Luther's Theology of the Cross E-Book

Alister E. McGrath

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 444

Beschreibung

Luther's Theology of the Cross represents a fully revised and updated edition of the classic 1985 text that expands on the author's ongoing research and reflects 25 years of Luther scholarship. * Rewritten and expanded edition of a highly-acclaimed classic text * Incorporates primary and secondary sources that have become available since the publication of the first edition * Draws on advances in our understanding of the late medieval intellectual, cultural, and religious background of Luther's early development, and the nature of Luther's doctrine of justification (including the so-called 'Finnish' school), many of which have not yet been incorporated into Luther scholarship * Luther's 'theological breakthrough' continues to be of central importance to Reformation Studies and the development of Protestantism * Written by one of the world's leading Protestant theologians, who is an authority on the development of the doctrine of justification. His classic work Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification is now in its third edition (2005)

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Also by Alister E. McGrath from Wiley-Blackwell

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part One: The Background Luther as a Late Medieval Theologian, 1509–1514

Chapter 1: The Dawn of the Reformation at Wittenberg

The Late Medieval Context

The Concept of “Justification” in Christian Thought

The Reform of the Church and the Renewal of Spirituality

The Ninety-Five Theses

The Importance of the Present Study

Chapter 2: Headwaters of the Reformation at Wittenberg: Humanism, Nominalism, and the Augustinian Tradition

The via moderna and via antiqua at Wittenberg

A New School of Thought? The via Gregorii at Wittenberg

Luther and the Augustinian Order

Humanism: The studia humanitatis at Wittenberg

Nominalism: The via moderna at Wittenberg

The Augustinian Tradition: A Modern Augustinian School at Wittenberg?

Conclusion

Chapter 3: Luther as a Late Medieval Theologian

The Dictata super Psalterium

Luther's Biblical Hermeneutic, 1513–1514

The Debate Over the Date of Luther's Theological Breakthrough

Part Two: The Breakthrough Luther in Transition, 1514–1519

Chapter 4: Mira et nova diffinitio iustitiae: Luther's Discovery of the Righteousness of God

Luther's Difficulties in the Light of Late Medieval Theology

The Theological pactum and Existential Anxiety

“The Righteousness of God” and “The Righteousness of Faith”

Luther's Exposition of Psalms 70 (71) and 71 (72)

Luther's Break with the Soteriology of the via moderna (1515)

The Nature and Significance of Luther's Critique of Aristotle

The nature and Date of Luther's Theological Breakthrough

Chapter 5: Crux sola est nostra theologia: The Emergence of the Theology of the Cross, 1514–1519

The Heidelberg Disputation (1518) and the “Theology of the Cross”

The Leading Themes of Luther's “Theology of the Cross”

The “Righteousness of God” and the “Theology of the Cross”

The “Theology of the Cross” as a Critique of Analogical Language About God

The “Crucified and Hidden God”

Faith, Doubt, and Anfechtung

Luther's Theological Development, 1509–1519: A Summary

Select Bibliography

Index

Also by Alister E. McGrath from Wiley-Blackwell

Darwinism and the Divine (2011)

The Christian Theology Reader, 4th edn (2011)

Christian Theology: An Introduction, 5th edn (2011)

Science and Religion: A New Introduction, 2nd edn (2009)

Christianity: An Introduction, 2nd edn (2006)

The Blackwell Companion to Protestantism (edited with Darren C. Marks, 2003)

The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation, 2nd edn (2003)

A Brief History of Heaven (2003)

The Future of Christianity (2002)

Christian Literature: An Anthropology (edited, 2000)

Reformation Thought: An Introduction, 3rd edn (1999)

Christian Spirituality: An Introduction (1999)

Historical Theology: An Introduction (1998)

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Thought (1995)

For a complete list of Alister E. McGrath's publications from Wiley-Blackwell, visit our website at www.wiley.com/go/religion

This second edition first published 2011

© 2011 Alister E. McGrath

Edition history: Blackwell Publishing Ltd (1e, 1985)

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McGrath, Alister E., 1953–

Luther's theology of the cross : Martin Luther's theological breakthrough /Alister E. McGrath. – 2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-65530-6 (hardback : alk. paper)

1. Luther, Martin, 1483-1546. 2. Justification (Christian theology) – History of doctrines– 16th century. 3. Jesus Christ–Crucifixion–History of doctrines–16th century. I. Title.

BR333.5.J8M38 2011

234'.7092–dc22

2010049392

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This book is published in the following electronic formats: ePDFs [9781444342321];

Wiley Online Library [9781119995999]; ePub [9781119995975]

For Joanna

Acknowledgments

Luther scholarship is a corporate enterprise, in which each successive study draws increasingly upon the findings of those preceding it. The present study thus owes an incalculable amount to the labors of others. I wish to express particular thanks to those who have helped me at various times and in various ways as I prepared the first edition of this work. That edition, published in 1985, owed much to the advice, encouragement, and criticism of Professor A.G. Dickens, Prof. Dr Leif Grane, Prof. Dr Bengt Hägglund, Prof. Dr Heiko A. Oberman, and especially Professor E. Gordon Rupp.

In revising and rewriting this book a quarter of a century later, I am indebted to the massive body of scholarly literature that has appeared since 1985, which casts valuable light on many of the themes engaged in this study. While many of the conclusions of the original study have been confirmed by more recent studies, this new scholarship has forced revision of some of the arguments and conclusion of the first edition of this work. I am grateful to all working in this field for helping to uncover its complexity, while at the same time illuminating some of its major themes. I hope that this new edition of this work will be judged to reflect accurately our new understanding of this fascinating and tumultuous age, as well as the specific issue on which it focuses – the emergence of Luther's reforming theology over the period 1509–1519, and especially its “theology of the cross.”

