions on various issues such as the church’s proclamation against the Nazi state and the ecumenical church’s witness for peace. Bonhoeffer is an example of Lutheran political theology, one that suggests the need to revise at least the more sweeping judgments about Lutheran theology as inherently incompatible with political engagement.

Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and Their Wittenberg Colleagues

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Wengert
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
Emerging Church ◽  
Renaissance Humanism ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Lutheran Theology ◽  
The University ◽  
Early Phases

The German Reformation, sparked by the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517, unfolded parallel to another intellectual phenomenon then sweeping centers of higher education throughout western Europe: the development of a new way to read classic literature of the humanities, philosophy, and theology, often called Renaissance humanism. At the University of Wittenberg, this resulted in the development of a sodality of professors in the arts and theology faculties, initially including Andreas Bodenstein (Karlstadt), Nicholas von Amsdorf, Martin Luther, and the court’s university advisor, Georg Spalatin, but quickly spreading to include, by the early 1520s, Philip Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, and Johannes Bugenhagen, among others. Any attempt to understand the early phases of Wittenberg’s Reformation without taking into account this sodality will ultimately fail to catch the breadth of this movement and the commitment of these teachers to one another and to their cause. After an early skirmish over theological method resulted in Karlstadt’s distancing of himself from the university, the other faculty members remained committed to reforming the curricula of the arts and higher faculties at the university along humanist, evangelical lines. This reform influenced the theology and practice of the emerging church in Saxony and elsewhere, witnessed among other places in the 1527–1528 Visitation Articles, and led to a uniquely Wittenberg reform, one that always blended the highest regard for good letters and the most ancient sources with a developing Lutheran theology.

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