Trinitarian Grace in Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Divine Grace ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Will ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
Core Idea ◽  
Relationship Of

Professor Miikka Ruokanen reveals the powerfully Trinitarian and participatory nature of Martin Luther’s conception of divine grace in his magnum opus The Bondage of the Will, largely ignored in the previous research. The study establishes a genuinely new understanding of Luther’s major treatise opening up its ecumenical potential. Luther’s debate with Erasmus signifies not only a disagreement concerning free will, but the dispute reveals two contrasting understandings of the very core idea of the Christian faith. For Erasmus, the relationship of the human being with God is based on the rationally and morally acceptable principles of fair play. For Luther, the human being is captivated by the overwhelming power of unfaith and transcendental evil, Satan; only the monergistic grace of the Triune God and the power of the Holy Spirit can liberate him/her. Ruokanen verifies the Trinitarian vision of salvation “by grace alone” as the center of Luther’s theology. This doctrine has three dimensions: (1) The conversion of the sinner and the birth of faith in Christ are effected by prevenient divine grace; justification “through faith alone,” is the sole work of God’s Spirit, comparable to creation ex nihilo. (2) Participation in the person, life, and divine properties of Christ, as well as participation in his salvific work, his cross, and resurrection, are possible solely because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Justification means simultaneously the forensic declaration of the guilty non-guilty on the basis of the atonement by Jesus’ cross, as well as a union with Christ in the Holy Spirit. (3) Sanctification means the gradual growth of love for God and neighbor enabled by the believer’s participation in divine love in the Holy Spirit. Ruokanen’s work offers a crucial modification and advance to the world-renowned Finnish school of Luther interpretation: Luther’s classic use of Pneumatological language avoids the problems caused by using an ontological language.

Franciscan History and Fray Juan de Zumárraga

1949 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 261-263
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Soul ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Will ◽  
God's Image ◽  
Ingenious Method ◽  
The Church

Memoria Mea in generationes saeculorum. “My memory is unto everlasting generations” (Ecclus. 24:28). These words of the Wise Man come to mind as we are assembled at this Academic Session which is to signalize the Fourth Centenary of the Death of Don Fray Juan de Zumárraga, O.F.M., the first Bishop of Mexico City.Our Seraphic Doctor, St. Bonaventure, who followed closely in the footsteps of that Giant among the Fathers of the Church, the “Doctor Gratiae,” St. Augustine, assigns to the human Memory a place of exalted dignity and excelling power. Ranking it with the Intellect and the Will, the Celestial Patron of the Franciscan School traces this trinity of faculties of the human soul, by his ingenious method of exemplarism, to the image of the Triune God. “Eo est mens imago,” writes the illustrious Bishop of Hippo, “quo potest esse capax et particeps Deo.” In other words, the human mind is God’s image to the extent that it can grasp, and have a share with, God. “But,” continues the Seraphic Doctor, “God cannot be fully grasped by the soul unless He be loved; nor can He be loved unless He be known; nor again can He be known unless He be present to the soul. The first is achieved by the will; the second by the intellect; the third by the memory.” In this wise, Bonaventure argues, the will is appropriated to the Holy Spirit; the intellect to the Divine Son; the memory to the Eternal Father (cf. I Sent. Ill, II, I, I. Op. Omnia, Vol. 1, pp. 80–81).

The Trinitarian Nature of the Pneumatological Grace

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-116
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Person ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
New Creation ◽  
New Birth ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Ex Nihilo ◽  
The Universe

In his magnum opus Luther follows the Trinitarian logic of John and Paul in the New Testament and the Patristic teaching on the indivisibility of the works of the three persons of the Trinity. When the Holy Spirit of the Father and of the Son makes known Christ, he simultaneously makes known the Father who sent his Son. The mission of the Son depends entirely on his Father who sent him, and the mission of the Son becomes effective only in the power of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit makes Christ together with his gifts truly present in the human person, without the Spirit, Christological grace has no impact on the sinner—Christological grace and Pneumatological grace are inseparable and simultaneous. Luther expresses the same truth both in Pneumatological and in Christological terms, the chapter at hand displays extensive evidence on this coincidence. Moreover, Luther creates an explicit analogy between the creation of the universe and of the work of the Holy Spirit enabling the new birth or rebirth of the sinner. The universe was created “from nothing” by the monergistic power of the Triune God, so is the conversion and the faith of the sinner created ex nihilo by God’s Spirit. As human beings “did nothing to create themselves,” likewise they cannot do anything to “newly create” themselves from unbelief to faith; any notion of free choice collapses. The ability of creation and that of new creation are divine properties only: “Let God be God!”

