Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Teaching at West Michigan Lutheran High School
Tomorrow I'll start teaching at West Michigan Lutheran High School. I'll be teaching Lutheran Confessions and a comparative religions course. It should be a good time. Many of my students already in my high school sunday school class.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Is the Book of Concord "Canon Law for Lutherans"?
My seminary friend Donavon Riley (now an LCMS pastor in Minnesota) wrote another excellent piece for BJS here:
http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=26049
Pr. Riley's basic point in the post (as I read it) was that the Lutheran symbols are not some sort of odious authority, stifling our theological freedom (a claim often made by ELCA folks and other liberal Lutherans), but are rather a guide to true doctrine. True doctrine is regulative of good preaching and good preaching conveys the gospel and the freedom that it bring. Hence, the authority of the Lutheran Confessions is ordered to the creation of the freedom of the gospel, and not meant to create more law-based bondage.
An unknown person calling himself "BOC Fan" left a series of comments on the blog in response to Pr. Riley. I will not speculate here as to who this individual is (persons on the website seem to have a good idea, but these things are never 100%). Nevertheless, I will deal with the theological claims made by this individual. Believing that Pr. Riley was leading to some sort of laxed view of the Lutheran Confessions (certainly a misreading), this particular author asserted that we must understand that the Confessions are real norming authorities for the Church. Of course, this is true and indeed this is not a point which pastor Riley wished to dispute. The author went farther though and claimed that the Lutheran Confessions are "canon law" for Lutherans. There were a number of responses to this claim (before the author was asked to leave), including my own. Here below I'd like to flesh out my own response a bit more with a series of points.
1. First of all, the claim that the LCs are "canon law for Lutherans" is a bit odd. It is odd because it comes off as the acceptance of a kind of caricature of confessional Lutheranism promoted by its liberal opponents. I remember one of my Confessions profs. in seminary (Pat Kiefert- a Seminex grad!) claiming that that is how Arthur Piepkorn had taught the symbols to him (that is, as canon law) and therefore, because of freedom of the gospel, we shouldn't take them too seriously! In other words, in this individual describing the LCs as canon law, he comes off rather like a Catholic proudly announcing that they are a bread-worshiper, idolator, and Pelagian! Or a Baptist fundamentalist proudly announcing that he or she is an anti-intellectual killjoy! BOC Fan is in effect accepting a caricature or false representation of the confessional Lutheran perspective. Therefore, I do not think describing the LCs as "our canon law," helps our cause as confessional Lutherans. The analogy between canon law and the LCs probably should be avoided since it plays into liberal caricatures and polemics.
2. A second (and minor historical point- brought up to me by my wife!) is that the LCs cannot be canon law for Lutherans, insofar as (despite Luther's public burning 1521) Lutheran Church continued to use canon law (to the extent that it did not conflict with Scripture or Christian freedom) throughout the early centuries of its establishment. For this reason, the LCs can't be canon law for Lutherans, because canon law was canon law for Lutherans!
3. Thirdly, I would comment that I think to a certain extent that BOC Fan's heart was in the right place. Many of the responses that he received on BJS were something like "well no, you're wrong because the code of canon law is law and not gospel- and the LCs are gospel!" And I don't think this is entirely the correct approach to take. The approach I would take is that of Pr. Riley and that is to assert that the Lutheran symbols are real authorities (albeit normed by Sacred Scripture) and therefore they are law as well as gospel. In this sense, BOC Fan is indeed correct: The Confessions contain God's truth and God's truth is obligatory, and not optional. This is an important, because there has been confusion on this point as of late. I recently heard a Lutheran theologian whom I have a great deal of respect for (I will not name him here, in case I have misinterpreted his remarks) say that telling laypeople that it is obligatory to believe in one doctrine of predestination (for example) or other propositional truths, is a form of legalism and incompatible with the freedom of the gospel which the Church is based on. And this is incorrect. The gospel justifies and sanctifies- sanctification means obedience to all God has revealed, including all the propositional truths of the faith. If I have faith, then I trust in the word of justification and therefore I also have to acknowledge that God is true and that what he has revealed is also true. To not believe these things is the same as to persist in sins of the flesh after I have been justified. Intellectual sins are no less sins than the sins of the flesh. This being said, again as Pr. Riley observes, this law of propositional truth is ultimately ordered to the freedom of the gospel. By imposing that law of true doctrine on the visible Church, such a law leads to a clarification of the gospel which brings freedom from the condemnation of the law.
4. Fourthly, the analogy between canon law and the LCs breaks down on another level, that is, on the basis of how our norming norms and normed norms function in light of how we understanding the phenomenonology of the Word.
