Focusing on the myth of Martin Luther, the book explores how his narrative was shaped in late 19th-century Germany and evolved through the tumultuous years following World War I, culminating in the rise of National Socialism. It examines why Protestant intellectuals embraced this version of Luther to foster German cultural unity, while also revealing the darker implications of this myth, including anti-Judaism and anti-Catholicism. Offering an ecumenical interpretation, it serves as a lens for understanding modernity and provides insights for resisting contemporary threats to democracy.
Martin Luther was classically orthodox. Scholars often portray Luther as a heroic revolutionary, totally unlike his peers and forebears--as if he alone inaugurated modernity. But is this accurate? Is this even fair? At times this revolutionary model of Luther has come to some shocking conclusions, particularly concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. Some have called Luther modalist or tritheist--somehow theologically heterodox. In The Trinity and Martin Luther Christine Helmer uncovers Luther's trinitarian theology. The Trinity is the central doctrine of the Christian faith. It's not enough for dusty, ivory tower academics to know and understand it. Common people need the Trinity, too. Doctrine matters. Martin Luther knew this. But how did he communicate the doctrine of the Trinity to lay and learned listeners? And how does his trinitarian teaching relate to the medieval Christian theological and philosophical tradition? Helmer upends stereotypes of Luther's doctrine of the Trinity. This definitive work has been updated with a new foreword and with fresh translations of Luther's Latin and German texts.
Exploring the disconnect between doctrine and real-life experiences, the author discusses the implications of "the end of doctrine." This concept prompts a re-examination of how doctrine is produced and understood in the context of modern challenges and opportunities. By addressing the estrangement from personal histories and divine connection, the book invites readers to reconsider the relevance and application of doctrine in contemporary life.
This volume makes a distinctive contribution to the upcoming 500th anniversary of Luther’s reformation by looking back to the previous centennial in 1917 and tracing forward the enduring impact of the questions raised by Lutheran scholars then to contemporary research in religious studies, history, and theology. The great flourishing of interest in Luther’s religious experience and thought in Berlin at the turn of the twentieth century was known as the Lutherrenaissance, an extraordinarily generative moment of scholarly creativity within the Lutheran tradition. Thinkers such as Holl, Harnack and Otto took up questions that would reverberate throughout twentieth century religious and theological inquiry, on the nature of history, for instance, dialectical theology, and the question of mysticism in religious experience. The Lutherrenaissance also planted the seeds of a political theology that contributed to the alliance of Lutheran theologians with National Socialism. Contributors to this volume, attentive to both to the rich contributions of the Lutherrenaissance and its darker consequences, open an unprecedented conversation across the century. Then and now, the study of religion and theology were in periods of transition; then and now, scholars were working at the very foundations of the various disciplines of religious inquiry across the social sciences and humanities. Contributors aim to bring the critical insights of that period to bear on key questions in the study of religion and theology today, with particular attention to the global context within which present day scholars work. It exemplifies new perspectives in Luther scholarship today, the rich and fertile grounds of the Lutheran tradition, in its engagement with unprecedented global circumstances.
Schleiermachers Dialektik bietet ein noch immer aktuelles Modell, das die pluralistische Suche, die sich in der Rede vollzieht, mit dem Wissen als regulative, nie zu erreichende Idee verbindet. Diese beiden Pole stecken den Rahmen ab, innerhalb dessen ein innovatives Konzept für die Begründung von Wissen entwickelt wird. Philosophen und Theologen zeigen in diesem Band, daß die Schleiermachersche Dialektik dieser Spannung zwischen Relativismus und Normativität bis heute gerecht wird, da sie den intersubjektiven Austauschprozeß in seiner Fallibilität, aber auch Unentbehrlichkeit in den Mittelpunkt rückt. Die Beiträge wurden anläßlich eines Symposions an der Universität Tübingen im Januar 2002 verfaßt.
This collection of essays stages a dialogue between Friedrich Schleiermacher and Alfred North Whitehead on significant features of 'open' system. The volume offers new options for rehabilitating system for future theological and philosophical thinking by opening system to a flexible relation with changing reality. Key ingredients for system are discussed in three areas of contact between Schleiermacher and Whitehead. One such ingredient concerns historical precedents figuring crucially in Western systematic philosophy. Another feature is the systematic categorization of experience that relates epistemology, metaphysics, and the empirical sciences. System is also brought to bear on pressing contemporary issues, such as ethics and religious pluralism.
