1060. Luther on the "Double Knowledge of God"

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                                                                                                             Luther on the "Double Knowledge of God"

It is interesting that Luther's distinction between "general" and "proper" (generalis et propria) knowledge of God admits of the kind of interpretation that Bultmann and I give it; i.e., as in effect the distinction between knowing that there is a God, etc. and knowing God as my God (cf., e.g., A Commentary on Galatians: 383 f.: "Now, what doth it avail thee if thou know that there is a God, and yet art ignorant what is his will towards thee?").

At the same time, I suspect that Luther, like the neo-orthodox after him, confused (or did not adequately distinguish) this distinction with the very different distinction with respect to the content of the two forms of knowledge, along the lines I pointed out in Christ without Myth: 142, n. 20.

4 June 1974; rev. 3 August 2002