Category: Book Update

Posted on

Theology by Scripture Alone Alongside the Church Alone

The supreme authority for Christian theology is the Triune God and the Holy Scriptures through which he speaks. The Lutheran Scholastic theologians, beginning with Johann Gerhard, spoke of theology’s “principle of being” (principium essendi) and principle of knowledge (principium cognoscendi). Theologians in the Protestant tradition often speak of Holy Scripture as the supreme authority in Christian theology. This is not incorrect. But it should be qualified by recognizing along with the Lutheran Scholastics that although Holy Scripture is the inspired Word of God, its authority ultimately rests on the authority of the Triune God who through it addresses humanity. 

Affirming that Holy Scripture is the foundation and source of all true Christian theology does not rule out the reality that God speaks through other mediums. Indeed, Luther speaks of all creatures as God’s masks, channels, and created words through which God addresses humanity.  The eighteenth-century Lutheran philosopher Johann Georg Hamann spoke of humanity as enveloped by God’s address through creation. 

Nevertheless, we must make a distinction between God’s auditory and visible words. God acts on his creatures through the physical mediums of the whole of creation. However, God only tells humans how they are to know him in these physical mediums through his auditory Word. God’s auditory words were revealed to the prophets and the apostles and written down in the Bible. We know that the Scriptures are the inerrant Word of God because Jesus Christ affirmed their authority and proved his own by rising from the dead.  

Continue reading “Theology by Scripture Alone Alongside the Church Alone”
Posted on

Justification in Jesus Christ is the Center of Theology

Theology is centered on, yet not exhausted by, the message of justification in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ offers a unilateral and unconditional promise of salvation. Therefore, the distinction between law and gospel is also central to the enterprise of Christian theology.

The central problem of human life is the question of justification. Social psychologists have demonstrated that across culture and times, humans are driven on by status seeking behavior in their relationships with other humans.  A given cultural group sets standards of behavior, and humans compete with one another to see who can best embody them. The ultimate goal of this competition is gaining a status of proper recognition before others (i.e., social justification).  In religion, this principle also holds true. Whatever the ultimate goal of salvation is in a given religion, adherents will invariably achieve it by performing a set a works (be they moral, ritual or both). Another option might be to mystically dissolve the self to escape the relentless demand of the gods or God. Even modern atheism embodies this impulse, since by pretending that God and his law do not exist, one is free from the need to justify oneself before God, or at minimum, religious authorities. Rather, the self dissolves upon death.

Continue reading “Justification in Jesus Christ is the Center of Theology”
Posted on

Theology by Grace Alone through Faith Alone

Theology is fundamentally about knowing and confessing the Triune God through faith in his Word (Rom. 10:9). God the Holy Spirit works to create saving faith through the Word. Such faith is in no way the byproduct of human will or activity (Rom. 10:17, 1 Cor. 2:14-16). Scripture does allow that a natural knowledge of God accessible to all people exists (Ps. 19, Rom. 1-2). Yet, this philosophical recognition of God and his reality is not theology in its proper sense. At best, the natural knowledge of God is a partial, garbled knowledge that the sinful human heart will manipulate according to its own purposes. Since God saves by faith through grace alone, so too the theology that gives rise to that faith comes by grace alone.  

In this vein, the early Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard (1582 – 1637) spoke of theology as a “practical habitus” that God implanted in the human heart and mind.  In the Aristotelian philosophy of the day, a “habitus” was an aptitude for developing a habitual behavior, such as a virtue. Gerhard argued that God’s grace made theology possible by means of the Holy Spirit working on the heart and mind of the theologian. This divine action enables readers to fully apprehend the truths present in the text of Scripture. Of course, the theologian might still draw on his own humanly acquired knowledge when studying Scripture. However, only God’s Spirit and the gifts that he bestows allows the theologian to properly apprehend the content and unity of the Faith. Such a divinely given “aptitude” is “practical” because its ultimate end is the proclamation of the grace of God in Christ through Word and Sacrament. 

From the draft manuscript for Lutheran Dogmatics: The Evangelical-Catholic Faith for an Age of Contested Truth (Lexham Press).

Cover image from: Tom Nash, “What Are Inspirations of the Holy Spirit?,” Catholic Answers, accessed June 23, 2025, https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-are-inspirations-of-the-holy-spirit; other image from Chantal LaFortune, “Sacred Scripture Unveiled,” Holy Apostles College & Seminary, December 8, 2023, accessed June 23, 2025, https://holyapostles.edu/sacred-scripture-unveiled/.

Posted on

The Suffering Servant as Our Eternal High Priest

Throughout so-called Deutero-Isaiah, the Servant eschatologically fulfills the role of priestly and prophetic mediation, but also seems to be the Davidic Messiah spoken of earlier in Isaiah.  Earlier, Isaiah speaks of the Davidic Messiah as “a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch” (Isa. 11:1) and “root of Jesse who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire” (Isa. 11:10).  Parallel to this, the Servant of the later chapters of Isaiah is called a “shoot” coming “out of dry ground” (Isa. 53:2) and a “light to the nations” (Isa. 49:6). 

The Suffering Servant

Another parallel between the two figures is that the Davidic Messiah and the Servant are both described as redeemers and servants of YHWH.1  Indeed, like David prior to his enthronement, the Servant suffers before receiving glory.  Hence, it seems logical to think that Isaiah is speaking of the same figure when describing the Davidic Messiah and the Servant of the YHWH.    

It should also not go unnoticed that Isaiah’s Servant of YHWH takes on divine qualities as well.  As we have noted earlier, after having left during the Babylonian exile (Ezek. 10), Isaiah informs us that YHWH himself will return to Zion (Isa 40). The returning divine presence merges throughout the latter half of Isaiah with the Servant.  In this vein, the Servant is the luminous glory of the Lord in that he is a “light to the nations”(49:6). It cannot be denied that this description parallels the manifestation of the returning Kavod in Isaiah 40:5. Moreover, the Servant is also called the “arm of the Lord”(Isa. 53:1, 63:12), well as the divine “Angel of the presence” sent to save the people of God (Isa. 63:9).2  

Continue reading “The Suffering Servant as Our Eternal High Priest”
Posted on

Male – Female Relationality

The most primal relationship mirroring the relationality of divine life is the male/female relationship.  This is a point highlighted in the theology of Karl Barth1 and Hans Urs von Balthasar.2  In Genesis 2 we are told that God sees that it is not good that man is alone and seeks to make him a counterpart as a “helpmeet.”  As helpmeet, the woman is created to share in man’s creational/vocational tasks as a partner.  This is what St. Paul means when he states that “man [was not] created for woman, but woman for man” (1 Cor. 11:9).  He does not mean that woman was created as man’s plaything, or a slave to be dominated.  Rather, man was first created and given certain creational tasks which woman was created to share in.

In Genesis 2, woman is derived from man, but not because she is inferior to man.  As we may recall, the idea that realities which are derivative are inherently inferior is an aspect of the metaphysics of tragedy.  The Bible works on the basis of a metaphysic of comedy, in that movement and generation do not lead to degeneracy but go from the good (the man alone) to the better (man and woman together in relationship).  In support of this, Genesis 1 makes both the male and female equal image-bearers of God.  This is confirmed in that when seeing the woman in Genesis 2 the man cries out that she is precisely what he is: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23).  In an analogical sense, the man is homoousios with the woman. 

Continue reading “Male – Female Relationality”