Lutheran Orthodoxy And PietismSo What Essay Research

Lutheran Orthodoxy And Pietism.So What. Essay, Research Paper

Lutheran Orthodoxy and Pietism.So What.

In many contemporary Lutheran circles, the labels .Orthodoxy. and .Pietism. are distinctly uncomplimentary. In popular usage, Orthodoxy means a fossilized over-intellectualized theological system that neglected the life of the people and distorted the heritage of the Reformation, synonymous with .ivory-tower unregenerate reactionary intellectual..

One congregation, for example, had to listen to a sermon on Matthew 10:30 (.And even the hairs of your head are all counted.) which the preacher subdivided into sections: the origins, style, and form of hair; its correct care; reminiscences, warnings, and comfort derived from hair; how to care for hair in good Christian fashion; and how to make use of it.

Its main characteristic was its emphasis on systematic thought..A second characteristic that made it similar to medieval theology was its use of Aristotle..The third reason why Lutheran theology in the seventeenth century is properly called .scholastic. is that it was mostly the product of schools. It was no longer, as in the previous century, a theology born out of the life of the church and directed towards preaching and the care of souls, but rather a theology developed in the universities, and addressed to other scholars and university professors..It left two important legacies: its doctrine of scriptural inspiration, and its spirit of rigid confessionalism.

Similarly, Pietism means a system of detailed ultra-conservative laws that lead to an empty formalism.a sort of Lutheran Judaism. In common parlance the term has come to mean .rigid piety. or .ostentatious quietist hypocrite..

These negative evaluations are not without some justification. They betray, however, a context-bound consciousness because they do not attempt to sympathetically enter into the times and thought of the period. Rather than rejecting our history, it is better to embrace it and bring from it the lessons it has for our own times.

In this paper, I will consider these movements by looking at their general characteristics, the way they answer the question .What must I do to be saved.., the sources of authority, the meaning of community, and their understanding of what is means to be a True Christian, and their weaknesses as viewed from the opposing camps. With this material in mind, I will then consider the implications of this understanding of our history for our present context.

Orthodoxy and Pietism.The Nature of the Movements

In general, it may be said that the Orthodox were concerned about learning right thinking, believing that it would lead to right action, while the Pietists were concerned about creating a right relationship, attempting to nurture that relationship through right action.

Lutheran Orthodoxy was distinguished by a single central concern: pure doctrine. The overriding concern was to establish, maintain, defend, and teach .pure doctrine.. By pure doctrine, the Orthodox theologians meant a system of belief based on the content of Scripture used to interpret the Scriptures in teaching and preaching. The most stringent logical system of the time, Aristotelian logical analysis, was used to ensure that the doctrine was correctly deduced.

The necessity to maintain pure doctrine led to extreme intolerance of any variation in theology and to prompt and vigorous suppression of heresy. Because the aim of pure doctrine was to transmit the Word, large amounts of energy were spent in teaching and testing the laity in the recitation of the catechism.

Stoffler identifies three significant themes in Pietism: the importance of personal relationship with God, the necessity to strive for sanctification, the need for the individual to engage in Bible study. The emphasis on the need and ability for the laity to engage in teaching and study, a revival of the priesthood of all believers, is equally important.

The essence of Christianity is to be found in the personally meaningful relationship of the individual to God.(They mean to) point in the direction of the centrality of the individual.s relationship to God.

Justification is meaningless from the point of view of the individual who needs salvation unless it is personally appropriated in a fiducial commitment. Justification must be more than a forensic act on the part of God. It must enter into human experience. This it does in the divinely wrought miracle of conversion and in the divinely initiated and supported striving for sanctification.

Pietism, from the beginning.was strongly committed to Biblical norms of thought and life and became increasingly distrustful of reason..It was this implicit, somewhat naive, trust in the Word, rather than in man.s words about the Word, which is also responsible for the fact that Pietists really trusted the religious opinions of theologically untrained laymen. .Laymen were permitted to testify, exhort, and even to preach. The doctrine of the priesthood of all believers was thus rescued once again from being a mere dogma and set free to exert its influence in the Church.

The emphasis on personal relationship with God is a way of understanding Luther.s definition of God,

A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. To have a go

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