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How to Think About Luther?
Crisis Magazine ^ | July 12, 2017 | James Kalb

Posted on 07/12/2017 4:52:31 PM PDT by ebb tide

How to Think About Luther?

James Kalb

Traditionally, Catholics have viewed Luther as a heresiarch, and the Lutheran break from Rome as a religious and civilizational catastrophe. More recently, in line with current ecumenical and pastoral initiatives, that view has softened.

The softening has been quite noticeable during the current pontificate. The pope recently took part in a joint liturgy with the Church of Sweden to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of Luther’s rebellion. He has also suggested informally that a Lutheran married to a Catholic might legitimately decide to receive communion from a Catholic priest, and that disputes between Catholics and Lutherans over the doctrine of justification, the basic point at issue in Luther’s split with Rome, are now a thing of the past.

More generally, some papal language regarding law and mercy suggests movement away from the Catholic view that grace enables us to overcome our sins toward Luther’s view that it simply frees us from their consequences. Examples include the comment in Amoris Laetitia that

conscience can … recognize with sincerity and honesty what for now is the most generous response which can be given to God, and come to see with a certain moral security that it is what God himself is asking … while yet not fully the objective ideal.

So if you think it’s all you can do, that’s probably all God is looking for. Luther’s pecca fortiter, “sin boldly,” was based on a similar line of thought.

Are these moves in the right direction? The Church is hierarchical, and it is the pope and other clergy who are charged with teaching doctrine and determining appropriate pastoral and ecumenical efforts. Even so, laymen can hardly avoid forming their own views, and many Catholics find that recent ecumenical efforts have done more harm than good, as has a tendency to confuse “pastoral” with “accepting that people do whatever they do.”

Laymen have the right and even obligation to present these concerns. The issues matter a great deal, and not simply for churchly reasons. Our secular authorities are convinced they have the solution to all social and political problems, at least in principle, and can put it into effect through a global managed system that recognizes nothing human outside it, no authoritative God above it, no enduring human nature beneath it, and no significant history behind it other than the history of its own coming into being. Everything is a social construction, and they will do the constructing.

The project is unfounded, overreaching, and destructive, and Catholics should oppose it. But the ecumenical and interfaith movements, along with proposals for loosening sacramental discipline to accept common practices in the name of “accompaniment,” support it by sidelining specific religious principle. They turn it into something like the British monarchy, which lends historical depth and dignity to a modern utilitarian bureaucracy but does not affect its substance. So those who view current political and social trends as anti-Catholic and anti-human have an additional reason for concern regarding ecumenical and pastoral tendencies in the Church that support them.

Concern regarding the changing Catholic attitude toward Luther is all the more justified because he’s the man who initiated the Protestant split from Rome, a fundamental event in the emergence of the modern world, and a variety of liberal and radical movements have claimed him as an inspiration. So if we are troubled by the trend toward a global society organized through and through on wholly secular and increasingly intolerant principles, and want to understand where the trend comes from, we should know something about his thought and deeds and their consequences.

A recently published collection of essays put out by the Roman Forum, an organization founded by Dietrich von Hildebrand, can help. Luther and His Progeny: 500 Years of Protestantism & Its Consequences for Church, State, and Society includes pieces by a dozen European and American scholars of varying backgrounds, each with his own outlook and concerns, but all troubled by the man, the movement he launched, and current efforts to enlist them, along with Catholicism, in a grand scheme of political, social, and religious unification. Each essay is independent of the others, but collectively they cover the basic issues that led Luther to reject the Church, as well as the effects of his rebellion on European thought and society.

Taken together they present the picture of a revolution in religion, politics, law, ethics, economics, and even the natural sciences, the effects of which profoundly shape our present world. At bottom, what seems to have led Luther to break with Rome was his overwhelming sense of guilt over his inability to keep the moral law. He was in a mess, and the Catholic road of humility, penitence, forgiveness, sacrament, grace, and sanctification didn’t seem to be working for him, so he decided that the world itself is one huge irreversible mess. Man is totally depraved, reason a snare, free will an illusion, and the Church can do nothing and so is fundamentally useless. To make matters worse, God himself is willful, incomprehensible, and even self-contradictory, since he is good but makes man incapable of anything but evil.