Abbreviations

WAD.M. Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (65 vols: Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1883–1966)WABrD.M. Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Briefwechsel (18 vols: Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1930–1985)WADBD.M. Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Deutsche Bibel (12 vols: Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1906–1961)WATrD.M. Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Tischreden (6 vols: Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1912–1921)

Introduction

The years 1517 and 1519 are generally regarded as being of decisive importance in the intellectual development of the Augustinian friar Martin Luther (1483–1546), and the history of the Protestant Reformation as a whole. The first witnessed Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on Indulgences at Wittenberg, and the second his historic disputation with Johannes Eck at Leipzig. It is all too easy for the historian to pass over the intervening year, 1518, as being little more than an interlude between these two pivotal events, a valley nestling between two mountains. In April of that year, however, at the invitation of his superior within the Augustinian Order,1 Johannes von Staupitz, Luther presided over the traditional public disputation at the assembly of the Augustinian Congregation at Heidelberg. In the course of the Heidelberg Disputation,2 a new phrase was added to the vocabulary of Christendom – the “theology of the cross.”

We must immediately be alert to the danger of interpreting the phrase “theology of the cross” in the light of modern western notions of theology as a professionalized academic discipline, focusing on the essentially cognitive question of ideas about God. Recent studies of the Augustinian Order have emphasized its commitment to a practical, affective vision of theology – a Frömmigkeitstheologie, a pastoral theology concerned with fostering and sustaining an authentic Christian existence in the world,3 rather than with purely abstract conceptual reasoning, aimed at an academic audience. Giles of Rome (d.1316), who did much to shape the crystallizing ethos of the Augustinian Order in its early years,4 argued that theology is fundamentally affective, rather than theoretical or practical.5 The leading works of influential theologians of the Augustinian Order – such as Hermann of Schildesche (d. circa 1290), Henry of Friemar (d. circa 1355), and Jordan of Quedlingburg (d.1380) – show little interest in the fine details of an Augustinian theology of grace, but focus instead on more pastoral and spiritual issues, such as creating and sustaining the life of faith, coping with doubt and difficulty, and being shaped by the passion of Christ.6 This theologia is not an abstract doctrine of God, but a practical theology of Christian living, patterned after the life and death of Christ, which creates humility, faith, and a love for others. It is a fundamentally anti-speculative, anti-theoretical way of conceiving and shaping the Christian life, which involves the “normative centering” of that life around the cross of Christ.7 Luther's theologia crucis stands firmly within this tradition, even if it reaches beyond it.

I first began to study the origins and development of Luther's reforming theology under the direction of Professor Gordon Rupp (1910–1986) at Cambridge University during the years 1978–1980. Although my initial historical research in the late 1970s and early 1980s focused on the origins of Luther's reforming ideas,8 it became clear that this required detailed study of the historical development of the notion of “justification by faith,”9 so central to the Reformation debates, and an understanding of the complex intellectual currents that shaped the emergence of the ideas of the Protestant Reformation.10 Further scholarly developments since the publication of the first edition of this work in 1985 have had a significant impact on our understanding of some critical questions of intellectual history relevant to this study, and have led to the production of this new edition.

The present study is an attempt to unfold the intricacies of the development of Luther's developing insights into the justification of humanity coram Deo over the formative years 1509–1519. The intellectual and spiritual origins of Luther's reforming theology are of immense intellectual interest and importance, both in terms of the chronology of this process and its theological substance. This work aims to explore Luther's changing views on the acceptance of humanity in the sight of God in the light of the best scholarship, demonstrating how Luther reflects many theological and spiritual debates of the late Middle Ages, particularly those current within his own Augustinian Order.

A fundamental theme of this study is that the emergence of Luther's celebrated “theology of the cross” over the years 1509–1519 is to be understood as an aspect of Luther's changing understanding of how humanity can find acceptance in the sight of a holy and righteous God. Luther's theologia crucis emerges within the context of his reflections on the doctrine of justification, particularly his agonized and extended attempt to understand what it means to speak of the “righteousness of God” – a theological leitmotif that plays a leading role in Paul's letter to the Romans. The present study thus offers an extended analysis of Luther's changing views on the doctrine of justification over the period 1509–1519, aiming to offer the best explanation of both the textual and contextual evidence.

This transition can only be understood in the light of the late medieval theological context within which these insights took place.11 Luther's transition from being a representative theologian of the late Middle Ages to the pioneer of a new reforming theology is a subject of enormous historical and theological interest, whose complexity is more than outweighed by its inherent fascination.12 The present study is therefore essentially an investigation of the development of Luther's doctrine of justification over the years 1509–1519, viewed in particular relation to his late medieval theological context. In the course of this study, many of the questions that are the subject of continuing debate among Luther scholars – such as the date and the nature of Luther's theological breakthrough – will be examined and reviewed in the light of the most recent scholarship.

