Formation in Christian Worship

In conversation with Oswald Bayer, Bernd Wannenwetsch, and Louis-Marie Chauvet, this chapter explains comprehensively the power of Christian worship ethically to form Christians in union with Christ. Language and ritual theories explain the power of speech and ritual to institute forms or orders of life. Christians who have been united to Christ through God’s justifying word are inaugurated into the ecclesial form of life. In this communion, they are formed by the Holy Spirit to act in accordance with the speech of God and the institution of the Church. Furthermore, as grace-filled speech, preaching and the sacraments form Christians also by the supernatural “inscription” of the Holy Spirit. The particular power of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper to unite Christians to Christ and to each other, and to form Christians ethically, is explored in Luther’s and Philip Melancthon’s writings.

Character Formation

This chapter engages Stanley Hauerwas’ work on the justification–sanctification distinction and character formation. Hauerwas argues that when we recognize the converting and regenerative character of justification, we may understand conversation to grant new agency or character. The life of sanctification begins with this new character, which continues to be formed through narratives and practices of virtue, especially those found in the church. Lutheran Joel Biermann builds on this argument by comparing character with the active righteousness of a Christian. Biermann’s paramount narrative for Christian character formation is the creedal narrative of the Church. Biermann’s and Hauerwas’ claims lead to further questions to be resolved: the anthropology and ontology of a Christian with new character, the operation of the specifically Christian narrative, and the distinctiveness of Christian character.

Union with Christ and Its Bearing on New Character

Research in the area of union with Christ by the Finnish Luther School in recent decades provides a way of understanding the new character given in justification. The Finnish school has criticized recent Luther research as overlooking Luther’s teaching on union with Christ. Instead, reception of Christ’s grace and gifts requires participation in Christ’s body. While the Finns may be criticized for weaknesses in articulating forensic justification, their emphasis on union serves in the explanation of a new Christian character. Other elements of union are described to develop an anthropology of union. Union is relational, such that both Christ and the Christian retain their identity. Participation emphasizes a Christian’s share in Christ’s benefits and qualities. Adoption serves to emphasize the gracious nature of union, yet the full effect of union in making a Christian a child of God. Incorporation expresses the ecclesiastical and corporate character of union with Christ.

Twofold Righteousness in Early Lutheranism

This chapter explains justification and the two kinds of righteousness among early Lutherans. The Lutheran Confessions speak of justification as both forensic and regenerative. Forgiveness on account of Christ is proclaimed to hearers, and in that proclamation faith is created to receive the forgiveness as it is announced. Faith is no power or quality in itself, but receives the merits of Christ. Thus, Christ himself gives form to faith. Christ’s merits forgive through imputation and regenerate to new spiritual life. In this new life and its accompanying qualities, a Christian is empowered to act righteously. This imputed and imparted righteousness is commonly called the two kinds of righteousness, taught by Luther at various points both early and later in his career. This conception of two kinds of righteousness suggests that ethical progress—the growth of the regenerate life—develops out of forensic justification, and is compatible with it

The Problem of the Divine Law in Christian Ethics

This chapter begins with an overview of the meaning of the term “law,” in order to give background to Lutheran disputes over the term. Starting with the work of J. C. K. von Hofmann, scholars have disagreed over Luther and later Lutherans view of the law. Many suggest that Luther understood the law as God’s call to repentance, existentially experienced, so that it could not be used to teach the good will of God, but only to accuse people of sin, excluding the law from ethics. In spite of the efforts of other scholars such as Werner Elert, who argued that Luther and the Lutheran Confessions are in agreement, resolving the underlying tension over whether the law may be used for instruction requires clarification of the meaning of Christian righteousness, and how the law relates to righteousness.

Christian Virtue and “Meta-virtues”

The new character of the life in union with Christ and formed in the worship of the Church nourishes the fundamental virtues of faith and love. Having established the theological underpinnings of the Christian character and the community setting in which it comes into existence and grows, this chapter considers the virtues of this Christian character and argues for a particular understanding of virtue in view of Luther’s teaching on virtue and good works. Although Luther’s criticism of Aristotelian philosophy was so strong that he rarely even used the term “virtue,” he speaks of “good works” as inclinations that grow out of faith and love. Faith inclines a person toward worship, thanks, and praise of God. Love inclines Christians to see themselves in the place of their neighbors in accordance with the Golden Rule and to act according to the neighbor’s benefit.

Virtue, Community, and Instruction for Ethical Formation

This chapter revisits the role of worship and instruction in the law in view of the previous chapters. The Church itself is characterized by preaching and the administration of the sacraments, by gathering for worship and prayer, and by suffering trials together. These practices strengthen and shape the virtues of faith, hope, and love, which lead a person into true Christian holiness. The Ten Commandments take concrete shape in instruction in the life of the Church. Both the convicting and instructive uses of the law remain without detracting from each other, as Christians continue to grow in awareness of areas in which they need to continue to repent, and of ways to develop good works.

Personhood and Righteousness in Communion with Christ

This chapter explains personhood as including not only individual substance, but having grounding outside of oneself, in relation. The Christian finds his grounding in Christ through communion. A Lutheran perspective on theosis is presented positively. However, it is clarified and elaborated by an explanation of simul iustus et peccator and the two natures in the Christian. In union with Christ, some of Christ’s qualities begin to characterize and shape the Christian’s new, regenerate nature, while the sinful nature persists and hampers the Christian until death. A Christian is one person with two natures, the sinful and the regenerate, while the regenerate nature lives in union with Christ sharing in, acting with, and growing by some of Christ’s qualities.

Christian Righteousness

This chapter presents an overview of the question of ethical formation in relation to the Christian teaching of justification by faith alone. Lutherans in particular are seen as struggling with this relation and are often viewed as struggling to present a developed moral theology. The distinction between law and gospel opens up language of “two kinds of righteousness,” which risks separating justification from good works. Both “justification” and ethics are related to righteousness. Their contradistinction has served systematic theology well in emphasizing the graciousness of justification. In moral theology, however, this contradistinction may lead to disjunction, when, in fact, Christian ethics cannot be understood theologically without vigorous roots in justification. Rather than setting justification and ethics separately or at odds, one could investigate how both the activity of God to reconcile humanity to himself, and also the active human response to this reconciliation, give full expression to “righteousness,” theologically understood.