Under such circumstances what do we do, if it makes sense to ask the question when we have no inclination or ability to think or choose rightly? Basically, Luther’s answer was to rely wholly on the mercy of Christ, who might—or might not—choose to cover up our sins and accept us as justified even though we would inevitably remain as corrupt as ever.

These are not reasonable views. How, for example, is a God worthy of love, worship, and trust who condemns to eternal torment sinners he made incapable of acting otherwise, but then arbitrarily chooses some, who are no better than the others, for forgiveness and eternal bliss? The best that can be done for such views intellectually, one of the essayists suggests, is to view them as a precursor of German idealism, which treats contradiction as fundamental to reality and its dialectical resolution as the basis of the self-construction of the Absolute. At the transcendent level that means, as Luther put it, that “God must first become the devil before he becomes God.” And at the human level, it means faith goes through radically different stages, with the transitions involving overwhelming temptations to unbelief and blasphemy, and ultimate resolution not possible in this world.

Some people think that sort of explanation makes sense, others don’t. A more psychological and likely more comprehensible approach that some have recently proposed is to portray him as a “mystic of mercy,” overwhelmed by the infinitude of divine grace, whose words cannot be taken literally. (Muslims take the same approach with their own mystics, whose words are rarely compatible with orthodox Islam.)

That approach may explain something of the man, but not the movement he started: people don’t look to the incoherent outbursts of mystics for practical tips on the reform of Church, State, and doctrine, but that’s exactly what Luther offered, and what people took from him.

The specifics are complicated. His thought wasn’t coherent, so people took from it what suited them. At bottom, though, denying the practical effectiveness of religion tended strongly to liberate secular affairs from religious concerns, and destroy the authority and the sacramental structure of the Church. And that, it appears, was the reason for the success of his rebellion. By insisting on the irrelevance of divine law to what men actually do, Luther enabled secular powers to shake off the authority of the Church, set themselves up as absolute within their domains, and incidentally enrich themselves and their supporters with the property that an ineffectual Church could no longer justify possessing.

All of which remains relevant today. Secular authorities still don’t like religious limitations, so if a contemporary religious leader wants to exchange scorn for adulation, all he has to do is ignore distinctions, loosen restrictions, and proclaim mercy without penitence or emendation of life. Neither talent, virtue, nor rational coherence is needed, only a willingness to go along in order to get along. And there are many high-ranking churchmen who are eager to accept the deal.

Editor’s note: Pictured above is Pope Francis with the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation Rev. Martin Junge (right) and the President of the Lutheran World Federation Bishop Munib Younan (far left) attending an ecumenical prayer service at the Lutheran cathedral in Lund, Sweden, Oct. 31. (Photo credit: CNS photo/Paul Haring)



TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Mainline Protestant; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: bergoglio; luther
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To: hinckley buzzard
He found the answer he needed in Romans.

Careful, you're going to get called a "Paulestinian" by some of these guys, they think the Apostle Paul was a nut.

41 posted on 07/12/2017 6:02:49 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: metmom

I have. And look at the photo at the top of the article. It seems the Lutherans had no problem “praying” in communion with Bergoglio.


42 posted on 07/12/2017 6:05:07 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome)
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To: ebb tide

All churches that still embrace the Gospel of Jesus, unlike the current occupant of the popemobile.


43 posted on 07/12/2017 6:05:29 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: ebb tide

What short memories Catholics have.

We’ve been warning y’all Catholics for years now and all we got for the first 3-4 years is getting castigated as you guys defended him.

*Oh, he’s just been mistranslated.*

*He was misunderstood.*

*He was taken out of context.*

It took YEARS for Catholics to finally wake up and smell the coffee and even then not a one has said that we were right.


44 posted on 07/12/2017 6:06:04 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: Steelfish

If you’re going to blame Osteen and Wright on Luther then it’s only fair to blame Peter for Bergoglio and the long list of wicked Popes. I’m sure Pete would appreciate that.


