And how is this surprising?
It's only surprising to the writers and editors at First Things.
And how is this surprising?
It's only surprising to the writers and editors at First Things.
The Bishop did not say it was "surprising." He said it was fascinating.
And I think that anyone, whether Protestant or Catholic, who actually reads Luther will also find it fascinating. Here, for example, is a discussion of Luther's strategy for NOT enjoying God's gifts:
Luther's first strategy for addressing this problem of idolatrous self-seeking, first developed in the Lectures on Romans, uses what might be called a strategy of contrariety. It is a very specific, very simple, and quite perversely brilliant theological move. How can we tell that we are really clinging to God and not to an idol of our own? Luther answers that the gracious presence of the true God is so excruciatingly painful and distastefully unpalatable to our nature that we can have no imaginable self-interested motivation for enduring it.
"Therefore the excellent God, after He has justified and given His spiritual gifts, lest that ungodly nature rush upon them to enjoy them (for they are very lovely and powerfully incite to enjoyment), immediately brings tribulation, exercises, and examines, lest the person perish eternally by such ignorance. For thus a person learns to love and worship God purely, when one worships God not for the sake of His grace and gifts, but for Himself alone."
The problem is that we do not want to come into God's presence for God's sake, but for the sake of all the good things He can do for us: we want to use God. And Luther answers: If it is really God, then He will crucify and torture you as He did Christ, your pattern, and thus leave you no reason to cling to Him except for His own sweet sake.
http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9603/articles/yeago.html
Personally I find that fascinating. You don't?