Inevitably, any attempt to clarify the historical development of Luther's theology and identify possible influences encounters serious methodological difficulties, which must be acknowledged even if they cannot entirely be resolved. The most serious of these concerns the relative weighting to be given to Luther's writings and what is known of his historical context. This issue was debated with some passion by Leif Grane (1928–2000) and Heiko Oberman (1930–2001) in the 1970s, and remains disputed. Is scholarship limited to a detailed historico-critical engagement with Luther's texts? Or can these be set against our understanding of their historical background, allowing certain possibilities to be inferred from that context and amplified on its basis, even when they are not absolutely demanded by the texts themselves?13

It is important to appreciate here that historical scholarship is a work in progress, subject to revision in the light of new evidence and theoretical development. Luther scholarship may be informed by such developments; it cannot allow itself to be determined by them. Every reconstruction of Luther's historical background is provisional, and giving priority to such an historical reconstruction risks reconstructing both Luther's theological development and its intellectual outcomes in the likeness of prevailing scholarly trends. For example, Oberman's own interpretation of Luther's intellectual development can now be appreciated to be shaped by some assumptions characteristic of that period and school of scholarship, which subsequent research has corrected or challenged. The approach adopted in this study is to give primacy to detailed engagement with Luther's texts, while insisting that these be contextualized and interpreted against the backdrop of what is now known of the theological and religious questions, debates, and trends of that era.

As this study will make clear, recent scholarship has brought about a significant change in our understanding of Luther's late medieval context, especially in relation to the religious and theological trends within his own Augustinian Order. Detailed studies of the distinctive identity and ethos of this Order in the last 25 years have emphasized the distinctiveness of its spiritual – rather than merely its more narrowly theological – ideas and approaches. The emergence of both Luther's theology of justification and his “theology of the cross” can now be set against a broader spiritual context, grounded in the passion literature of the later medieval era in general, and of the Augustinian Order in particular. Since these developments in Augustinian studies have yet to be adequately assimilated by Luther scholarship, they have not yet been incorporated into accounts of the origins of Luther's theology of justification or his theologia crucis. The second edition of this work makes extensive use of such recent studies, clarifying how Luther's distinctive theology both reflects late medieval themes while at the same time departs from them.

We begin our study by reflecting on the fascinating and complex religious and intellectual context within which Luther's theological breakthrough took place.

Notes

1. We shall use the traditional short form “Augustinian Order” to refer to the Ordo Eremitarum Sancti Augustini (originally abbreviated as OESA; now abbreviated as OSA).

2. For the historical background to this disputation, see H. Scheible, “Die Universität Heidelberg und Luthers Disputation,” Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins 131 (1983), pp. 309–329; K.H. zur Mühlen, “Die Heidelberger Disputation Martin Luthers vom 26. April 1518,” in Semper Apertus. 600 Jahre Ruprecht-Karl-Universität Heidelberg 1386–1986, ed. W. Doerr (6 vols; Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1985), vol. 1, pp. 188–212. These studies require supplementation at points – for example, on the theological faculty at Heidelberg, see H. Bornkamm, “Die theologische Fakultät Heidelberg,” in Aus der Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg und ihrer Fakultäten (Heidelberg: Brausdruck, 1961), pp. 135–154.

3. A. Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 3rd edn, 2005), pp. 71–75. See further, B. Hamm, Frömmigkeitstheologie am Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts: Studien zu Johannes von Paltz und seinem Umkreis (Tübingen: Mohr, 1982), pp. 132–203. Hamm interprets Frömmigkeit as “the practical realization of religion – of modes of believing, proclaiming, teaching, forming ideas, conceiving and articulating values, fears, hopes, etc. – in such a way that daily life is formed and informed by it.”

4. F.X. Martin, Friar, Reformer, and Renaissance Scholar: Life and Work of Giles of Viterbo, 1469–1532 (Villanova, PA: Augustinian Press, 1992).

5. M. Schrama, “Theologia affectiva. Traces of Monastic Theology in the Theological Prolegomena of Giles of Rome,” Bijdragen. Tijdshrift voor filosophie en theologie 57 (1996), pp. 381–404. For similar emphases in later theologians of the Order, see M. Schrama, “Studere debemus eam viriliter et humiliter: Theologia Affectiva bei Hugolin von Orvieto (d. 1373),” Bijdragen. Tijdshrift voor filosophie en theologie 53 (1992), pp. 135–151.

6. E.L. Saak, High Way to Heaven: The Augustinian Platform between Reform and Reformation, 1292–1524 (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 350–355. Although most theologians of the Order emphasized the importance of Augustine of Hippo's theology, their more pastoral writings often show little obvious interest in these themes, tending to be limited to more specifically theological tracts.

7. For this important notion in its historical context, see B. Hamm, “Reformation als normative Zentrierung von Religion und Gesellschaft,” Jahrbuch für biblische Theologie 7 (1992), pp. 241–279; idem, “Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio zur Reformation: der Prozess normativer Zentrierung von Religion und Gesellschaft in Deutschland,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 84 (1993), pp. 7–82.

8. See the first edition of this study: Alister E. McGrath, Luther's Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther's Theological Breakthrough (Oxford: Blackwell, 1985).

9. Alister E. McGrath, Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 3rd edn, 2005). The first edition was published in two volumes in 1986.

10. Alister E. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd edn, 2003). The first edition was published in 1987.

11. For the importance of this context for the shaping of the modern age, see M.L. Colish, Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400–1400 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 265–350.

12. For Luther's role in the emergence of modernity, see M.A. Gillespie, The Theological Origins of Modernity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 101–128.

