Category: Theology,

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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/.

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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. 

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