The catechism effect: child testimonies during a 17th-century witch panic as related to educational achievement

Testimonies from 488 children given to the priests of the parish of R?ttvik during a preliminary investigation of a Swedish witch panic in 1670-71 are examined in relation to records from parish catechetical meetings held in 1671. The result implies that children who knew and understood at least parts of Luther's catechism were less liable to have falsely alleged that they had been kidnapped by female satanists during the witch panic of the previous year. It is suggested that these effects were caused by differences in cognitive, social, and emotional resources among these children as compared to those who were unable to learn and understand any parts of Luther's catechism.     

Understanding mass allegations of satanist child abuse in early modern Sweden: demographic data relevant to the Rättvik outbreak of 1670-1671

Demographic characteristics of 79 women who were accused of satanist child abductions in the parish of R?ttvik, Sweden, in 1670-1671; 53 adults who promoted such accusations by bringing children to interrogations; and samples from the general population of R?ttvik were compared. Results indicate that men were more likely to promote allegations of satanism than women and that these men were more likely to be married than the average R?ttvik male. Promoters of allegations were older than average parishioners, and land-owning people who were involved in the panic owned more land than landowners who were not involved. People who were involved in the panic knew less about Luther's catechism than members of the general population. It is suggested that most of these findings may reflect a tendency of people who lived in the proximity of children to become involved in the panic.     

Shaping Piety Through Catechetical Structures: The Importance of Order

Abstract

This paper explores how the order in which the Creed, Lord's Prayer and Decalogue are placed in a catechism shapes the way the authors intend to inculcate piety. First, the reason for the order of three chief parts in the catechisms by Augustine of Hippo is studied. Then, three catechisms from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which place these chief parts of the catechism in different orders, are compared, namely Dietrich Kolde's A Fruitful Mirror, Luther's Small Catechism and in Henrician England, The King's Book. It is shown that each of the composers of these catechisms was deliberate in the order they set out the material before them, with a view to shaping the piety of the people in a particular way.     

The 30¢ Deal of a Lifetime: Using Luther's Small Catechism with Teenagers to Engage Consumerist Culture

Abstract : This article explores the interaction of teenagers in the current consumerist culture, and how Martin Luther's Small Catechism offers multiple entry points to begin conversation around the illusions of consumerism. It examines motives behind consumption and what the church has to say in response to the consumerist “catechism.” Suggestions pertaining to the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed, and Lord's Prayer are provided for pastors and teachers of catechetical students.     

Prayer and the Theologian of the Cross: Julian of Norwich and Martin Luther

This article constructs a dialogue between Julian of Norwich and the concept of “theologian of the cross,” as found in Martin Luther and his recent interpreters. Since she is Catholic and medieval, one might begin by suspecting that her theology is not acceptable to someone who follows Luther's teaching in the Heidelberg Disputation. However a closer look will suggest that what she has to say is largely in accord with Luther's standard for a theologian of the cross. Put more positively, Julian is a theologian of the cross, in spite of her use of different language and concepts from those of Luther. The focus of the article is the subject of prayer: what Julian teaches about it, and what may be inferred about prayer from Luther's dramatic theses in his disputation.     

Consciences bound and liberated

A hallmark of Martin Luther's theology was his persistent concern for the individual's conscience before God. Nowhere were these concerns felt more deeply than in Luther's understanding of church reform, where he sought to introduce change in a way that did not introduce doubt or impede faith. Among Lutherans in North America, respect for conscience has found a second home in how early Lutherans attempted to establish an American identity for themselves and reconsider their ecumenical relations. After briefly outlining Luther's use of the appeal to conscience, this paper looks at its use in early North American Lutheranism in the thought of Samuel Simon Schmucker before finally considering its use in the twenty‐first century.     

The Way of Salvation in Luther's Theology: A Feminist Evaluation

Abstract : Luther's understanding of salvation can be summed up with the phrase “justification by grace through faith.” The doctrine of justification is the focal point for all theological categories in Luther's theology, including salvation. That said, this article examines various ways grace or salvation is understood to be conveyed in Luther's theology through: the cross, the resurrection or through God's election and covenant with humankind. Throughout the article, it evaluates these foci for salvation in terms of their ability to speak gospel to women's lives today. In particular, it evaluates the appropriate usage of Luther's epistemology of the cross.     

Martin Luther's Theology of Creation

This article considers Luther's theology of creation with a view to the contemporary relevance of its fundamental standpoint. For some, the writers of past generations who do not share our scientific and cultural standpoint ought to be excluded from discussions of the theology of creation, but I argue that consideration of the individual, contemporary, corporeal and dialogical character of Luther's theology of creation shows that it contains a great deal from which we can learn today.     