13. See L. Grane, Modus loquendi theologicus: Luthers Kampf um die Erneuerung der Theologie 1515–1518 (Leiden: Brill, 1975); H.A. Oberman, “Reformation: Epoche oder Episode?,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 68 (1977), pp. 56–111, especially pp.88–109; L. Grane, “Kritische Berichte: Lutherforschung und Geistesgeschichte,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 68 (1977), pp. 302–315.

Part One

The Background Luther as a Late Medieval Theologian, 1509–1514

Chapter 1

The Dawn of the Reformation at Wittenberg

Our story concerns the intellectual and spiritual development of Martin Luther (1483–1546) during the years 1509–1519 – particularly 1512–1519, which many regard as being a decisive phase in this process. During these critical years, Luther began to inch his way toward his own distinctive understanding of how sinners are able to enter into the presence of a righteous God, classically expressed in the doctrine of justification by faith. While the relationship between the emergence of Luther's theological distinctives and the historical origins of the Reformation as a whole is somewhat more complex than some popular accounts suggest,1 there is little doubt that Luther's theological breakthrough was one of a number of factors that proved to be of decisive importance in catalyzing the massive social, economic, political, and religious transformations of the Protestant Reformation.2

This study sets out to analyze the emergence of Luther's understanding of the question of how humanity is justified in the sight of God, focusing especially on his shifting views concerning what it means to speak of God as “righteous.” How can a sinner hope to find acceptance in the sight of a righteous God? Wie kriege ich einen gnädigen Gott? Luther's changing answers to that central question set the scene for the great upheavals of the Reformation.3

Yet a second distinctive feature of Luther's early thought emerges alongside these reflections on the nature of divine righteousness, and how a righteous God could accept and love sinful humanity. Luther's celebrated “theology of the cross” is the outcome of the same process of reflection that led Luther to his doctrine of justification. The two themes are intertwined in his early writings, and can in some ways be seen as two sides of a single, related question – namely, how humanity is to live by faith in the shadowlands of sin and doubt. We shall consider both these major theological themes in this study.

But theological reflection never takes place in a social or cultural vacuum. To tell the story of the development of Luther's ideas, we must explore the situation within which they emerged. We therefore turn immediately to consider the state of late medieval Europe on the eve of the Reformation – especially in Germany, which played a particularly significant role in shaping the contours of late medieval Christianity,4 as well as laying the foundations for the Protestant Reformation. In what follows, we shall consider this context more closely.

The Late Medieval Context

By the end of the Middle Ages, the need for reform and renewal within the Christian church within Germany and elsewhere was so obvious that it could no longer be ignored. The Middle Ages had seen the political power of the church, and particularly that of the papacy, reach previously unknown heights. While the spiritual authority of the pope within the church had long been recognized, the medieval period witnessed the extension of such claims to the secular sphere.5 Even if the force of the claims made on behalf of the papacy to absolute spiritual and temporal authority was greatly diminished by the absence of effective executive powers by which they might have been enforced, the fact remains that such claims were made and recognized, at least in part.

The political success of the church during the Middle Ages was not, however, without its cost. To the faithful, the Christian church remained the visible embodiment of Christ upon earth; to an increasing number of skeptics, within its ranks as well as outside them, it appeared as a vast legal, judicial, financial, administrative, and diplomatic machine, whose spiritual concerns were frequently judged to be difficult to detect, even to the eye of faith. The secular interests of the clergy, the widespread absence of bishops from their dioceses, and the financial difficulties of the curia are further examples of factors which combined to compromise the moral and spiritual authority of the church at the time in so serious a manner.

There were many within the church at the time who were troubled by the soaring power and influence of the papacy, and sought to confine it within acceptable limits. The Conciliarist movement argued that ecclesiastical power should be decentralized. Instead of being concentrated in the hands of a single individual, it should be dispersed within the body of the church as a whole, and entrusted to more representative and accountable “general Councils.”6

Yet despite these concerns, there is every indication that the church remained deeply embedded in western European culture at this time, with popular piety experiencing a resurgence in the fifteenth century. The church was no abstract theological notion, no peripheral social institution; it stood at the heart of the social, spiritual, and intellectual life of western Europe throughout the Middle Ages, including the Renaissance. The older view, which tended to see the Renaissance as a secular interlude between the medieval “age of faith” and the unruly religious passions unleashed by the Reformation, never really made much sense, and is somewhat difficult to sustain on the basis of the historical evidence.7 An individual's hope of salvation rested on her being part of the community of saints, whose visible expression was the institution of the church. The church could not be bypassed or marginalized in any account of redemption: there was, as Cyprian of Carthage had so cogently argued in the third century, no salvation outside the church.

Although the fifteenth century was regarded as a period of religious degeneration and spiritual stagnation by an earlier generation of historians, more recent research has decisively overturned this verdict.8 On the eve of the Reformation, religion was perhaps more firmly rooted in the experience and lives of ordinary people than at any time in the past.9 Earlier medieval Christianity had been primarily monastic, focused on the life, worship, and writings of Europe's monasteries and convents. Church-building programs flourished in the later fifteenth century, as did pilgrimages and the vogue for collecting relics. The fifteenth century has been referred to as “the inflation-period of mystic literature,” reflecting the growing popular interest in religion. The fifteenth century witnessed a widespread popular appropriation of religious beliefs and practices, not always in orthodox forms.

