Hi Spina,
Thanks for your response.
Hi Topper: In response to your 513 post I would like to say from my research it seems that as early as 1517 Luther was complaining about the scholastic’s theology of grace and works, and their use of Aristotelian philosophy. He called the scholastic nominalists "hog-theologians in 1515 ( Heinerich Boehmer, Luther in the Light of Recent Research N^Y, The Christian Herald, 1916. ) 87. Scholastic “grace and works”; Luther’s break with nominalists concepts of merit and grace was a fundamental step in his developing doctrine of justification. Luther felt that scholasticism involved something of a control over God and the operation of grace. Luther’s opposed their thesis that the human will of its own volition could actually love God above all things, or that by doing one’s best even apart from grace one could earn/merit a certain standing before God.
Excellent work by you Spina!
You are keying in on the facts surrounding Luther’s invention of Salvation By Faith Alone.
The Great Anglican Theologian and Church Historian Alistar McGrath makes a very specific comment regarding Luther’s misunderstanding of the Catholic Teaching on salvation.
“So Luther began formal study of theology at Erfurt, sitting at the feet of some of the greatest German theologians of his age. By this time the via moderna – the ‘modern way’ – had come to dominate philosophy and theology in many German universities, including Erfurt. At the theological level, this was often expressed in an understanding of salvation based upon a gracious divine response to a moral human initiative. T**his principal was generally expressed in the Latin slogan – facientibus quod se est Deus non denagat gratiam, which can be roughly translated as “God will not deny grace to those who do their best.” This theological principal resonated with Luther’s basic psychological instincts. It seemed entirely reasonable to him at that stage that God would not reward people unless they did something to merit that action. It was certainly the academic consensus at Erfurt. It was not, however, the official teaching of the Catholic Church. **
During the late Middle Ages, confusion had set in over what was the private teaching of individual theologians or theological schools and what was the authorized teaching of the church. The fifteenth century is seen by some as marking a magnificent period of religious anarchy in which competing theologies vied for attention, with little official interest in adjudicating between them.
The young Luther took the view that the church taught that salvation was dependent on personal austerity, discipline, and denial. If there were alternatives, they do not seem to have been known to Luther.", McGrath, “Dangerous”, pg. 40-41
Here we see additional evidence that Luther did not well understand Catholic Teaching.
McGrath, also admits here that Luther was taught an incorrect “version” of the Catholic Doctrine on Salvation. Given that Salvation was, as we have discussed at length, really very much Luther’s “hot button”, apparently Luther opposed a belief of the Church which in fact was not the belief that it “officially” taught. Luther can hardly be faulted for being taught incorrectly at Erfurt, BUT, it could mean that his interior “revolt” against the Church and Her Teachings were done in error.
McGrath goes on……
“**More radically still, Luther insisted that the believer is “at one and the same time a righteous person and a sinner.” ** While Luther admired Augustine for his emphasis and on unconditional love of God in justification,
he suggested that Augustine had become muddled in relation to the location of the gift of righteousness. Augustine located his gift within humanity, as a transforming reality; Luther argued that it is located outside us, being “reckoned” or “imputed” to humanity, not imparted.
Perhaps the chief beneficiary of this insight was Luther himself. Convinced of his sinfulness and frustrated by his own impotence to free himself from the power of his sinful nature, Luther set out a theology of divine acceptance (Luther generally used the Pauline image of “justification”) of sinners that made personal transformation and renewal the consequence, not the precondition, of God’s love. Humanity, in this conception, is like a patient who is under the care of a wise physician and on the way to recovery.
The decision to treat does not pre-suppose the desired outcome but rather brings it about.” McGrath, pg. 42-3
Here we see according to McGrath that Luther “found” in Scripture exactly what he needed to find, assurance of his everlasting salvation. However, what he ‘found’, was something that had never been seen there before. It should be very troubling to Protestants that Salvation by Faith Alone was born out of the extremely troubled mind and soul of a single man 1500 years after the time of Christ.
God Bless You Spina, Topper