Heidegger on Luther on Paul

Abstract : When it comes to how Heidegger understands theology, Martin Luther was instrumental in his early formulations. Heidegger's interpretation of Luther leads him to descry theology as a discipline best left unfettered by metaphysics and this attitude is carried right through Heidegger's career. By explicating Luther's influence upon Heidegger's early Freiburg lectures from 1919‐1923, we can raise important questions about the nuanced way Heidegger construes Luther's theology in the hopes of inspiring key insights for Luther's appropriation in current post‐Heideggerian theology.     

Rediscovering pneumatology in the “Age of the Spirit”: A North American Lutheran contribution

This essay explores Luther's pneumatology, especially in his sermons on the Gospel of John, might offer resources for “discerning the spirits” in the emerging “age of the Spirit,” as Harvey Cox and Phyllis Tickle have dubbed it, which sees the rise of the “spiritual but not religious” and movements calling for spiritual revolution. The author shows that Luther's insistence that the Spirit work through the given means of “Word and sacrament,” was not intended to limit the Spirit's activity in the world, but rather to protect God's people from those who would wish to use the Spirit for their own means and power.     

Bucer as Mediator in the 1532 Kempten Eucharistic Controversy

Abstract

Bucer's intervention in the Kempten eucharistic controversy provides a hitherto little-studied example of the Strasbourg Reformer's understanding of the Lord's Supper in its practical, local implications during the years immediately prior to the Wittenberg Concord of 1536. Only months after being accused of ‘Lutheranism’ by his friends in Constance and Augsburg for having claimed the compatibility of the Augsburg Confession with his own Confessio Tetrapolitana at the Schweinfurt Assembly, Bucer made his influence felt in Kempten in such a way that the ‘Lutheran’ pastors there were forced to leave and the position of the local ‘Zwinglian’ pastor was consolidated, much to the chagrin of Luther's supporters. It would be entirely erroneous, however, to describe the Strasbourg Reformer's eucharistic position at this time as ‘Zwinglian'. Bucer's understanding the Lord's Supper, despite having appropriated certain formal elements of Luther's eucharistic interpretation during the early 1530s, remained distinct from both the Wittenberg Reformer's and Zwingli's position on this issue.     

Grace in Nature and History: Luther's Doctrine of Creation Revisited1

Abstract: Interpreting Luther's Trinitarian theology of creation, it is shown how Luther's doctrine of creation is modelled on his soteriology. In his writing Against Latomus(1521) Luther established his famous distinction between the external grace of God (favor dei) and the divine gift (donom): the living Christ. A similar distinction can be re‐constructed from Luther's theology of creation as presented in his catechisms, sermons, tracts, and exegetical writings. Just as Luther makes a distinction between the Christ who takes side for us within God, and the Christ who is dwelling in the heart of the believer, Luther makes a the distinction between the fatherly love toward humankind (benevolentia), and the Father, Son and Spirit, who are at work from within the life of the creatures in God's blessing (benedictio). There is an implicit notion of a pater pro nobis and a pater in nobis, which reflects, in the order of creation, the classic distinction between Christus pro nobis and Christus in nobis. According to Luther's theology of the Eucharist and divine blessing, there exists a union between God and creature, which has a similar structure as the union between Christ and believer. There are distinctions to be drawn as well as correlations to be seen between the order of creation and the order of salvation.     

Putting the Protest Back into Protestant

When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church on 31 October 1517, he did so in protest at abuses in Catholic theology and practice. Contemporary times, too, call for protest. The first “protest” concerns the revitalization of education and an increased commitment to intellectual excellence. The second “protest” concerns a recovery of Luther as a figure of protest. While scholars have tamed Luther's dangerous doctrines, the popular imagination still perceives him as an urban legend who spoke truth to power. An expansive notion of scholarship on Luther is required in order to approach a Luther who continues to inspire people around the world. The third “protest” is a critical protest of Luther's religious intolerance, specifically his anti‐Judaism. Christian theologians must acknowledge Luther's anti‐Judaism as central to his theology and radically revise this legacy to promote justice in inter‐religious relations.     

Non‐Competitive Agency and Luther's Experiential Argument Against Virtue

This article examines a critique that has been levied against Martin Luther's account of the passivity of the human agent in salvation, and his corresponding critique of Aristotelian and Scholastic accounts of virtue. According to Reinhard Hütter and Jennifer Herdt, among others, Luther's theology of passivity is primarily the product of a philosophical failure to recognize that divine and human agency can be conceived in non‐competitive terms. This article demonstrates through close analysis of Luther's arguments that this philosophical critique does not succeed in refuting Luther's theology of passivity. This is because it fails to recognize that Luther's view of human agency and his critique of virtue are based to a significant degree on a different kind of argument: namely, empirical reflection on the experience of sin, including especially experience of the unmasterability of sinful affections through discipline, habit, or effort of will. I conclude by arguing that until Christian virtue ethicists have reckoned with this experiential argument, they have not engaged with one of the strongest theological critiques of virtue‐based paradigms of Christian moral transformation.     