The phenomenon of “folk religion” often bore a tangential relationship to the more precise yet abstract statements of Christian doctrine that the church preferred – but that many found unintelligible or unattractive.10 In parts of Europe, popular religious beliefs echoing the notions of classical “fertility cults” emerged, connected and enmeshed with the patterns and concerns of agrarian rural communities.11 Much popular religion was shaped by a fear of death and hell, often linked with more popular beliefs of fiends and devils lurking in woods and dark places, awaiting their opportunity to snatch unwary souls and take them straight to hell. At times, hints of these popular concerns can be found in Luther's early writings, particularly as he agonized over the implications of his own inability to achieve the holiness that his age regarded as a guarantee of salvation.12

It is now clear that there was considerable confusion within the late medieval church, undoubtedly exacerbated by a largely uneducated clergy,13 on matters of doctrine, and the doctrine of justification in particular. It is precisely this widespread confusion at the beginning of the sixteenth century that appeared to have occasioned and catalyzed Luther's theological reflections during the years 1509–1519, with which we are here concerned. As these focus on the concept of “justification,” we may pause to consider this idea in more detail.

The Concept of “Justification” in Christian Thought

The importance of the doctrine of justification is best appreciated when the nature of Christianity itself is considered.14 The central teaching of the Christian faith is that reconciliation has been effected between God and sinful humanity through Jesus Christ, and that this reconciliation is a present actuality for those within the church, and a present possibility for those outside it. The essence of the Christian faith is thus located in the saving action of God toward humanity in Jesus Christ. The Christian doctrine of justification is primarily concerned with the question of how this saving action may be appropriated by the individual – in other words, with the question of what is required of human beings if they are to enter into fellowship with God. The hope of salvation in Christ is a leading characteristic of the faith of the Christian church throughout its entire history, which lends particular urgency to the question posed by the doctrine of justification: what must an individual do in order to be saved? The practical importance of this question may be illustrated with reference to the fate of a small group of Italian noblemen, sometimes known as the “Murano Circle,” at the beginning of the sixteenth century.15

In 1510 Paolo Giustiniani, the leader of a small group of Paduan-educated humanists, entered the hermitage of Camaldoli, near Arezzo, soon to be followed by most of the remainder of this circle of humanists.16 The circle had shared a common concern for personal holiness and ultimate salvation, in common with many of their contemporaries. After intense personal anguish, Giustiniani decided that his only hope for salvation lay in the ascetic monastic life as a means of expiating his sins. Our interest here, however, concerns Gasparo Contarini, one of the members of the circle who chose to remain in the world. In 1957 Hubert Jedin, searching through the archives of the hermitage at Camaldoli, discovered the correspondence between Contarini and Giustiniani during the years 1511–1523,17 thus enabling us to enter to some extent into the mind of a man who was passionately concerned for his own salvation, and yet unwilling to enter a monastery. It is clear from this correspondence that Contarini went through a period of deep depression after his friends entered the hermitage. The question which appears to have caused Contarini particular anguish was the following: if his friends doubted whether they could ever atone for their sins by leading lives of austere piety, what hope could there be for Contarini, who had chosen to avoid such a life by remaining in the world?

On Easter Eve 1511, in near despair, Contarini happened to fall into conversation with a priest, and as a result began to rethink his dilemma. We do not know who this priest was, and cannot be entirely certain of the exact substance of his advice to Contarini. Nevertheless, it is clear that Contarini had now resolved his dilemma. In his mercy, God had permitted his only son, Jesus Christ, to make satisfaction for the sins of the world, so that in Contarini's words:

Even if I did all the penances possible, and many more besides, they would not be enough to atone for my past sins, let alone to merit my salvation … [Christ's] passion is sufficient, and more than sufficient, as a satisfaction for sins committed, to which human weakness is prone. Through this thought, I changed from great fear and anguish to happiness. I began to turn with my whole heart to this greatest good which I saw, for love of me, on the cross, his arms open and his breast opened right up to his heart. Thus I – the wretch who lacked the courage to leave the world and do penance for the satisfaction of my sins! – turned to him, and asked him to allow me to share in the satisfaction which he, the sinless one, had performed for us. He was quick to accept me and to permit his Father to totally cancel the debt which I had contracted, and which I was incapable of satisfying by myself.

Now, since I have such a one to pay my debt, shall I not sleep securely in the midst of the city, even though I have not satisfied the debt which I had contracted? Yes! I shall sleep and wake as securely as if I had spent my entire life in the hermitage!18

The question with which Contarini and his circle had wrestled, with such a variety of results, lies at the heart of the Christian doctrine of justification: what must I do to be saved? Contarini and Giustiniani came to very different conclusions – but which corresponded to the teaching of the church on the matter? The simple fact is that there was such confusion at the time that this vital question could not be answered by anyone with any degree of conviction. The Contarini– Giustiniani correspondence is of considerable interest, as it bears witness to a spiritual dilemma which is remarkably similar to that faced by the young Luther,19 also occasioned at least in part by confusion within the church over the doctrine of justification.