Erasmus and Luther

2021 ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Fair Play ◽  
Human Being ◽  
New Creation ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Two Kingdoms ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
The Relationship

For Erasmus, the relationship between God and the human being is rationally and morally acceptable fair play in which both parties have their responsibilities. He follows the teaching of Nominalism: God has promised to grant his grace to anyone who does the minimum that he/she naturally can for receiving grace. “Free choice” means that the human being has the capability of applying him/herself to the things which lead to eternal salvation or turning away from them.Impenitence is a sin that can never be forgiven; moral deeds “attract” grace. For Luther, freedom in moral decisions plays a crucial role in the human community “in front of the world and people,” in relation to the “things below oneself.” But the human being is not free in his/her relation to the “things above oneself,” “in front of God,” or facing the power of unfaith, sin, and demonic evil. Should there be any change in the human’s relation to the realities “above oneself,” it is always a work of God’s prevenient grace effected by the Holy Spirit. Faith is a “new creation” infused into human hearts by God’s Spirit; sola fide is fully a Pneumatological reality for Luther—a fact overlooked in Luther research. The Spirit establishes an intimate union between the Triune God and the human being. Luther creates a massive defense of God’s sovereign grace, sola gratia. The doctrine of two “kingdoms” is the backbone of Luther’s thinking. Erasmus did not make such a distinction; consequently, law and gospel get mixed.

scholarly journals Trinitarian Paradigm for Dialogue

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Andrzej Derdziuk
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Spiritual Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Spiritual Nature ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit

Abstract A dialogue as a social reality consists, first and foremost, in communication between those who realize that they are called to notice and to accept the other and to treat him or her with proper respect. Such a dialogue may be motivated either by the desire to share the good or by the willingness to avoid conflict. The aforementioned approaches are marked by distinctly different attitudes, which are not only rooted in two different methodologies and have two different aims, but they also encompass two diverse procedures. More importantly, engaging in dialogue may also be motivated by realizing one’s own mission in life, i.e. acting in harmony with the spiritual nature of the human being, who is a relational being. Upon realizing his or her likeness to the Triune God, i.e. the inseparable communion of the Divine Persons, a Christian discovers that the Holy Trinity constitutes the model and source for his or her own involvement in maintaining relationships with other people. Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare Movement was a contemporary thinker, who had realized and creatively developed the human vocation for unity in the likeness of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This movement, founded by Lubich, has both lay and consecrated members who are devoted to building the culture of unity based upon promoting dialogue as a tool for interpersonal communication. The aim of this article is to present the spiritual experience of Chiara Lubich, which marks the origin of this new concept of a dialogue rooted in the mystery of Divine unity.

Aesthetics

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-308
Author(s):  
William Dyrness ◽  
Christi Wells
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Physical Beauty ◽  
Will Of God

Edwards’s aesthetics grounded in the ongoing work of God communicated in creation, not only lies at the centre of his thought but is increasingly recognized as one of his most original contributions to theology. Edwards’s reflection on God’s beauty emerged in the context of his work as a pastor, which allowed him to frame God’s dynamic presence in dramatic and multi-sensory categories. For Edwards Beauty glimpsed in the form of images formed in the mind reflects a consent of being; the visual beauty of symmetry and proportion is meant to move the heart to consent to the will of God reflected in creation—what Edwards calls respectively secondary and primary beauty. All creatures are types and shadows of spiritual realities; beauty and morality are linked, though only the Holy Spirit allows believers to consent to God’s self-disclosure in creation. Edwards’s neo-platonic framework allowed his reflections on the revivals to affirm physical beauty while subordinating its meaning to the spiritual, enhancing its role as revelation but diminishing its value as an end in itself.