The Lutheran act of “confessing” is inherently different than the Roman Catholic notion of “Decrees” and “Canons”- the latter being assumed in the formation of canon law. The issue is how one thinks about the subject/object relationship when dealing with the Word of God. For Roman Catholics, Scripture is a lifeless object, interpreted by special persons who have the Spirit (Pope, Councils, etc.). The person judges the object’s qualities based on their gifts of the Spirit and then decrees what the content is. In this schema, the reader is in control of the read object.
In confessing, the person of faith responds to the Word which is he or she has suffered. The Word is God’s Word and therefore omnipotent. The person of faith suffers God’s Word and becomes the object of its address. The consequence is the derivative response of the Confession. One proclaims with their mouth, what through the omnipotent power of the Word they have come to believe with their heart. In this schema, God and his Word are in control, and the reader suffers this Word passively. Hence, the law/gospel nature of the Word means that the Church in every age suffers the Word passively and then proclaims that Word. The confession of the Church in response to certain polemic situation has become authoritative not because it is the decree of the Church, but because it is the spirit-induced confession of the Church's continued faith in the Holy Scriptures within a given situation.
http://steadfastlutherans.org/?p=26049
Pr. Riley's basic point in the post (as I read it) was that the Lutheran symbols are not some sort of odious authority, stifling our theological freedom (a claim often made by ELCA folks and other liberal Lutherans), but are rather a guide to true doctrine. True doctrine is regulative of good preaching and good preaching conveys the gospel and the freedom that it bring. Hence, the authority of the Lutheran Confessions is ordered to the creation of the freedom of the gospel, and not meant to create more law-based bondage.
An unknown person calling himself "BOC Fan" left a series of comments on the blog in response to Pr. Riley. I will not speculate here as to who this individual is (persons on the website seem to have a good idea, but these things are never 100%). Nevertheless, I will deal with the theological claims made by this individual. Believing that Pr. Riley was leading to some sort of laxed view of the Lutheran Confessions (certainly a misreading), this particular author asserted that we must understand that the Confessions are real norming authorities for the Church. Of course, this is true and indeed this is not a point which pastor Riley wished to dispute. The author went farther though and claimed that the Lutheran Confessions are "canon law" for Lutherans. There were a number of responses to this claim (before the author was asked to leave), including my own. Here below I'd like to flesh out my own response a bit more with a series of points.
1. First of all, the claim that the LCs are "canon law for Lutherans" is a bit odd. It is odd because it comes off as the acceptance of a kind of caricature of confessional Lutheranism promoted by its liberal opponents. I remember one of my Confessions profs. in seminary (Pat Kiefert- a Seminex grad!) claiming that that is how Arthur Piepkorn had taught the symbols to him (that is, as canon law) and therefore, because of freedom of the gospel, we shouldn't take them too seriously! In other words, in this individual describing the LCs as canon law, he comes off rather like a Catholic proudly announcing that they are a bread-worshiper, idolator, and Pelagian! Or a Baptist fundamentalist proudly announcing that he or she is an anti-intellectual killjoy! BOC Fan is in effect accepting a caricature or false representation of the confessional Lutheran perspective. Therefore, I do not think describing the LCs as "our canon law," helps our cause as confessional Lutherans. The analogy between canon law and the LCs probably should be avoided since it plays into liberal caricatures and polemics.
2. A second (and minor historical point- brought up to me by my wife!) is that the LCs cannot be canon law for Lutherans, insofar as (despite Luther's public burning 1521) Lutheran Church continued to use canon law (to the extent that it did not conflict with Scripture or Christian freedom) throughout the early centuries of its establishment. For this reason, the LCs can't be canon law for Lutherans, because canon law was canon law for Lutherans!
3. Thirdly, I would comment that I think to a certain extent that BOC Fan's heart was in the right place. Many of the responses that he received on BJS were something like "well no, you're wrong because the code of canon law is law and not gospel- and the LCs are gospel!" And I don't think this is entirely the correct approach to take. The approach I would take is that of Pr. Riley and that is to assert that the Lutheran symbols are real authorities (albeit normed by Sacred Scripture) and therefore they are law as well as gospel. In this sense, BOC Fan is indeed correct: The Confessions contain God's truth and God's truth is obligatory, and not optional. This is an important, because there has been confusion on this point as of late. I recently heard a Lutheran theologian whom I have a great deal of respect for (I will not name him here, in case I have misinterpreted his remarks) say that telling laypeople that it is obligatory to believe in one doctrine of predestination (for example) or other propositional truths, is a form of legalism and incompatible with the freedom of the gospel which the Church is based on. And this is incorrect. The gospel justifies and sanctifies- sanctification means obedience to all God has revealed, including all the propositional truths of the faith. If I have faith, then I trust in the word of justification and therefore I also have to acknowledge that God is true and that what he has revealed is also true. To not believe these things is the same as to persist in sins of the flesh after I have been justified. Intellectual sins are no less sins than the sins of the flesh. This being said, again as Pr. Riley observes, this law of propositional truth is ultimately ordered to the freedom of the gospel. By imposing that law of true doctrine on the visible Church, such a law leads to a clarification of the gospel which brings freedom from the condemnation of the law.
