Martin Luther in The Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Martin Luther’s influence in the Netherlands has often been overlooked in favour of a focus on the theology of Calvin. However, several historical facts lead us to consider the importance of Luther for the Dutch and the abiding significance of his work. The article examines several of those historical phenomena including the fluid ecclesiastical situation in the Netherlands from the 1520s to 1546, the year of Luther’s death. It also considers the impact which the reception of Luther’s writings had on Dutch society, both directly and in interaction with other theological perspectives. This leads naturally to a consideration of the general importance of Luther’s writings for the Dutch and their church(es). And after a survey of the variations and mutations which Luther’s ideas underwent in the Dutch context, we conclude with a brief survey of Luther’s continuing reception in the Netherlands beyond the sixteenth century.     

Martin Luther on Preaching Christ Present

This article advances the thesis that proclamation in Martin Luther's theology illumines Christ's non‐manipulative presence and sacrament his available presence. It is demonstrated that Luther's interest in the church as Mundhaus was not advanced at the expense of an emphasis on the sacraments. Hearing and seeing as correlates of Word and sacrament advance different theological points of emphasis vis‐à‐vis Christ's sovereign yet available presence. Moreover, I suggest that these themes of Word and sacrament – held in tension – roughly correspond to the following pairs in the thought of Luther: pride and despair; redemption and creation; and forensic and effective metaphors of justification. In conclusion, some suggestions regarding the utility of the theme of real presence are advanced for understanding the world as the object of God's saving actions.     

马丁·路德·金的“两种法律”观

法有好坏、善恶的区分。换言之 ,法律有两种即公正的法律和非公正的法律。人们不仅有法律义务 ,也有道义责任 ,去服从公正的法律。同时 ,人们也有道义的责任不服从非公正的法律。因为 ,不公正的法律根本就算不上是法律。这是美国 2 0世纪著名黑人民权运动领袖马丁·路德·金为驳斥当局和其他方面对其为争取黑人与白人的平等权利而发动的抗议运动的诽谤和攻击 ,特别是所谓示威者不守法的指责 ,而于 196 3年在伯明翰市监狱中写下的《伯明翰狱中书简》里所表达的一个重要思想。该书简被公认为是五六十年代美国黑人民权运动乃至整个美国历史上最…     

"A Christian, Holy People" Martin Luther on Salvation and the Church

Starting from recent uneasiness with Protestant individualism, this article asks whether Luther's theological insights might help address the unintended cultural consequences of the Reformation. Luther's mature thought defines the church as a tangible "Christian, holy people" within history, constituted by distinctive public practices. This church is necessarily institutionalized: the "universal priesthood" is corporate rather than individual, and cannot be fully realized without ministers acting in persona ecclesiae. Ordered ministry and common priesthood are interdependent and mutually constitutive. Finally, following his central principle that God gives spiritual gifts only through public, bodily means, Luther allows no separation of justifying faith from bodily adherence to the Christian people.     

What Love Is Not: Lessons from Martin Luther King,Jr.

Focusing on the concept and practice of love sheds light on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s negative political theology. King was fundamentally concerned with what love is not, and it is this negation that colors his political vision. I do not take King’s political theology to be either primarily derivative of American liberal Protestantism or primarily derivative of folk African American religion, or of some syncretism of these. Rather, I take King to be participating in a tradition of negative theology that pairs the critique of idolatry with attention outward and inward, to the marginalized and to spiritual life.     

Incongruous and Creative Grace: Reading Paul and the Gift with Martin Luther

Paul and the Gift by John Barclay advances an interpretation of Paul’s theology of grace that resonates with Martin Luther’s reading: God’s gift is God’s Son, Jesus Christ, given for and to the unworthy. To imagine Luther reading Paul and the Gift is thus to conjure images of deep and fundamental consensus. But questions remain. Is the law a cultural canon of worth that God’s gift of Christ ignores, or is it, as God’s law, a fixed judgement that God’s grace contravenes? Does God give only ‘without regard to worth’ and thus with a kind of divine indifference to cultural indices of value, or does the gift of Christ contradict the conditions of its receipts and thus come in a way that is actually incongruous? With these questions, Luther might push back against Barclay. With others he would ask Barclay to go further. Is not God’s incongruous grace also and characteristically creative? How is the gift of Christ that God gave present to and for recipients as the gift God now gives? In all these ways, Luther’s theology of the word poses questions to or invites expansions of Barclay’s theology of grace.