The doctrine of justification had been the subject of considerable debate within the early western church during the course of the Pelagian controversy.20 In 418 the Council of Carthage undertook a preliminary clarification of the church's teaching on justification in response to this controversy.21 Its pronouncements were, however, vague at several points which were to prove of significance, and these were revised at what is generally regarded as being the most important council of the early church to deal with the doctrine of justification – the Second Council of Orange, convened in 529.22 No other council was convened to discuss the doctrine of justification between that date and 1545, when the Council of Trent assembled to debate that doctrine, among many others. There was thus a period of over a millennium during which the teaching office of the church remained silent on the issue of justification.23

This silence serves to further enhance the importance of the pronouncements of the Second Council of Orange on the matter, as these thus come to represent the definitive teaching of the Christian church on the doctrine of justification during the medieval period, before the Council of Trent was convened. Recent scholarship has established that no theologian of the Middle Ages ever cites the decisions of the Second Council of Orange, or shows the slightest awareness of the existence of such decisions. For reasons which we simply do not understand, from the tenth century until the assembly of the Council of Trent in 1545, the theologians of the western church appear to be unaware of the existence of such a council, let alone of its pronouncements.24 The theologians of the Middle Ages were thus obliged to base their teaching on justification on the canons of the Council of Carthage, which were simply incapable of bearing the strain which came to be placed upon them.25 The increasing precision of the technical terms employed within the theological schools inevitably led to the somewhat loose terms used by the Council of Carthage being interpreted in a manner quite alien to that intended by those who originally employed them.

For reasons such as these, there was considerable confusion within the later medieval church concerning the doctrine of justification. This confusion undoubtedly did much to prepare the way for the Reformation, in that the church was simply not prepared for a major debate on justification, and was unable to respond to Luther's challenge when it finally came.26 How can a sinner enter into fellowship with a holy and righteous God? How can the troubled conscience find peace by discovering a gracious God? Luther was not the only one to ask such questions, and was not the only one to find himself confused by the variety of answers given. If not clarity, then at least clarification, was clearly required.

The Reform of the Church and the Renewal of Spirituality

The Catholic system of church order is such that its emphasis upon the institution of the church, with its associated ecclesiastical apparatus, means that a prolonged period of spiritual mediocrity or even decline can be sustained without undue damage, to await spiritual renewal and regeneration at a future date. If the lifeblood of the Christian faith appeared to cease to flow through her veins, at least the church was able to retain her outward structures for the day when renewed spiritual fervor would revitalize her, raising her from her knees and propelling her forward to meet the challenges and opportunities of a new age. It was this hope that sustained those working for reform and renewal within the late medieval church.

Although earlier popes had occasionally imposed and supervised programs of reform within the church,27 the dawn of the sixteenth century saw this initiative in the process of passing to numerous small groups and individuals, usually working independently of each other, although with similar objectives. It is becoming increasingly clear that the final decade of the fifteenth century witnessed a remarkable upsurge in reforming and renewing activity within the church, frequently with the approval of, and occasionally even at the instigation of, the institutional church itself. This upsurge in activity gained ground throughout Europe during the first two decades of the sixteenth century, before the specter of a new heresy – Lutheranism – caused a frightened church to begin the systematic suppression of these groups and their ideals during the third and fourth decades of that century. Whatever positive impact Luther's stand at Wittenberg may have had upon the Catholic Church as a whole, it had the universally negative effect of bringing practically all of those working for reform and renewal under suspicion of heresy. Such was the odium which came to be attached to the name of Martin Luther that similarities, however slight, between Luther and contemporary Catholic writers tended to be regarded as evidence of heresy on the part of the latter, rather than orthodoxy on the part of the former.28

The revival within the late fifteenth century is particularly associated with Spain, then newly won back from the Moor. The sudden development of Spanish mysticism during the final decade of the century remains unexplained, although the unique character of the Spanish cultural context, enriched by Christian, Muslim, and Jew alike, unquestionably did much to promote and sustain it. The vitality of this movement was harnessed through the Cisnerian reform of the Spanish church, leading to a revival of religious vocations and a new concern for religious education, which found its most concrete and enduring expression in the establishment of the University of Alcalá de Henares.29 Through Europe, a new interest developed in the writings of St Paul, apparently due at least in part to the considerable influence of the Italian humanism of the Quattrocento, with its celebrated intention to return ad fontes, to base itself upon the title deeds of Christendom, rather than its later medieval expressions.30 In England, John Colet drew attention to the Pauline emphasis upon the necessity of a personal encounter of the soul with Christ;31 in Paris, Lefèvre d'Etaples contemplated Paul's teaching on the supremacy of faith in the spiritual life;32 in the Lowlands, Erasmus of Rotterdam propounded his philosophia Christi as the basis for collective renewal within the church, capturing the hearts as well as the minds of the intellectual élite of Europe as he did so.33 In Italy itself, the movement usually known as “Evangelism,” characterized by its preoccupation with the question of personal salvation, became highly influential in certain circles: if its allegedly aristocratic bias hindered its progress among the population as a whole, it certainly assisted its progress within the higher echelons of the church.34 This preoccupation with personal salvation is well illustrated by Contarini's spiritual experience of 1511, noted above. While Luther was still a prisoner within the matrix of late medieval theology, others had already broken free from it, anticipating in many respects his own spiritual breakthrough.

The reform of the church and the renewal of spirituality: these two themes lay at the heart of the rising tide of dissatisfaction on the part of laity and clergy alike over the state of the church of their day. The demands for reform and renewal took many forms, with an equally great variation in the results they achieved. A seemingly insignificant addition to these demands was a list of theses for academic disputation nailed to the main north door of the castle church at Wittenberg at about noon on October 31, 1517.35 Wittenberg was not an important university, and Martin Luther was hardly known outside the somewhat restricted university circles of Erfurt and Wittenberg. So why did these Theses have such an impact?

The Ninety-Five Theses

History suggests that great upheavals in human affairs arise out of relatively small matters, even if their ultimate roots lie much deeper. The fuel for the Reformation had been piled up for many years: it happened to be Luther's posting of the ninety-five theses on indulgences that eventually sparked off the conflagration which proved to be the greatest intellectual and spiritual upheaval yet known in Europe. Whereas a reforming ecumenical council could have defused the situation by imposing reform where it was so obviously needed, the absence of any such eventuality led to Luther's protest against the theology of indulgences developing into a serious and a still unresolved schism within the church.

