"Drinking from the same wells with Orthodox and Catholics": insights from the Finnish Interpretation of Luther's theology.

A new perspective on the Lutheran doctrine of justification

Traditionally, it has been claimed that the main dividing issue between Roman Catholics and Lutherans is the differing interpretation of the doctrine of justification by faith, and between Western Churches (both Roman Catholic and Lutheran) and Eastern churches the irreconcilable breach between understanding salvation in terms of justification and theosis respectively.

With regard to the first conflict, it has become a mantra that for Lutherans justification is a forensic action, God declaring the sinner righteous in God's sight, whereas for Roman Catholics it is making the person righteous. With regard to the latter impasse, textbooks argue that for Lutherans the concept of theosis is almost blasphemous: first, it comes close to a "theology of glory," second, it entertains the problematic view of human-divine synergy, and third, it champions the idea of the freedom of will. For Catholics, traditionally, the concept of theosis has been more acceptable for the simple reason that their under-standing of salvation includes becoming righteous (sanctification), and they have never eschewed talk about good works as an integral part of salvation.

Beginning in the late 1970s, under the leadership of Tuomo Mannermaa, now emeritus professor of ecumenics at the University of Helsinki, the Mannermaa School has offered an alternative reading of Luther's theology. Significantly, the impetus for this new reading of Luther's theology came as a result of the dialogue between the Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox churches, or, more precisely, between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Lutheran Church of Finland. This new paradigm has also been influential in the longstanding Roman Catholic-Lutheran conversations on justification and the resulting Joint Declaration (1999). (1)

To get a better understanding of what some of the key ideas of the new perspective on Luther are, let me just list the basic theses as I understand them.

1. Luther's understanding of salvation can be expressed not only in terms of the doctrine of justification but also in terms of Christ's real presence in us or, with the help of the ancient concept of theosis, deification. Thus, while there are differences between the Eastern and Lutheran understandings of soteriology, over questions such as free will and understandings of the effects of the Fall, Luther's own theology cannot be set in opposition to the ancient Eastern idea of deification.

2. For Luther, the main idea of justification is Christ present in faith (in ipsa fide Christus adest). Justification for Luther means a "real-ontic" participation in God through the indwelling of Christ in the heart of the believer through the Spirit.

3. In contrast to the theology of the Lutheran Confessions, Luther does not make a distinction between forensic and effective justification but rather argues that justification includes both. In other words, in line with Catholic theology, justification means both declaring righteous and making righteous.

4. Therefore, justification means not only sanctification but also good works, since Christ present in faith makes the Christian "a christ to the neighbor" as Luther puts it. In a real sense, Luther can be regarded as a theologian of love, not only of faith (and justification).

5. While there is no denying the importance of Christology and Trinity to Luther's doctrine of justification, the new perspective has also helped recover pneumatological resources in the Reformer's theology that are not usually acknowledged. In other words, spirituality is an essential part of Lutheran theology and piety.

An important methodological remark needs to be made here. For the Mannermaa school, the distinction between "Luther's theology" (the theology of the Reformer himself) and "Lutheran theology" (the subsequent theology of the Confessional Documents of the Lutheran Church, as drafted under the leadership of Philip Melanchthon) is vital. Finnish scholars argue that one of the weaknesses of the older Luther research, as conducted mainly in the German academy, is the neglect of this vital distinction. Indeed, one of the main motifs of the new perspective is to dig into core themes of Martin Luther's own theology and not hasten to read Luther in light of his later interpreters or vice versa.

My purpose in this presentation is twofold. First, I offer an exposition of key ideas of the new perspective on Luther's theology as advocated by the Finnish school and suggest an ecumenically more fruitful approach to the question of salvation based on the new perspective. Second, I reflect on some important implications for spirituality and faith from this new outlook, focusing on two main issues, mentioned under points 4 and 5 above: the implications of Luther's theology for practical Christian life, including the love of the neighbor and Christian community, and the significance of the pneumatological orientation.