Eugene IV and the First Dissolution of the Council of Basle

1967 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loy Bilderback
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
The Other ◽  
Essential Singularity ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Prime Determinant ◽  
The Will ◽  
Great Schism ◽  
The Church ◽  
Will Of God ◽  
Divine Guidance

The Council of Basle was officially charged with three basic concerns: the reform of the Church in head and members; the extirpation of heresy, particularly Bohemian Hussitism; and the attainment of peace among Christian Princes. Yet, the Council was most absorbed by, and is most remembered for, a fourth, unscheduled concern. From its outset, the prime determinant of the actions and decisions of the Council proved to be the problem of living and working with the Papacy. In retrospect it is easy to see that this problem was insoluble. One could not expect the efficient functioning of the Church if there was doubt or confusion about the will of God, and the presence of such doubt and confusion was certain so long as even two agencies could gain support for their contentions that they were directly recipient to the Holy Spirit. Singularity of headship was absolutely necessary to the orderly processes of the Church. Yet the contradiction of this essential singularity was implicit at Constance in the accommodation, by one another of the curialists, the protagonists of an absolute, papal monarchy, and the conciliarists, who sought divine guidance through periodic General Councils. This accommodation, in turn, was necessary if the doubt and confusion engendered by the Great Schism was to be resolved. At Basle, this contradiction was wrought into a conflict which attracted a variety of opportunists who could further their ancillary or extraneous ends through a posture of service to one side or the other, and in so doing they obfuscated the issues and prolonged the struggle.

scholarly journals God’s Love in the Teaching of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-47
Author(s):  
Sylwester Jaśkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Son Of God ◽  
The Third ◽  
God's Love ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Theological Thought

The article presents the subject of God’s love in Cardinal Wyszyński’s teaching. Primate Wyszyński puts God’s love at the very center of his theological thought. The theme of God’s love is discussed in seven sections: the first of them refers to the most famous words of Saint John’s “Deus Caritas est” (1 Jn 4:8,16), which are a short and brief definition of God; the second section develops Cardinal Wyszyński’s statement that there was a “time” in which only Love existed; the third section concerns the impartation of God’s love; fourth section describes the love of the Father; fifth section speaks of the greatest Love, which is the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ; section six focuses on the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Love; the last section speaks of Mary, Mother of Beautiful Love. The whole ends with the summary. In his teachings on the love of God, Cardinal Wyszyński started with the inner life of the Triune God, with the Person of the Father, and then focuses on the salvific mission of the Son of God and the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit. In this way, he appreciates both the category of God the Father and God as a Father full of love.

Is there Any Possibility of Reconciliation between Erasmus and Luther?

2021 ◽  
pp. 172-187
Author(s):  
Miikka Ruokanen
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Real Point ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Cross Of Christ ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Catholic Tradition ◽  
God's Grace

After five centuries, would it be possible to see any chance of reconciliation between Erasmus and Luther? Looking at this question from the point of view of the three dimensions of the doctrine of grace, we might say some hopeful words. As to the first (1) dimension of grace, at many points even Erasmus admits that human choice must be empowered by God’s grace in order to move in the direction willed by God. But here the real difference is that, for Erasmus, free choice is enabled by the grace given in the creation and it is still naturally efficient in the sinners, whereas Luther sees that there is no freedom because of the human being’s enslavement by unfaith —there is a need for the efficient prevenient movement of the Holy Spirit which alone can create faith. As to the second (2) dimension of grace, following the Catholic tradition, Erasmus knows the conception of (2a) the forensic-juridical forgiveness of sins based on the atonement by the cross of Christ—in this respect there is no real point of controversy between the two. But Erasmus knows nothing about (2b) the union of the sinner with Christ in the Holy Spirit, the Trinitarian participatory conception of justification, central for Luther. In respect to the third (3) dimension of grace, both see possible the cooperation of the believer with God, the difference being Erasmus’ more anthropocentric concept of sanctification if compared with Luther’s emphasis of growth in love enabled by the Holy Spirit.

