This volume will take its place as a premier study of Martin Luther's theology. Forty-seven essays from an international array of experts clearly and incisively convey the theological trajectories, emphases, and importance of the Wittenberger's insights. Anticipating the 500th anniversary of Luther's 1517 actions, this book presents a full yet succinct panoramic overview that is a deep treasure for all who study Luther. It is an unparalleled resource for the anniversary year and beyond in the continuing quest to understand Luther's thought, which helped initiate such wide-ranging ecclesiastical reform in the early modern period.
The editors indicate this volume is different from other related Luther studies in that except for the initial essay, this book does not provide a focus on Luther's fascinating career. Instead, “this volume is intended to serve those seeking orientation to the vast palette of Luther scholarship” (2). The pieces set Luther in his historical contexts. They indicate his debts to the theological heritage but also emphasize his new insights, which proved so important to his audiences.
This vast volume is oriented by six perspectives on Luther: “(1) his grounding in the thinking of his day, (2) his own hermeneutical principles for his way of interpreting and applying Scripture, (3) his theological emphases, (4) his views of various aspects of Christian living, (5) his use of specific genres and the role they played in shaping his thought, and (6) the various ways in which his thought interacted with contemporaries and has been interpreted in the centuries since his death” (2). The well-defined structure and clarity of the essays testify to the ways these foci are followed throughout. This is a high quality reference work as well as an authoritative and up-to-date survey of historic and contemporary Luther research.
After the initial essay on Luther's life by Charlotte Methuen, the six orienting perspectives form the subjects for the next six parts of the book. The editors' “Conclusion: Venturing into the Study of Luther” is helpful, as is a twelve-page glossary with full definitions of important terms, which precedes the thorough index.
The seriousness with which Luther's backgrounds and formative influences are taken is seen in the seven chapters devoted to “The Medieval Background and Origins of Luther's Thought.” Major components of this background are studied in pieces devoted to nominalism, monastic-mystical piety, medieval reform movements (particularly the Hussites), medieval biblical interpretation and Luther's use of the church fathers, and humanism.
Two essays on Luther's transformation of medieval thought, one stressing Luther's primary discontinuity and one on Luther's continuity with the medieval past conclude this part. Each emphasizes Luther's transformative actions in both discontinuity and continuity, in re-formatio (105). Luther rejected scholasticism, modified piety, and ruptured the Roman ecclesiastical system (Systembruch) along with rejecting medieval conciliar decisions. Yet there were “natural continuities” as well. The use and functions of catechism, a humanist drive (through Erasmus) for translating the scriptures from the original languages, and a continuity of infant baptism with early church and medieval practice are some examples. Transformations and recombinations of the tradition were always there. Volker Leppin writes, “Only a finely tuned consideration of the many strands of continuity in which Luther lived and thought will make his own completed transformations understandable. Only then will it be possible to recognize what in him is actually new” (123).
Luther's hermeneutical principles, guiding him through teaching and preaching, are concisely considered in pieces on God and history; Luther's use of language; his theologia cruces; and Luther's hermeneutics of distinctions: law and gospel, two kinds of righteousness, two realms, and freedom and bondage. These superb essays form a fitting background and foundation for a wide range of specific topics throughout Luther's thought.
Luther's treatment of Western theology's traditional topics (Part IV) features twelve pieces ranging through the familiar loci from God and creation, through justification, Christ's person and work, to sacraments, church, and eschatology. Appropriately, the two pieces on “Justification by Faith” examine “The View of the Mannermaa School” and “Luther on Justification as Forensic and Effective.” The much-discussed “Finnish school” of Luther interpretation on this issue was begun by Tuomo Mannermaa who said that “according to Luther, justification is not merely a new ethical or juridicial relation between God and a human being” (254). Mannermaa is “critical of a merely forensic view of justification in traditional Lutheran theology and defends an effective view, in which Christ represents both God's favour and God's gift to humans” (255). Risto Saarinen's essay on the Mannermaa school explores the development of Mannermaa and his pupils, including ecumenical dimension of their views. Mark Mattes's essay on forensic and effective justification includes consideration of the Mannermaa school and argues that both traditional emphases (forensic) and Finnish school reconsiderations (effective) have their place. Says Mattes, “Luther's approach to the article of justification is forensic . . . nevertheless, his view of justification is also ‘effective’” (271). For Mattes, “preaching which distinguishes law and gospel is the most important practice in the church's life” (270).
The impact and reception of Luther's thought in history and in the twenty-first century as Part VII of this book presents twelve essays which move through ways Luther's theology was considered in growing circles out from Wittenberg, among his Roman Catholic critics as well as Luther and the Schwarmer, through the age of Lutheran Orthodoxy, to Pietism and the Enlightenment, and into the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries. Specific studies also target evaluations of Luther in Marxism, twentieth-century Roman Catholicism, world protestantism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Collectively these essays provide an intriguing look at “the many faces of Luther,” past and present.
Future prospects for continuing interest in Luther come from a number of quarters. How they develop is unsure. But this excellent Handbook will assist all who study Luther and may wish to translate his insights into their own cultural contexts.