4. Fourthly, the analogy between canon law and the LCs breaks down on another level, that is, on the basis of how our norming norms and normed norms function in light of how we understanding the phenomenonology of the Word.
The Lutheran act of “confessing” is inherently different than the Roman Catholic notion of “Decrees” and “Canons”- the latter being assumed in the formation of canon law. The issue is how one thinks about the subject/object relationship when dealing with the Word of God. For Roman Catholics, Scripture is a lifeless object, interpreted by special persons who have the Spirit (Pope, Councils, etc.). The person judges the object’s qualities based on their gifts of the Spirit and then decrees what the content is. In this schema, the reader is in control of the read object.
In confessing, the person of faith responds to the Word which is he or she has suffered. The Word is God’s Word and therefore omnipotent. The person of faith suffers God’s Word and becomes the object of its address. The consequence is the derivative response of the Confession. One proclaims with their mouth, what through the omnipotent power of the Word they have come to believe with their heart. In this schema, God and his Word are in control, and the reader suffers this Word passively. Hence, the law/gospel nature of the Word means that the Church in every age suffers the Word passively and then proclaims that Word. The confession of the Church in response to certain polemic situation has become authoritative not because it is the decree of the Church, but because it is the spirit-induced confession of the Church's continued faith in the Holy Scriptures within a given situation.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
2012 Reading List
Here's the annual reading list. As usual, I encourage you to share yours as well!