scholarly journals Veni, veni, o Oriens... die erediens as kommunikatiewe handeling gerig op oriëntering, uitdrukking, verandering en verbintenis

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kloppers
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Expression Change ◽  
Symbolic Communication ◽  
Worship Service ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Communicative Actions

Veni, veni, o Oriens... the worship service as communicative action aimed at orientation, expression, change and commitment Through symbolic communication the experience of faith can be brought about and the Christian tradition actively transmitted in a worship service. In this article it is argued that in the worship service faith is communicated through various communicative actions by means of which symbolic communication on all levels is established. The worship service itself is an encompassing communicative action aimed at orientation, expression, change and commitment. The Triune God is the foundation of the worship service and the point of orientation. The love and presence of Jesus Christ through the working of the Holy Spirit are the conditions under which the expression of faith takes place and all communicative actions become performative. Through these actions commitment is brought about, participants come to a new understanding of faith, and fundamental change is experienced.

scholarly journals The doctrine on God, as demonstrated and confessed in the Heidelberg Catechism

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carel F.C. Coetzee
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
Bodily Resurrection ◽  
Triune God ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
African Context ◽  
Many Sources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Heaven And Earth

Although the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) does not deal with a systematic doctrine on God and although there are not many sources available on the specific subject, it is a most important subject when dealing with the theology of the HC (W. van ’t Spijker). Due to the prescribed length of the article, it only focuses on two aspects of the doctrine on God, namely the Trinity and the relationship between God and the cosmos (reality). Futhermore, today there is an emphasis on a new concept of God, known as Panentheism. In this concept, God and his creation are identified with each other. In the South African context, the article deals very shortly with the viewpoints of Spangenberg, Van Aarde and Müller in this regard. The God confessed in the HC is the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the closest and most logical coherence with this, the HC confesses the deity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. The HC also proceeds from the premise of the historical, bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead. As far as the relationship between God and creation is concerned, the HC, in agreement with the church of the first centuries, confesses and teaches a personal God, the Father of Jesus Christ, who for the sake of Christ is the Father of the elect. This God is the almighty creator of heaven and earth. He lives in a covenant relationship with his creation, which he sustains and governs at every moment. He is both transcendent and immanent.Alhoewel die Heidelbergse Kategismus (HK) nie ’n sistematiese Godsleer bevat soos sommige van die ander belydenisskrifte nie en bronne oor die spesifieke onderwerp betreklik skaars is, is dit tog een van die belangrikste onderwerpe wanneer daar oor die teologie van die HK gehandel word (W. van ’t Spijker). Vanweë die voorgeskrewe lengte, word daar in hierdie artikel slegs op twee aspekte van die Godsleer gefokus, naamlik die Drie-eenheid en die verhouding van God tot die kosmos (werklikheid). Hierdie twee aspekte is juis besonder relevant in die lig van standpunte wat die leer van die Drie-eenheid in gedrang bring deur onder andere die Godheid van Christus en sy liggaamlike opstanding te bevraagteken. Verder word daar vandag gepleit vir ’n nuwe Godsbegrip, bekend as Panenteïsme, waardeur die grens tussen God en sy skepping vervaag. In die Suid-Afrikaanse konteks word hier kortliks aandag aan die standpunte van van Spangenberg, Van Aarde en Müller gegee. Die God wat in die HK bely word, is die drie-enige God: Vader, Seun en Heilige Gees. In die nouste en logiese samehang hiermee bely die HK die Godheid van Christus en van die Heilige Gees. Wat die verhouding tussen God en die skepping betref, bely en leer die HK, in ooreenstemming met die kerk van die eerste eeue, ’n persoonlike God − die Vader van Jesus Christus wat ter wille van Christus die Vader is van die uitverkorenes. Hierdie God is die almagtige Skepper van hemel en aarde. Hy leef in ’n verbondsverhouding met sy skepping wat Hy elke oomblik onderhou en regeer. Hy is tegelyk transendent en immanent.

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