By Schubert Ogden
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Luther argues that, although "the church has no power to make new divine promises of grace," "\[t\]his one thing indeed the church can do: It can distinguish the \[w\]ord of God from the words of men" (_LW_, 36: 107). This is possible, he explains, following Augustine, because or insofar as |
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Elsewhere Luther argues to much the same effect, appealing to the same Pauline text.
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Also relevant is another passage, which I leave untranslated:
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Es ist 'nit genug, daß dir sagst, Luther, Petrus oder Paulus hat das gesagt, sondem du mußt bei dir selbst im Gewissen fühlen Christum selbst und inwendig empfinden, daß es Gottes Wort sei, wenn auch alle Welt da wider spreche. So lange du das Fühlen nicht hast, so lange hast du gewißlich Gottes Wort noch nicht geschmeckt und hangest noch mit den Ohren an Menschenmund und -feder und nicht mit des Herzens Grund am Wort und weiß noch nicht, was das ist Mt 23: Ihr sollt euch nicht Meister heißen auf Erden, denn einer ist Euer Meister, Christus. Der Meister lehret im Herzen, doch durch das äusserliche Wort seiner Prediger, die es in die Ohren treiben, aber Christus treibts in das Herz' (Friedrich Gogarten, Luthers Theologie: 247, quoting WA, 10 II, 23, 5). |
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Es ist 'nit genug, daB dir sagst, Luther, Petrus oder Paulus hat das gesagt, sondem du muiSt bei dir selbst im Gewissen fiihlen Christum selbst und inwendig empfinden, daB es Gottes Wort sei, wenn auch alle Welt da wider spreche. So lange du das Fiihlen nicht hast, so lange hast du gewiBlich Gottes Wort noch nicht geschmeckt und hangestnoch mit den Ohren an Menschenmund und \-feder und nicht mit des Herzens Grund am Wort und weill noch nicht, was das ist Mt 23: Ihr soUt euch 2 nicht Meister heiBen auf Erden, denn einer ist Euer Meister, Christus. Der Meister lehret im Herzen, doch durch das ausserliche Wort seiner Prediger, die es in die Ohren treiben, aber Christus treibts in das Herz' (Friedrich Gogarten, Luthers Theologie: 247, quoting WA, 10 II, 23, 5). (The close connection between this passage and the statement of Luther's quoted by Bultmann \[GV, 1: 108\] seems obvious: Divine faith clings to the word that is God himself, believes, trusts, and honors this word-not for the sake of him who speaks it, but rather feels that it is so true and certain that no one can any longer tear it |
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Divine faith clings to the word that is God himself, believes, trusts, and honors this word – not for the sake of him who speaks it, but rather feels that it is so true and certain that no one can any longer tear it away. . . . |
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itself, |
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without |
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any |
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for |
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persons, |
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must |
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do |
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enough |
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for |
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heart, |
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must |
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so |
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grasp |
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convince |
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one, |
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that, |
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caught |
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. . . yes, |
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himself |
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said |
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otherwise.) |
Yet another relevant passage:
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What is to be made of all this?
One thing, evidently, is that Luther has no truck with any appeals to merely formal authority -– to "who said it." If one is to believe as one is supposed to believe, it can't be because some putative authority has said it, but only because, or insofar as, the truth itself so lays hold of one that one cannot deny it -– not even, indeed, if God Godself were to say otherwise.
On the other hand, much of what Luther says could be taken as simply his
variation on the common theme that propositions of faith are "selfauthenticatingself-authenticating."
The important difference from at least some other such
variations, however, is the sharp contrast he draws between Christ as, in my
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tennsterms, the primal source of authority and Christ's preachers as, mere (even if the primary) authorities authorized by that source. Because of this contrast, the only thing that can be said to be "self-authenticating," really, is Christ, not the propositions of faith that bear witness to him, all of which --– even those of apostles\! -– require to be authorized by whether they do or do not "push" him.
Moreover, Luther does insist that "the word itself . . . must do enough for the heart, must so grasp and convince one" that one has good and sufficient reason to believe it -– against anything said to the contrary, even by God. But what is this if not a way of saying that one is to believe, finally, because it's the only way one can make sense of --– do full justice to --– what one inelucatably believes, even when one does not believe that one believes it\!?
In any case, Luther does not claim infallibility for anyone. On the contrary, he asserts, "All may err, as councils have repeatedly erred," and asks rhetorically, "Has the pope not erred many times?" (36:108; 44: 134). And against the Romanists who "think . the Holy Spirit never leaves them, no matter how ignorant and wicked they are," he is emphatic that "the Holy Spirit can be possessed only by pious hearts" (44:133 £f.). Moreover, he claims only that all Christians, having IIone "one spirit of faith," can perceive "what is consistent with faith and what is not, just as well well as an unbelieving pope does" (135; italics added).
18 September 2006