1. Theological Commonplaces: On Ministry, vol. 1- Johann Gerhard
1. Theological Commonplaces: On Ministry, vol. 1- Johann Gerhard
2. The Evangelical Faith, vol. 1- Helmut Thielicke
3. The Evangelical Faith, vol. 2- Helmut Thielicke
4. The Evangelical Faith, vol. 3- Helmut Thielicke
5. Commentary on Luther's Catechism: The Ten Commandments- Albrecht Peters
6. Commentary on Luther Catechisms: The Lord's Prayer- Albrecht Peters
7. The Justification of the Sinner before God- Eduard Preuss
8. Studies in the Lutheran Confessions- Willard Dow Allbeck
9. High on Arrival- Mackenzie Philips
10. The Spirit of the Laws- Baron De Montesquieu
11. The Social Contract- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
12. A Discourse on the Origins of Inequality- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
13. Leviathan- Thomas Hobbes
14. Critique of Pure Reason- Immanuel Kant
15. Critique of Practical Reason- Immanuel Kant
16. Religion within the Boundaries of Reason Alone- Immanuel Kant
17. Prolegomena to all Future Metaphysics- Immanuel Kant
18. The Story of Philosophy- Will Durant
19. The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy- G.W.F. Hegel.
20. Patrology, vol. 1- Johannes Quasten
21. Patrology, vol. 2- Johannes Quasten
22. Patrology, vol. 3- Johannes Quasten
23. Patrology, vol. 4- Johannes Quasten
24. Aquinas- Eleanore Stump
25. The Social Animal- David Brooks
26. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World-David Brion Davis
27. Inferno: The World at War 1939-1945- Max Hastings
28. Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry- Hans Boersma
29. Taking the Long View: Christian Theology in Historical Perspective- David Steinmetz
30. The Lutheran Confessions: The History and Theology of the Book of Concord- Nestingen, Arand, Kolb.
31. A Contemporary in Dissent: Johann Georg Hamann as Radical Enlightener- Oswald Bayer
32. The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition-Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth
33. On the Unity of Christ- Cyril of Alexandria
34. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy- John Julian Norwich
35. The Ethics- Baruch Spinoza
36. A Theologico-Political Treatise- Baruch Spinoza
37. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation- Elaine Pagels
38. God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life- Catherine LaCugna
39. Theses Opposed to Huberianism: A Defense of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification- Aegidius Hunnius
40. A Contentious Question (1619): "Whether the Godhead is truly known to some degree, or may indeed be known by human understanding without the revealed Word?"- Wittenberg Theological Faculty
41. On the Improvement of Understanding- Baruch Spinoza
42. Hitch 22- Christopher Hitchens
43. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge- George Berkley
44. Three Dialogues Between Hylas & Philonous- George Berkley
45. Models of the Church- Avery Dulles
46. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention- Manning Marable
47. The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God- Gilles Emery
3. The Evangelical Faith, vol. 2- Helmut Thielicke
4. The Evangelical Faith, vol. 3- Helmut Thielicke
5. Commentary on Luther's Catechism: The Ten Commandments- Albrecht Peters
6. Commentary on Luther Catechisms: The Lord's Prayer- Albrecht Peters
7. The Justification of the Sinner before God- Eduard Preuss
8. Studies in the Lutheran Confessions- Willard Dow Allbeck
9. High on Arrival- Mackenzie Philips
10. The Spirit of the Laws- Baron De Montesquieu
11. The Social Contract- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
12. A Discourse on the Origins of Inequality- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
13. Leviathan- Thomas Hobbes
14. Critique of Pure Reason- Immanuel Kant
15. Critique of Practical Reason- Immanuel Kant
16. Religion within the Boundaries of Reason Alone- Immanuel Kant
17. Prolegomena to all Future Metaphysics- Immanuel Kant
18. The Story of Philosophy- Will Durant
19. The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy- G.W.F. Hegel.
20. Patrology, vol. 1- Johannes Quasten
21. Patrology, vol. 2- Johannes Quasten
22. Patrology, vol. 3- Johannes Quasten
23. Patrology, vol. 4- Johannes Quasten
24. Aquinas- Eleanore Stump
25. The Social Animal- David Brooks
26. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World-David Brion Davis
27. Inferno: The World at War 1939-1945- Max Hastings
28. Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry- Hans Boersma
29. Taking the Long View: Christian Theology in Historical Perspective- David Steinmetz
30. The Lutheran Confessions: The History and Theology of the Book of Concord- Nestingen, Arand, Kolb.
31. A Contemporary in Dissent: Johann Georg Hamann as Radical Enlightener- Oswald Bayer
32. The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition-Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth
33. On the Unity of Christ- Cyril of Alexandria
34. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy- John Julian Norwich
35. The Ethics- Baruch Spinoza
36. A Theologico-Political Treatise- Baruch Spinoza
37. Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation- Elaine Pagels
38. God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life- Catherine LaCugna
39. Theses Opposed to Huberianism: A Defense of the Lutheran Doctrine of Justification- Aegidius Hunnius
40. A Contentious Question (1619): "Whether the Godhead is truly known to some degree, or may indeed be known by human understanding without the revealed Word?"- Wittenberg Theological Faculty
41. On the Improvement of Understanding- Baruch Spinoza
42. Hitch 22- Christopher Hitchens
43. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge- George Berkley
44. Three Dialogues Between Hylas & Philonous- George Berkley
45. Models of the Church- Avery Dulles
46. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention- Manning Marable
47. The Trinity: An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God- Gilles Emery
48. The Trinity in Aquinas- Gilles Emery
49. The Antinomian Disputations- Martin Luther
50. Friends of the Law: Luther's use of the Law for the Christian Life- Edward Engelbrecht
51. A Political Treatise- Baruch Spinoza
52. The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith- Matthew Bowman
53. What Paul Meant- Gary Wills
54. On the Holy Spirit- Basil the Great
55. From Luther to Kierkegaard- Jaroslav Pelikan.
56. A Discourse on Political Economy- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
57. Theologic, vol. II- Hans Urs von Balthasar
58. Theologic, vol. III- Hans Urs von Balthasar
59. Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010- Charles Murray
60. Three Essays- Albrecht Ritschl
61.The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation: The Positive Development of the Doctrine- Albrecht Ritschl
62. Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain- Charles Cross
49. The Antinomian Disputations- Martin Luther
50. Friends of the Law: Luther's use of the Law for the Christian Life- Edward Engelbrecht
51. A Political Treatise- Baruch Spinoza
52. The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith- Matthew Bowman
53. What Paul Meant- Gary Wills
54. On the Holy Spirit- Basil the Great
55. From Luther to Kierkegaard- Jaroslav Pelikan.
56. A Discourse on Political Economy- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
57. Theologic, vol. II- Hans Urs von Balthasar
58. Theologic, vol. III- Hans Urs von Balthasar
59. Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010- Charles Murray
60. Three Essays- Albrecht Ritschl
61.The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation: The Positive Development of the Doctrine- Albrecht Ritschl
62. Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain- Charles Cross
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