Let me add an autobiographical note. I was trained theologically by Professor Mannermaa and his students, many of whom have become well-known theologians especially in German-speaking academia but more recently also in the English-speaking world. However, I am not a member at the Mannermaa school even though I serve at the University of Helsinki in the capacity of Privatdozent of Ecumenics. My main research interests lie elsewhere. Yet, I remain an interested observer and a friendly critic of developments in Luther studies. (2)

Justification as participation in God and the presence of Christ in the Spirit

In the new interpretation of Luther's theology, justification may be described in at least three interrelated ways: participation in God, the presence of Christ, and theosis. Luther also occasionally used other images such as "union with God," perichoresis, the famous Eastern term, and others.

Christ's real presence in a believer is the leading motif in Luther's soteriology. A classic formulation can be found in his Lectures on Galatians (1535; WA 40:228-29). Speaking about "true faith," Luther says, "it takes hold of Christ in such a way that Christ is the object of faith, or rather not the object, but so to speak, the One who is present in the faith itself.... Therefore faith justifies because it takes hold of and possesses this treasure, the present Christ." For the Mannermaa school, the leading idea in Luther's theology of salvation and justification is Luther's insistence on "Christ present in faith"--that Christ in both his person and his work is present in faith and is through this presence identical with the righteousness of faith. The Lutheran tradition holds to the idea of God living in the believer (inhabitatio Dei).

Justification for Luther means primarily participation in God through the indwelling of Christ in the heart through the Spirit. Through faith, a human being also participates in the characteristics of God, or, as Luther often says, of the Word of God. This participation means putting down those human traits that are contrary to the righteousness of God and participating instead in the goodness, wisdom, truthfulness, and other characteristics of God. Luther expresses this truth by saying that God becomes truthful, good, and just in the person when God makes the person truthful, good, and just. Never is there reason to boast, though, since even the presence of Christ and its consequences are always hidden in the Christian.

Justification as theosis

Luther's view of justification can be called theosis, according to the ancient doctrine of the Fathers with whom Luther agreed. Justification and deification mean the "participation" of the believer in Christ, which, because Christ is God, is also a participation in God. This participation is the result of God's love. Human beings cannot participate in God on the basis of their own love; rather, God's love effects their deification. Christian participation in Christ thus is the result of the divine presence in the believer as love. Following Athanasius and others, this is a participation in the very ousia of God. There is what the Mannermaa school calls a "real-ontic" unity between Christ and the Christian, although the substances themselves do not change into something else. What makes the claim of this new paradigm unique--and controversial especially with regard to the established canons of German Luther interpretation--is that the idea of Christ's presence is "real-ontic," not just a subjective experience or God's "effect" on the believer, as the neo-Protestant school has exclusively held.

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Finnish scholar Simo Peura, who has written a full-scale monograph on the idea of deification in Luther, shows that deification is an integral motif of Luther's theology. One explicit passage comes from Luther's Sermon on the Day of St. Peter and St. Paul (1519; WA 2:247-48): "For it is true that a man helped by grace is more than a man; indeed, the grace of God gives him the form of God and deifies him, so that even the Scriptures call him 'God' and 'God's son.'" Another example is in Luther's Christmas sermon of 1514 (WA 1, 28, 25-32): "Just as the word of God became flesh, so it is certainly also necessary that the flesh become word. For the word becomes flesh precisely so that the flesh may become word. In other words: God becomes man so that man may become God. Thus power becomes powerless so that weakness may become powerful. The logos puts on our form and manner."

Another way to look at the doctrine of justification and its parallels with the Eastern doctrine of theosis in Luther is to focus on Luther's doctrine of God. Highly significant is the fact that for Luther the divinity of the Triune God consists in that "God gives" himself. The essence of God, then, is identical with the essential divine properties in which he gives of himself, called the "names" of God: Word, justice, truth, wisdom, love, goodness, eternal life, and so forth. As Mannermaa describes it, "The theosis of the believer is initiated when God bestows on the believer God's essential properties; that is, what God gives of himself to humans is nothing separate from God himself." (3) A Christian is saved when the "spiritual goods" or the names of God are given to her. God is, as Luther says, the whole beatitude of his saints; the name of God donates God's goodness, God himself, to the Christian; the spiritual goods are God's gifts in the Christian. Not only is the human being saved when God gives himself to the Christian; in that very same act, God proves to be the real God when he donates his own being to humanity. In the words of Peura, "Thus, God realizes himself and his own nature when he gives his wisdom, goodness, virtue, beatitude, and all of his riches to the Christian, and when a Christian receives all that he gives." (4)