45 posted on 07/12/2017 6:06:55 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Rehab is for quitters.)
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To: ebb tide

Yes, and Catholics are happy being in communion with ‘heretics.’ And sodomites.

Using the same standards you did, that must also include you. Because of course all Catholics are the same, just like all Lutherans are the same.

Pfft.


46 posted on 07/12/2017 6:08:10 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Luircin

Christ only founded one Church. Mortal men founded all the others.


47 posted on 07/12/2017 6:08:12 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome)
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To: ebb tide

And it’s YOUR church that’s celebrating Luther.

Any of the Evangelical churches I attend almost never mention him.

I can’t recall a time I’ve heard him quoted in church or a sermon preached about him.

Catholics are the ones obsessed with him.


48 posted on 07/12/2017 6:08:40 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: Rashputin

How’s your newest pope working out for you?

Having one pope for the whole church is terrific isn’t it?

A real advantage over every man his own pope, right?


49 posted on 07/12/2017 6:09:59 PM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..)
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To: Luircin

“Using the same standards you did, that must also include you. Because of course all Catholics are the same, just like all Lutherans are the same.”

Gotta leave a mark...

+1


50 posted on 07/12/2017 6:10:32 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: hinckley buzzard

>>He found the answer he needed in Romans.

SMH.

He wrote this late in his life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies

Quite inspirational to individuals like...

https://www.google.com/#q=julius+streicher+Martin+Luther


51 posted on 07/12/2017 6:11:04 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: HLPhat

Yeah, nothing except maybe as a museum piece.

We don’t worship relics.


52 posted on 07/12/2017 6:11:15 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: Rashputin

Dude, Catholics solidified their own canon AFTER the Reformation, not before.


53 posted on 07/12/2017 6:12:33 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: metmom

It all started with Luther in their minds. Hus, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Calvin, Knox and all the others were merely following Luther’s lead. He was an evil genius, invented a time machine he did. He even wrote the King James Bible according to one persistently erroneous RC on this forum.


54 posted on 07/12/2017 6:12:33 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: ebb tide
Christ only founded one Church.

Agreed, one can only hope some members of your denomination are in it.

55 posted on 07/12/2017 6:12:35 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Rehab is for quitters.)
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To: HLPhat; daniel1212

He learned to dislike Jews well from his Catholic upbringing, as daniel1212 has documented on other threads.


56 posted on 07/12/2017 6:13:36 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
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To: Luircin
Just think how many boat anchors and bags of swan feed could be bought if today's Vestigially clad Roman/Lutheran leaders happened upon an authentic Luther beer mug.

They could have a keg party on the steps at Whittenberg, charge for swigs out of the relic - and then regurgitate verbatim from a an original, scripturally referenced, manuscript copy of "On the Jews and their Lies"... to get folks all fired up into the full drunken spirit of all things Luther!

57 posted on 07/12/2017 6:14:19 PM PDT by HLPhat (It takes a Republic TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS - not a populist Tyranny of the Majority)
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To: ebb tide

So when Pope Frank demands that you embrace sodomy or get excommunicated, you’ll be fine with that?

Because being part of the ‘right church’ is what matters, not what the Lord actually said.

Is that correct?


58 posted on 07/12/2017 6:15:43 PM PDT by Luircin
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To: metmom

I went to many different churches growing up. We were invited by family and friends. In all my 70+ years I never heard anyone mention him. It does seem that he is living rent free in the heads of Catholics. Why is that?


59 posted on 07/12/2017 6:16:32 PM PDT by MamaB (Heb : 13:2)
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To: BipolarBob

There were ‘two’ Peters... and we can read the words Peter the disciple penned to see what those keys given him opened. Somebody hijacked the locksmith and made a different set of keys. Peter the disciple did not have squat to warn about anyone named Luther. This Luther bashing is likened to the ‘man’ divined global climate change. Rome divines it and the masses chant.


60 posted on 07/12/2017 6:17:00 PM PDT by Just mythoughts
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