Luther's Heidelberg Disputation and identity formation

Luther's famous Ninety‐five Theses overshadowed his twenty‐eight theses of the Heidelberg Disputation. This is regrettable insofar as Luther broke in Heidelberg with the traditional scholastic method and introduced for the first time publicly his influential theology of the cross. Luther's existential emphasis in this Disputation is particularly significant, because he answers here the big questions for us: Who am I really in the sight of God? What is my true identity in Christ? Luther radically exposes our self‐centeredness and calls us to look at the world, God, and ourselves through “suffering and the cross,” as only in this way will we be able to perceive clearly and “say what a thing is.” He encourages us to become theologians of the cross who have given up on themselves and discovered that “everything is already done.” Luther's passionate plea to put the cross of Christ at the center of our lives is a welcome reminder for us today, even five hundred years later, as we seek to find out who we are, who God is, and what God is accomplishing in and through us. Rescuing Luther's Heidelberg Disputation from oblivion is vital for the health of both church and academia today.     

Challenges and Gifts of Teaching Luther in a Lutheran College1

This article examines what can be learned from teaching Luther to American college students. It reviews several ways in which college students benefit from studying Luther. The article suggests that identifying the “operating principles” in Luther's thought can help students more carefully discern the contemporary significance of his thought. After discussing some challenges encountered when teaching Luther to college students, the article ends with reflections on the theological significance of the college context. While Luther's discovery of a gracious God remains central, the college setting promotes a retrieval of several broader themes in Luther's thinking that have often been neglected by Lutherans: ongoing creation, wisdom, the Bible as “torah,” the suffering of God, and societal reform.     

Luther on vocation,by Gustaf Wingren: A twenty‐first‐century theological‐literary reading

In this article, the author offers a critical, appreciative appraisal of The One Mediator, Luther on Vocation, by Gustaf Wingren (English translation, 1957), which continues to be a seminal text for understanding Luther's teaching on the theme of vocation. The author points out that the reader needs to keep in mind both the difference between Luther's world of the sixteenth century and the world of the early twenty‐first century, and the sobering reality that pursuing the neighbor's good continues to be an essential, definitive calling that every Christian has. Further, the author calls attention to Wingren's indisputable reminder that, for Luther, vocation is about the way of the Christian in human society. That way of being in pursuit of the neighbor's good is consequent upon the forgiveness of sins, which God bestows on the sinner who receives it through faith in Jesus Christ. It is God alone who is the decisive actor, even though in the former—seeking the neighbor's good—God's work is hidden; that is, the human actor is a “mask of God.”     

Theme Articles: Mujerismo and The Two Kin‐doms: Distinction and Reconciliation

Abstract : The theological ethics underlining mujeristas' theological praxis and Luther's Two Kingdoms doctrine may seem to be contradictory to some. Mujerista theology calls for active engagement in the public sphere. Despite its utilization to the contrary, Luther's Two Kingdoms doctrine calls for that same active engagement of the Christian in civic matters. As a Lutheran Latina, I posit that the theological ethics of mujeristas and Luther's Two Kingdoms are distinct but reconcilable.     

Communicating a Protesting Protestant Heritage

This article opens by wondering, as many critics did during and after World War II, why a tradition named for its protesting impetus is today often marked by complacency and quietism. In conversation with political theorist William Connolly and Rev. Dr. William Barber's activism, this article suggests that Luther's unique articulation of the communicatio idiomatum might offer a compelling and coherent model for Lutheran ethical‐political agency that can provide an alternative to—rather than reinforcing—the modern isolated subject cum homo economicus often associated with idealized images of Luther's protest before the Diet of Worms.     

Luther's Antisemitism in Historical Context: A Necessary Discussion for Christian Educators

Martin Luther remains a complex, contradictory figure whose impact on modern Western history cannot be overstated. Among the most controversial aspects of Luther's work is his ambivalent perspective of the Jews. The early Luther viewed the Jews warmly, depicting them as Christianity's historical and religious ancestors. Later, however, he unleashed vitriolic antisemitic statements that called for the isolation and eventual exclusion of the Jews from German society. This paper sets Luther's antisemitism in historical context, proposing that educators in Christian settings should include the study of this aspect of Luther's work as they present curricula in various courses of study.