The posting of theses for academic disputation, even where these related to theological matters, was a commonplace in German university life at the time. In October 1514 Johannes Eck – later to be Luther's antagonist at the Leipzig disputation of 1519 – posted a series of theses at Ingolstadt for public academic disputation.36 These theses related to the vexed question of usury,37 an issue in many respects more contentious than that of indulgences, and one which certainly aroused passions in ecclesiastical financial circles. It was probably on account of this latter consideration that Gabriel von Eyb, who then held simultaneously the offices of bishop of Eichstätt and chancellor of the university of Ingolstadt, intervened to prevent the proposed disputation from taking place.38 Not to be deprived of his disputation, however, Eck referred his theses to the universities of Cologne, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Tübingen, and Mainz, as well as to Ingolstadt,39 in order that they might receive further consideration.

Such disputations were not unknown at Wittenberg, nor was Luther's without its precedents. On April 26, 1517, less than six months before Luther posted his theses, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, then dean of the theology faculty at Wittenberg, posted 151 theses for disputation. These theses were of a highly controversial nature, reflecting Karlstadt's own discovery of the vera theologia of St Augustine earlier the same year, and chiefly concern the doctrine of justification.40 In terms of their theological substance, particularly when seen in the light of the then prevailing theology of the via moderna, they appear to be of far greater weight than Luther's theses on indulgences. Furthermore, Karlstadt's high standing in the faculty and the university as a whole lent added weight to the challenge directed against the Gabrielistae.

What is of particular interest, however, is the occasion on which Karlstadt chose to publish his theses, and the place where they were posted. The castle church at Wittenberg possessed an imposing collection of sacred relics, which were publicly displayed several times during the course of the year. Like many churches at the time, the castle church had been granted the right to bestow a partial or plenary indulgence upon those present at the exhibition of the relics, with the inevitable result that such exhibitions were well attended and the subject of considerable local interest.

It was on the eve of one such display of relics that Karlstadt posted his theses in April 1517. As the main north door of the castle church served as a university notice board, Karlstadt could be sure that his proposed disputation would not pass unnoticed by those who thronged the area that evening and the following morning. Contemporary records, however, indicate that the Feast of All Saints (November 1) was regarded as the most important occasion upon which the Wittenberg relics were displayed.41 It was on this occasion that Luther posted his theses, in precisely the same manner already employed by Karlstadt, to direct attention to his proposed public disputation on indulgences.

The circumstances which surrounded Luther's posting of the ninety-five theses are, in many respects, comparable to those attending Eck's attempt to provoke a disputation on usury, or Karlstadt's attempt to provoke one on Augustine's doctrine of justification. The revised statutes of the theology faculty at Wittenberg (1508) make it clear that such disputations were a normal part of university life at the time. Such disputations were not restricted to those held on Friday mornings during university terms (disputationes ordinariae), intended primarily as a means of theological education, or those stipulated as a necessary ordeal for those intending to proceed to higher degrees. The exercitia disputationum appears to have been regarded as of such importance as to justify occasional disputationes quodlibeticae,42 which fitted into neither of these categories. In calling for public university disputations upon subjects of their choosing, Luther – and, before him, Eck and Karlstadt – did nothing more than arrange for a perfectly legitimate university disputation, following a well-established procedure. Far from defying the church of his day, Luther merely posted a legitimate university notice in its appropriate place. Those who see the death knell of the medieval church in the hammer blows which resounded on the door of the castle church as Luther posted his theses are, regrettably, substituting romance for history.

Like Eck, Luther failed to provoke a public disputation: all the evidence suggests, however, that this failure reflected an absence of interest in the subject in university circles, rather than any serious attempt on the part of the church authorities to suppress what might have proved to be an embarrassing debate. Indeed, had Luther succeeded in provoking a public disputation on the matter, it would almost certainly have been seen as little more than a local dispute between the Augustinian and Dominican orders over a relatively minor issue, in which both parties had a vested interest.

Luther's theses are actually rather less radical than is frequently imagined. He did not question the authority of the pope or the existence of purgatory, and actually affirmed his belief in the notion of apostolic pardons. In a matter surrounded by much theological confusion and considerable popular feeling, most of Luther's theses were quite unexceptionable. Furthermore, a critique of the theology of indulgences which parallels that of Luther in several respects was drawn up by the theology faculty at Paris in May of the following year, without occasioning any serious charge of impropriety, let alone heresy.43 It may also be pointed out that Luther himself later stated that the whole question of indulgences was quite insignificant in comparison with the greater question of humanity's justification before God,44 thus suggesting that the posting of the theses on indulgences was not the beginning of the Reformation, viewed in terms of the theological issues at stake. Nevertheless, the historical fact remains that it was out of the aftermath of the posting of these theses that the movement known as the Reformation began, with Martin Luther being widely recognized as its leading figure.

Once the Reformation had begun in earnest, a third demand was added to those already widely in circulation throughout Europe. For Luther, the reformation of morals and the renewal of spirituality, although of importance in themselves, were of secondary significance in relation to the reformation of Christian doctrine. Well aware of the frailty of human nature, Luther criticized both Wycliffe and Huss for confining their attacks on the papacy to its moral shortcomings, where they should have attacked the theology on which the papacy was ultimately based. For Luther, a reformation of morals was secondary to a reformation of doctrine.45 It was clear, of course, that once irreversible schism with the Catholic Church had taken place, the reformers would be obliged to revise the accepted ecclesiologies if they were to avoid the stigma of being branded as schismatics.

