The Incarnation in Martin Luther’s Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Käfer
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Communicatio Idiomatum ◽  
The One

Luther’s understanding of the Incarnation concerns various subject areas in his theology, among them his understanding of scripture, his teaching on the sacraments in particular, as well as his description of a human being’s life of faith. All these subject areas are based on Luther’s Christology, which is essentially determined by his insights into the Incarnation and the humanity of God in Jesus Christ. Luther’s description of the Incarnation and the humanity of God is particularly oriented towards the creed of Chalcedon. The insight that Christ is at the same time true human and true god is something Luther holds as relevant to salvation. For this reason, it is important for him on the one hand to think about the Incarnation of God in a Trinitarian context and thereby to highlight Christ’s divine existence. On the other hand, he refers to the concept of the Virgin Birth in order to show that God was born a real human being. Luther describes the union of God and man in Christ principally as a reciprocal exchange of the respective divine and human characteristics. He uses the figure of the communication of properties (communicatio idiomatum) to highlight the Incarnation’s fundamental significance for salvation, which becomes manifest in the course of Christ’s life. Luther’s conception of the fact and manner in which human and divine natures are united with each other in Christ is of soteriological relevance. With the incarnate God, the sin that Christ has taken upon himself for the salvation of humankind is defeated on the Cross, since by virtue of his human nature the characteristics of being able to suffer and to die were proper to the incarnate Son of God. Accordingly, God himself suffers and dies on the Cross in Christ for his own creatures under the burden of their sins. On the Cross, the God who died in Christ and with his resurrection has overcome the death of sin meets his creatures so that they attain faith and ultimately eternal life in community with God. This saving event is, according to Luther, founded in God’s immeasurable love. The saving effectiveness of Incarnation, Cross, and resurrection presupposes Christian proclamation, according to Luther. The preaching of the incarnate God is needed, so that through the operation of the Holy Spirit the truth of the proclaimed event can be recognized and faith can thereby arise. In faith in the Son of God who has become man, the believer himself experiences a most intimate connection with Christ. According to Luther, this community of faith determines the consummation of the life of the believer, who therefore lives in love for God and for neighbor because the love of God has been revealed to him/her in Christ. The community of Christ’s faithful with one another is, according to Luther, above all formed through the celebration of the sacraments. In celebrating them, the believers experience the real presence of the incarnate God in Christ, through whom they are bound in faith based on the communication of properties between the human and divine natures.

scholarly journals Martin Luther and Justification

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli-Pekka Vainio
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Good Works ◽  
Essential Question ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Media ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Well Function ◽  
The One

The doctrine of justification is an account of how God removes the guilt of the sinner and receives him or her back to communion with God. The essential question concerns how the tension between human sin and divine righteousness is resolved. Luther’s central claim is that faith alone justifies (that is, makes a person righteous in the eyes of God) the one who believes in Christ as a result of hearing the gospel. This faith affects the imputation of Christ’s righteousness that covers the sins of the believer. In contrast to medieval doctrines of justification, Luther argues that Christ himself, not love, is the form, or the essence, of faith. Love and good works are the necessary consequences of justification even if they are not necessary for justification. However, the inclination to love and perform good works is present in the believer through Christ, who is present in faith, but these characteristics do not as such, as renewed human qualities, have justifying power. Luther’s doctrine of justification cannot be classified with simplistic categories like “forensic” and “effective” (see the section “Review of the literature” below). Often these terms are used to refer to differing interpretations of justification. However, several recent traditions of scholarship perceive this categorical differentiation as simplistic and misleading. Instead, these terms may well function to designate different aspects of God’s salvific action. In the narrow sense, justification may refer to the forensic and judicial action of declaring the sinner free from his or her guilt. A broader sense would include themes and issues from other theological doctrines offering a holistic and effective account of the event of justification, in which the sinner believes in Christ, is united with Christ’s righteousness, and receives the Holy Spirit. Depending on the context, Luther may use both narrow and broad definitions of justification. Here Luther’s doctrine of justification is approached from a broader perspective. On the one hand, justification means imputation of Christ’s alien righteousness to the believer without merits. On the other hand, faith involves effective change in the believer that enables one to believe in the first place. This change is not meritorious because it is effected by Christ indwelling in the believer through faith. Thus, Christ gives two things to the sinner: gratia, that is, the forgiveness of sins, and donum, that is, Christ himself. The media through which Christ offers his mercy are the word and sacraments. Thus, Luther’s sacramental theology, Christology, and soteriology form a coherent whole. Because justification involves union with Christ, which means participation in Christ’s divine nature, Luther’s doctrine of justification has common elements with the idea of deification.