Christ as grace and gift: justification as declaring righteous and making righteous

In light of these interpretations of Luther's theology, it will not come as a surprise that the Mannermaa school posits a radical difference between Luther's own theology and that of subsequent Lutheranism. Their thesis is that Luther's own theology has the potential of creating a common foundation in relation to both Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Peura puts it succinctly:

[The Formula of Concord] and modern Lutheran theology have not correctly
communicated Luther's view of grace and gift ... justification includes
gift in its broader sense, that is, in its effective aspect as the
renewal of the sinner (renovatio). This aspect belongs integrally to
Luther's view of justification, and it is not a mere consequence of
forensic imputation. Justification is not a change of self-
understanding, a new relation to God, or a new ethos of love. God
changes the sinner ontologically in the sense that he or she
participates in God and in his divine nature, being made righteous and
"a god." (5)

The relationship between effective and forensic justification comes to light in Luther's theology in his usage of the two classic concepts of "grace" (gratia, favor) and "gift" (donum). The former denotes that the sinner is declared righteous (the forensic aspect) and the latter that the person is made righteous (the effective aspect). Even at the beginning of his career, in his Lectures on Romans (15 15/16), this distinction appears. Following the terminology of Augustine and the medieval tradition, on the basis of Romans 5:15, Luther expresses the opinion that is totally in line with the mainline Roman Catholic teaching but that has been lost sight of in later Lutheranism (LW 25:306; WA 56, 318, 28-29): "But 'the grace of God' and the 'gift' are the same thing, namely, the very righteousness which is freely given to us through Christ." In other words, Luther found it most important already in those early years to relate grace and gift closely to each other and to understand them both as given to the Christian through Christ. Thus we can see that grace and gift together constitute the donated righteousness of a Christian.

Furthermore, grace and gift are given not only through Christ but in Christ and with Christ. Even when he conceptually makes a distinction between the grace and the gift, Luther always keeps them together. He maintains that grace and gift are in Christ and that they become ours when Christ is "poured" into us: "Grace actually means God's favor, or the good will which in himself he bears toward us, by which he is disposed to pour Christ and the Holy Spirit with his gifts into us" (WA DB 7, 9, 10-14).

Consequently, for Luther, the distinction between effective and forensic righteousness is not an issue as it has been in subsequent Lutheran doctrine. What is crucial to Luther's own doctrine of justification is the distinction between two kinds of righteousness--the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of the human being. The first type Luther defines as the alien righteousness that is being infused to us from outside; it is that kind of righteousness that Christ is in himself, and it is the righteousness of faith. This righteousness of Christ is what makes the human being just. Furthermore, this first type is given without our own works, solely on the basis of grace--the famous sola gratia. Human activity is completely excluded in this process. The infusion of this righteousness is more than mere forensic imputation, though. It also means the realization of the righteousness of Christ in the believer.

The other kind of righteousness is given righteousness, in this sense human righteousness. Luther calls it "our" righteousness. It is a result of the first kind and makes it effective, "perfects" it. Even though it is called "our" righteousness, its origin and source are outside the human being, in the righteousness of Christ. Christ's righteousness is the foundation, cause, and origin of human righteousness. Christ present in faith "absorbs all sin in a moment," since the righteousness of Christ infused into the human heart is "infinite"; still, the power of sin and death is deteriorating day by day but is not fully deteriorated until death.

The infusion of Christ's righteousness into the heart of the believer begins the process of nullifying the power of sin and transforming the fallen nature. The emerging good deeds have nothing to do with salvation because the believer is already justified. The only purpose of the good deeds now is the good of fellow people. This puts the role of good works in proper light and brings us to the importance of love in Luther's theology.