Luther himself entertained a profound distaste for schism in the period between the posting of the theses and the Leipzig disputation of mid-1519. In early 1519, Luther wrote thus of schism: “If, unfortunately, there are things in Rome which cannot be improved, there is not – nor can there be! – any reason for tearing oneself away from the church in schism. Rather, the worse things become, the more one should help her and stand by her, for by schism and contempt nothing can be mended.”46 Even though the Leipzig disputation would do much to alter Luther's views on the relative demerits of schism, it may be noted that the assumption underlying both the Confessio Augustana (1530) and the Colloquy of Regensburg (1541) was that the estrangement of the evangelical faction from the Catholic Church was still to be regarded as temporary.

It was only after the failure of Regensburg that the possibility of a permanent schism within the church became increasingly a probability, so that ecclesiological questions began to come to the fore within the evangelical faction.47 It is therefore necessary to emphasize that the essential factor which led to this schism in the first place, and thus to the rethinking of the accepted ecclesiologies, was Luther's fundamental conviction that the church of his day had lapsed into some form of Pelagianism, thus compromising the gospel, and that the church itself was not prepared to extricate itself from this situation.

For Luther, the entire gospel could be encapsulated in the Christian article of justification48 – the affirmation that human beings really can enter into a gracious relationship with God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The sacerdotal and sacramental systems of the church have their proper and legitimate place, but cannot be allowed to interpose between believers and the living God who calls them to faith through the Word. For Luther, Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God, revealing at one and the same time God's condemnation of sin and remedy for it. Through the creative power of the Holy Spirit and the hearing of the Word of the gospel, the sinner shares in the divine righteousness through faith.

In comparison with this weighty matter, matters such as the authority of the pope, the nature of purgatory, and the propriety of indulgences were seen by Luther as being quite insignificant and irrelevant. Even as late as 1535, Luther stated unequivocally that he was still prepared to acknowledge the authority of the pope on condition that he acknowledge in turn that the sinner had free forgiveness of sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and not through the observance of the traditions of the church.49

Was Luther really stating anything other than the common Christian gospel? Was not the extent of theological diversity within late medieval Catholicism already so great that such opinions could be accommodated without difficulty? Need this have led to irreversible schism? Was the Reformation actually the consequence of a fundamental misunderstanding of Luther's frequently intemperate and occasionally obscure pronouncements?50 Such questions cannot be answered with any degree of confidence. The fact remains, however, that Luther himself regarded the Reformation as having begun over, and to have chiefly concerned, the correct understanding of the Christian doctrine of justification. This concern is evident in his writings throughout his later career, including some of the confessional material of the Lutheran church. The Smalkald Articles of 1537 assert that everything in the evangelical struggle against the papacy, the world, and the devil hangs upon the Christian article of justification.51 Similarly, in that same year Luther prefaced an academic disputation with the assertion that the article of justification was not merely supreme among other Christian doctrines, but that it also upheld and controlled them.52 In the struggle for the reformation of Christian doctrine, the evangelical case was held to rest entirely upon this single article.

The Importance of the Present Study

It will therefore be clear that a study of the development of Luther's doctrine of justification over the crucial years 1509–1519, culminating in the statement of the theologia crucis, is of enormous interest to historians and theologians alike. The importance of the matter to historians will be evident. Given that Luther's understanding of the doctrine of justification is clearly of such fundamental importance in relation to so significant an historical movement as the Reformation, it is obviously of considerable interest to establish how this particular understanding emerged, what factors appear to have been instrumental in effecting it, and how it relates to previous understandings of the same matter. It has always been important for intellectual historians to establish the sources of an author's thought. The character, distinctiveness, and ultimate significance of an intellectual achievement such as that of Luther are invariably better understood when those who have influenced his ideas, either positively or negatively, are identified. Luther cannot be regarded merely as a protagonist in German and European history: the ideas which led him to assume this role, their origins and significance, must be taken into account if a proper understanding and evaluation of Luther's historical significance is to emerge.53 It is understandably difficult for a liberal historian, with a distaste for dogma and theology, and who would much have preferred a reformation of the church along humanist lines, to come to terms with the theological issues at stake in Luther's revolt. Nevertheless, Luther the man cannot be isolated from Luther the theologian, nor can his actions be isolated from the ideas which ultimately inspired them.

The importance of the matter to the theologian is equally clear. It is important to establish precisely what Luther's teaching on justification actually is, and how the various strands of this teaching are woven together in the theologia crucis. Furthermore, the historical origins of Luther's views raise a fundamentally theological question. Can the distinctive teachings of the Reformation, and supremely their chief article, that of justification, be considered to be truly Catholic? If it can be shown that the chief teaching of the Reformation, the “article by which the church stands or falls,”54 was a theological novelty, unknown to the Christian church throughout the first 1500 years of her existence, it will be clear that the Protestant claim to have reformed the church is open to challenge. This point was made with particular force by the theologians of the Counter-Reformation, such as Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704):

The Church's doctrine is always the same … the Gospel is never different from what it was before. Hence, if at any time someone says that the faith includes something which yesterday was not said to be of the faith, it is always heterodoxy, which is any doctrine different from orthodoxy