scholarly journals Synodality — Participation — Co-Responsibility. Remarks on the Determinants of the Aggiornamento of the Church Law

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 95-114
Author(s):  
Andrzej Pastwa
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
People Of God ◽  
Community Of Faith ◽  
The People ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Scientific Reflection ◽  
Church Law ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church

In the communio Ecclesiae reality, of a unitarian, charismatic, and institutiona structure, the crucial concepts of participation and co-responsibility are firmly anchored in the juridical and canonical discourse. This is the way in which the horizon of the subject matter reveals itself, the study of which — from the point of view of the title triad: synodality — participation — co-responsibility — will never lose its relevance. What is, at the same time, important is the idea of “synodality,” which is adequately recognized as the sacra potestas of a sacramental origin (ontological aspect), which gains the dynamism of libertas sacra (existential and dynamic aspect) through the charisms of the Holy Spirit, thus leading to the inseparability of its personal and synodal aspects. Therefore, in the attempt to illuminate the determinant of the aggiornamento of the Church law in this study, it was appropriate, on the one hand, to consistently refer to the essence of the idea of the communio hierarchica, according to which Christ makes selected servants participate in his authority by means of an office, the exercise of which always remains a diaconia in the community of faith. On the other hand, in reference to the contemporary understanding of communio fidelium, the axis of scientific reflection was to be the communion-creative phenomenon of charisms — gifts of the Holy Spirit that awaken in the People of God synodal co-responsibility for the good of the entire Church community. In both cases — without losing sight of the obvious truth that, in the sacramental structure of the Church (communio), both hierarchical and charismatic gifts converge in the service of the bishop, who updates — according to the logic of the Vaticanum II aggiormamento and the ecclesiological principles of the Council: collegiality, the title synodality and subsidiarity — the fullness of Christ’s service: as Prophet, Priest, and King.

scholarly journals Quranic Christology in Late Antiquity. ‘Isa ibn Maryam and His Divine Power (Energeia) in the Islamic Revelation

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 979
Author(s):  
Marco Demichelis
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Divine Power ◽  
Early Islam ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Christology and monotheism have been dogmatically linked in the long history of Islam-Christian dialogue since the beginning of the 8th century. The Qur’an, in an analytical perception of religious otherness, specifically in relation to Christianity, assumed a dual discernment: on the one hand, it adopts a sceptical position because Christians are assimilationist (2: 120, 135, 145; 5: 51), sectarian and made Jesus the son of God (4: 171; 5: 14–19, 73; 9: 30; 18: 4–5; 21: 26); on the other hand, they are commended over the Jews and ‘Isa ibn Maryam has been strengthened with the Holy Spirit by God himself (2: 59, 62, 87, 253; 3: 48; 5: 47, 73, 82, 85, 110). The importance of enforcing the consciousness of a Quranic Christology, specifically where it concerned the potential influence that Christological doctrines such as adoptionism and monoenergism had on early Islam in late antiquity, where it was based on the proto- Islamic understanding of Jesus, and where it was rooted in Patristic orthodox-unorthodox debates, fell into oblivion. How was the Quranic canonization process affected by the ongoing Christological debates of the 7th century? Could Heraclius’ monoenergism have played a concrete influence on Quranic Christology? And in which way did early Kalam debates on God’s speech and will remain linked to Quranic Christology?

scholarly journals Membangun Penjelasan Dan Sikap Etis Trinitarian Terhadap Kejahatan Natural COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-105
Author(s):  
Thio Christian Sulistio
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Problem Of Evil ◽  
Natural Evil ◽  
Moral Problem ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Greater Good ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Church

 COVID-19 merupakan kejahatan natural yakni kejahatan yang disebabkan oleh proses natural yang sudah tidak berfungsi sebagaimana mestinya sebagai akibat kejatuhan manusia dalam dosa. Keberadaan COVID-19 sebagai kejahatan natural akan menimbulkan pertanyaan mengapa kejahatan natural dapat ada, untuk apa kejahatan natural ini dan bagaimana akhir dari kejahatan natural ini (problem metafisika kejahatan)? Pertanyaan lain adalah bagaimana respons atau sikap orang-orang percaya terhadap keberadaan kejahatan natural ini (problem moral kejahatan)? Penulis berupaya menjawab dua problem tersebut dengan menggunakan penjelasan trinitarian dari metanarasi Kristen yakni dari sudut providensi Allah, karya Yesus Kristus di salib, dan karya Roh Kudus di dalam gereja Tuhan. Allah di dalam kedaulatan-Nya mengizinkan kejahatan natural COVID-19 untuk kebaikan yang lebih besar. Anak Allah Yesus Kristus mengalahkan kejahatan melalui pelayanan-Nya di bumi dan di Salib. Roh Kudus, yang diutus Bapa dan Anak, menghibur dan memberi kuasa kepada gereja untuk melanjutkan misi Yesus Kristus. COVID-19 is a natural evil, namely an evil caused by a natural process that is not functioning properly because of the fall of humans into sins. The existence of COVID-19 as a natural evil will raise the question of why natural evil can exist, what is the purpose of natural evil, and how does this natural evil ends (the metaphysical problem of evil)? Another question is how the response or the attitude of the believers to the existence of this natural evil (the moral problem of evil)? The author tries to answer these two problems by using a trinitarian explanation of Christian metanarrative, namely from the point of God’s providence, the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. God in his sovereignty permits the natural evil of COVID-19 for the greater good. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, triumph over evil through His ministry on earth and on the cross. The Holy Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, comforts, and empowers the church to continues the mission of Jesus Christ.

