Helmer Trinity and Martin Luther

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68359-051-4
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 368 Seiten

Reihe: Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology

Martin Luther was classically orthodox. Scholars often portray Luther as a heroic revolutionary, totally unlike his peers and forebears-as if he alone inaugurated modernity. But is this accurate? Is this even fair? At times this revolutionary model of Luther has come to some shocking conclusions, particularly concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. Some have called Luther modalist or tritheist-somehow theologically heterodox. In The Trinity and Martin Luther Christine Helmer uncovers Luther's trinitarian theology. The Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. It's not enough for dusty, ivory tower academics to know and understand it. Common people need the Trinity, too. Doctrine matters. Martin Luther knew this. But how did he communicate the doctrine of the Trinity to lay and learned listeners? And how does his trinitarian teaching relate to the medieval Christian theological and philosophical tradition? Helmer upends stereotypes of Luther's doctrine of the Trinity. This definitive work has been updated with a new foreword and with fresh translations of Luther's Latin and German texts.

Christine Helmer (Ph.D., Yale University) is a professor of religious studies at Northwestern University. She is the author of Theology and the End of Doctrine (Westminster John Knox 2014) and the main editor for the Christianity section of the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Helmer, Christine

Leseproben

Select Bibliography of Recent Literature on the Trinity in the Middle Ages and Early Modernity THE TRINITY IN MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY The Trinity as Christian dogma is recognized as the content of revelation, although its normative traditional formulation is found in the Nicene Creed and not in scriptural articulation. The fate of the doctrine of the Trinity depends on its capacity to generate theological meaning in new religious contexts. The theological task thus queries how to communicate the Trinity as experientially meaningful for Christians, whether as object of prayer, confession, or hymns. It also requires that theologians make generative use of intellectual tools to understand, explain, clarify, and establish the meaning and referent of Trinitarian phrases, such as for example the Trinitarian term popular in the Middle Ages, that three things are one thing (tres res sunt una res). Philosophy was the dominant intellectual tool deployed in the production of Trinitarian theology in the late Middle Ages. Studies of Luther on doctrine generally and on the Trinity specifically require engagement with research in medieval philosophy. Over the past decade, studies in the medieval philosophical theology of the Trinity have emerged as indispensable for work on Luther’s doctrines of the Trinity and Christology. These studies have a common conceptual basis: Augustine’s (354–430) understanding of Son and Spirit as the two movements of intellect and will. Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) later situates the intellectual productions of intellect and will in the divine monologue. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) focuses on the processions. Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308) is significant for conceiving divinity as perfect power production: the product is as perfect as the producer, hence the Son is perfect product of the Father, and both together produce the Spirit. Scholars agree on the significance of the relations of origin, which are metaphysically heavy. The following studies complement Marilyn McCord Adams’s indispensable two-volume work on William of Ockham (1285–1347). Emery, Gilles. Trinity in Aquinas. 2nd ed. Translated by Matthew Levering, Heather Buttery, Robert Williams, and Teresa Bede. Ypsilanti, MI: Sapientia Press of Ave Maria College, 2006. Friedman, Russell L. Medieval Trinitarian Thought from Aquinas to Ockham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. ———. Intellectual Traditions at the Medieval University: The Use of Philosophical Psychology in Trinitarian Theology Among the Franciscans and Dominicans, 1250–1350. Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters 108/1–2. 2 Volumes. Leiden: Brill, 2013. Paasch, J. T. Divine Production in Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology: Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, and William Ockham. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Thom, Paul. The Logic of the Trinity: Augustine to Ockham. Medieval Philosophy: Texts and Studies. New York: Fordham University Press, 2012. Williams, Scott M. “Henry of Ghent on Real Relations and the Trinity: The Case for Numerical Sameness Without Identity.” Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Mediévales 77, no. 1 (2010): 35–81. ———. “Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent, and John Duns Scotus: On the Theology of the Father’s Intellectual Generation of the Word.” Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie Mediévales 79, no. 1 (2012): 109–48. LUTHER AND THE TRINITY There is a growing body of research in Luther studies on the relation of his theology to medieval philosophical theology. This research originates predominantly in North America and Finland, where Luther scholars are contributing to an emergent consensus concerning Luther’s indebtedness to late medieval thought. At the University of Helsinki, scholars mentored by Simo Knuutilla and Risto Saarinen have maintained an active agenda in the philosophy and theology of the late middle ages and early modernity. The studies noted here offer an introduction to this new work. Pekka Kärkkäinen’s dissertation and Heinrich Assel’s work focus for the most part on the early Luther. Other works by Risto Saarinen, Mickey Mattox, Dennis Bielfeldt and my own research take the Luther’s later Trinitarian disputations as object of study. The 2017 commemoration of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses has inspired other publications on Luther on the Trinity, most recently articles by Lois Malcolm and Christoph Schwöbel. Assel, Heinrich. “Der Name Gottes bei Martin Luther: Trinität und Tetragramm—ausgehend von Luthers Auslegung des Fünften Psalms.” Evangelische Theologie 64 (2004): 363–78. Bielfeldt, Dennis. “Luther’s Late Trinitarian Disputations: Semantic Realism and the Trinity.” In The Substance of the Faith: Luther’s Doctrinal Theology for Today, by Dennis Bielfeldt, Mickey L. Mattox, and Paul R. Hinlicky, 59–130. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008. Helmer, Christine. “Luther’s Theology of Glory.” Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 42, no. 3 (2000): 237–45. ———. “Luther’s Trinitarian Hermeneutic and the Old Testament.” Modern Theology 18, no. 1 (2002): 49–73. ———. “Gott von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit: Luthers Trinitätsverständnis.” Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 44, no. 1 (2002): 1–19. This article is also available in English: “The Trinity: God from Eternity to Eternity.” Harvard Theological Review 96, no. 2 (2003): 127–46. ———. “Trinitarische Ekstase?Göttliche Liebe: Reflektionen zu Luthers Lied, ‘Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein.’ ” Theologische Quartalschrift 183, no. 1 (2003): 16–38. ———. “Trinitätslehre.” In Das Luther-Lexikon, edited by Volker Leppin and Gury Schneider-Ludorff, 702–5. Regensburg: Verlag Bückle & Böhm, 2014. Kärkkäinen, Pekka. Luthers trinitarische Theologie des Heiligen Geistes. Veröffentlichungen des Instituts fur Europäische Geschichte; Abteilung Abendlandische Religionsgeschichte 208. Mainz: Zabern, 2005. ———. “Trinity.” In Engaging Luther: A (New) Theological Assessment, edited by Olli-Pekka Vainio, 80–94. Eugene, OR: Cascade Publication, 2010. Kärkkäinen, Pekka, ed. Trinitarian Theology in the Medieval West. Schriften der Luther-Agricola-Gesellschaft 61. Helsinki: Luther-Agricola-Society, 2008. Knuutilla, Simo, and Risto Saarinen. “Luther’s Trinitarian Theology and its Medieval Background.” Studia Theologica 53 (1999): 3–12. Malcolm, Lois. “Martin Luther and the Holy Spirit.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Online Publication Date March 2017: http://religion.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-328?print=pdf Mattox, Mickey L. “From Faith to the Text and Back Again: Martin Luther on the Trinity in the Old Testament.” Pro Ecclesia 15 (2006): 281–303. ———. “Luther’s Interpretation of Scripture: Biblical Understanding in Trinitarian Shape.” In The Substance of the Faith: Luther’s Doctrinal Theology for Today, by Dennis Bielfeldt, Mickey L. Mattox, and Paul R. Hinlicky, 11–58. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008. Saarinen, Risto. “The Merciful Trinity in Luther’s Exposition of John 1,18.” In Trinitarian Theology in the Medieval West, edited by Pekka Kärkkäinen, 280–98. Schriften der Luther-Agricola-Gesellschaft 61. Helsinki: Luther-Agricola-Society, 2008. Schwöbel, Christoph. “Martin Luther and the Trinity.” In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Online Publication Date March 2017: http://religion.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-326 LUTHER AND THE MIDDLE AGES Luther’s inheritances from the Middle Ages include medieval philosophical theology, particularly the thought of William of Ockham, Gabriel Biel (c. 1418–1495), Robert Holcot (c. 1290–1349), and Pierre d’Ailly (c. 1351–1420), and also the ways in which they took up earlier medieval debates on doctrine. The following studies are exemplary in explaining how earlier philosophical discussions were crucial to Luther’s theology. Dieter, Theodor. “Luther as Late Medieval Theologian: His Positive and Negatie Use of Nominalism and Realism.” In The Oxford handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology, edited by Robert Kolb, Irene Dingel, and L’ubomír Batka, 31–48. New York: Oxford University...