A Comprehensive View of Luther’s Doctrine of Grace

2021 ◽  
pp. 136-171
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Dimensional Structure ◽  
Union With Christ ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ

This chapter offers a comprehensive presentation of the three dimensions of Luther’s Trinitarian doctrine of grace. (1) The conversion of the sinner and the birth of faith in Christ, justification “through faith alone,” is effected by prevenient grace, the sole work of God’s Spirit. (2) Participation in (2a) the cross and resurrection of Christ as well as in his (2b) person, life, and divine properties, are possible solely because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Justification means simultaneously (2a) the forensic declaration of the guilty non-guilty on the basis of the atonement by Jesus’ cross (favor), as well as (2b) a union with Christ in the Holy Spirit (donum). The believer participates both in the person and life of the incarnated Son of God and in the historical facts of salvation in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (3) Sanctification means the gradual growth of love for God and neighbor enabled by participation in divine love in the Holy Spirit who also enables the believer to cooperate with grace. Luther’s dependence on Augustine’s doctrine of grace is pointed out. The three-dimensional structure of Trinitarian grace offers an advancement to the Finnish school of Luther interpretation initiated by Tuomo Mannermaa. His fundamental finding of the participatory nature of justification, rooted in Patristic soteriology, is verified in the present study, but an amendment is also offered, based on a critical analysis of Mannermaa’s interpretation of Luther’s Lectures on Galatians (1531/1535).

Mutual Indwelling and the Cry of Dereliction from the Cross

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
The Cross

Sustained examination of experiences that could explain the cry of dereliction from the cross pushes towards an interpretation of the cry according to which the psyches of all human beings pour into the human mind of Christ in his suffering and dying. Insofar as Christ is in the Father, then insofar as human persons are in Christ, they are also in the Father with the Son. And since the Holy Spirit is in every person in grace, in a person in grace there is the kind of mutual indwelling between God and Christ’s disciples that there is between Christ and the Father through the Holy Spirit. In this complicated way, then, there is an account of union in love between God and human persons that is Trinitarian in character.

scholarly journals ON SOME FEATURES OF THE MIAPHYSITE AND DIAPHYSITE CHRISTOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONS

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-131
Author(s):  
ARTHUR MATEVOSYAN
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
Cyril Of Alexandria ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The problem of the relationship between divine and human natures in the person of Christ began to interest the Church as early as the 4th century, but Christological problems became particularly relevant in the next, 5th century due to the emergence of Nestorian and Arian heresies, which were rejected and condemned by the Church. The Council of Chalcedon had an essential role in the approval of Christological dogma and its decisions were not adopted by the majority of the Eastern Churches, and among them the Armenian Church. During the long struggle against Chalcedonian Christology, the Armenian Church developed its own Christological conception, which is distinguished by consistency and convincingness. According to this onception, Christ is the Logos, who adopted the perfect human nature. After incarnation, the divine and human natures in Christ formed unspeakable and unmixed unity, as a result of which all attempts to explain this great mystery of faith are doomed to failure, because the mind is unable to understand the inseparable unity of ontological opposites, each of which retains its qualitative definition. The Logos became incarnate of St. Virgin, whose nature the Holy Spirit had previously purified from original sin, so that the Son of God would be free from its consequences. The divine nature of the Logos was initially inextricably linked with the human nature of Jesus, so that the fact that St. Cyril of Alexandria called "the one nature of God the Word incarnate."

Martin Luther’s Christological Sources in the Church Fathers

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Beckwith
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Lord's Supper ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Cyril Of Alexandria ◽  
Justification By Faith ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Communicatio Idiomatum ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity

Luther did not write an exhaustive dogmatic account of the person and work of Christ. The lack of such a work has led to differing assessments of the place of Christology in Luther’s thought. Some have concluded that Christology played only a secondary role in Luther’s theology. Others have countered that Christology stands at the center of Luther’s thought. The range of assessments on Luther’s Christology can be explained, in part, by the expectations of our theological categories. Luther, like the Church Fathers before him, discussed Christology in a broader context than the scholastic manuals and systematic theologies of late modernity. For both Luther and the Church Fathers, the mystery of Christ stood at the center of their confession of the Trinity, reading of scripture, and life of prayer and worship. When discussing the Trinity, Luther declares, “Where this God, Jesus Christ, is, there is the whole God or the whole divinity. There the Father and the Holy Spirit are to be found. Beyond this Christ God nowhere can be found.” Similarly, when it comes to scripture, Christ is the test by which to judge the books of the Bible. Luther declares, “Remove Christ from the scriptures and what more will you have?” For Luther Christ stands at the center whether we are discussing the Trinity or scripture: “Thus all of Scripture, as already said, is pure Christ, God’s and Mary’s Son. Everything is focused on this Son, so that we might know Him distinctively and in that way see the Father and the Holy Spirit eternally as one God. To him who has the Son scripture is an open book; and the stronger his faith in Christ becomes, the more brightly will the light of scripture shine for him.” All of Luther’s theological reflection proceeds from his faith in Christ. Thinking of Christology only in terms of a formal reflection on the unity of two natures in one person risks reducing the discussion to paradoxical metaphysics and overlooking the broader interests of Luther and the Church Fathers. This point is crucial for a consideration of Luther’s Christological sources in the Church Fathers. Luther aligns himself with the Christological insights of the Fathers and councils by showing how Christ and his saving work stand at the center of theological endeavors. For the Fathers and creeds of the Early Church, the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son forms the context for their reflections on the man Jesus and his saving work. Similarly, for Luther, scripture’s teaching on the Trinity and Christ, as received and clarified by the Fathers and councils, serves as his hermeneutical resource for understanding Christ’s presence in the Lord’s Supper, the blessed exchange between Christ and the believer, and justification by faith. Luther, like the Church Fathers, worked out the distinctive features of his Christology amid controversy. Luther’s debate with Zwingli sharpened his understanding of the Incarnation and reveals his debt to the Fathers. Luther’s use of the communicatio idiomatum and the implications of the sharing of attributes for the Lord’s Supper and our salvation align him closely with the Greek Fathers, particularly those indebted to the theological insights of Cyril of Alexandria. The remarkable convergence between Luther’s argument with Zwingli and Cyril’s argument with Nestorius reveals the strong Alexandrian and Neo-Chalcedonian sympathies and instincts of Luther’s Christology.

Moral Formation in Christ, the Beautiful Beloved

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Formation ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Loving Relationship ◽  
Falling In Love

Christ’s healing of humanity consists, crucially, in forming human beings for loving relationship with himself and others. In this respect, Christ also takes the role of the beautiful beloved. Believers become pilgrims by falling in love with the beautiful Christ by the initiative of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses their eyes to see him as beautiful and enkindles desire in their hearts. By desiring and loving the beautiful Christ, the believer is conformed to him and learns to walk his path. Desiring the beautiful Christ forms a believing community shaped aesthetically and morally for a particular way of life: pilgrimage to the heavenly homeland. Formation is both earthly and eschatological, for so too is the journey and the activity of the pilgrim.

The New Testament and Intellectual Humility

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Macaskill
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Sacrificial Love ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind

This book examines how the New Testament scriptures might form and foster intellectual humility within Christian communities. It is informed by recent interdisciplinary interest in intellectual humility, and concerned to appreciate the distinctive representations of the virtue offered by the New Testament writers on their own terms. It argues that the intellectual virtue is cast as a particular expression of the broader Christian virtue of humility, which proceeds from the believer’s union with Christ, through which personal identity is reconstituted by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, we speak of ‘virtue’ in ways determined by the acting presence of Jesus Christ, overcoming sin and evil in human lives and in the world. The Christian account of the virtue is framed by this conflict, as believers within the Christian community struggle with natural arrogance and selfishness, and come to share in the mind of Christ. The new identity that emerges creates a fresh openness to truth, as the capacity of the sinful mind to distort truth is exposed and challenged. This affects knowledge and perception, but also volition: for these ancient writers, a humble mind makes good decisions that reflect judgments decisively shaped by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. By presenting ‘humility of mind’ as a characteristic of the One who is worshipped—Jesus Christ—the New Testament writers insist that we acknowledge the virtue not just as an admission of human deficiency or limitation, but as a positive affirmation of our rightful place within the divine economy.

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