Luther as the theologian of love

So far I have established that, according to the Helsinki school, the leading idea in Luther's theology is his insistence on "Christ present in faith." Justification or deification means the participation of the believer in Christ, which, because Christ is God, is also participation in God.

This can be expressed also in another way in light of Luther's overall theology: Christian participation in Christ is the result of the divine presence in the believer as love. This insight takes us into a very important practical implication having to do with the centrality of the notion of love in Luther's theology. His understanding of the nature of God's love and his view of the real presence of Christ in the believer reveal his understanding of neighbor love and the nature of Christian community. Insofar as the relationship to God is based not on human love but on the reception of God's love in faith, works of love are released to serve the needs of other people.

In order to grasp the meaning of this, we need to revisit the question of the center of Luther's theological and spiritual thinking. Usually, Luther is looked upon as the theologian of justification by faith, and the fact is often neglected that he was also a theologian of love, both divine and human. His distinctive understanding of the nature of God's love and the power of the love poured into the believer's heart as a result of Christ's real presence in the Christian offers an exciting perspective on human relationships and neighbor love.

What also makes his view so appealing is that Luther's understanding of neighbor love is integrally connected with his theology, especially the doctrine of salvation and Christology. Whereas in current systematic theology ethics and theology have drifted apart, in Luther ethics, social life, and neighbor love can never be divorced from the core of his theology. He says:

All works except for faith have to be directed to the neighbor. For God
does not require of us any works with regard to himself, only faith
through Christ. That is more than enough for him; that is the right way
to give honor to God as God, who is gracious, merciful, wise and
truthful. Thereafter, think nothing else than that you do to your
neighbor as Christ has done to you. Let all your work and all your life
be turned to your neighbor. Seek the poor, sick, and all kinds of
wretched people; render your help to those; surrender your life in
various kinds of exercises. Let those who really need you enjoy you,
insofar that is possible with regard to your body, possessions, and
honor. (WA 10 I, 2, 168, 18-26, Advent Postil, 1522; my translation)

It can legitimately be said that the leading motif of Luther's theology can be found in the last thesis of his Heidelberg Disputation (HDT) in which he outlines his "theology of the cross." The leading idea there, and in much of Luther's theology, is the difference between two kinds of love: amor Dei and amor hominis, God's love and human love. The 28 theses, in fact, culminate in this distinction. Human love is always basically selfish, and it fools men and women to seek God with good works and human wisdom. This perverted love in the final analysis renders men and women incapable of receiving God's grace.

Human love is oriented toward objects that are inherently good, where self-love defines the content and the object of the love. Men and women love something that they believe they can enjoy. For Luther, love as defined by medieval scholastic theology provided an example of this kind of love.

God loves in a way opposite to human love: "The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it ... Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good" (HDT 28). Luther sometimes calls God's love amor crucis: "This is the love of the cross, born of the cross, which turns in the direction where it does not find good which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person" (HDT28). It is born out of the cross of Christ and is manifested through God's gracious works in the world.

Christian as "Christ" to the neighbor

Now, to the implications for neighbor love. According to Luther, we can of course do nothing for our salvation, but our neighbors need our work, that is, our love: "Every man is created and born for the sake of others" (WA 21, 346). For if I do not use everything that I have to serve my neighbor, I rob him of what I owe him according to God's will. A Christian, then, becomes a "work of Christ," and even more, a "Christ" to the neighbor; the Christian does what Christ does. The Christian identifies with the suffering of his or her neighbor. Christ is the subject of good works--in other words, the real presence of Christ in the believer.

The presence of Christ for Luther is not only "spiritual," or extra nos (outside of us), but also in nobis ([with]in us), in the language of the Mannermaa school, in a "real-ontic" way. In fact, Luther says: "If Christ abides in us through faith, then we are one with him" (HDT 26) and "Christ lives in us through faith" (HDT 27).

According to Luther, "since Christ lives in us through faith ... he arouses us to do good works through that living faith in his work, for the works which he does are the fulfillment of the commands of God given us through faith" (HDT 27). The Christian identifies with the suffering of the neighbor. As donum (gift) Christ gives himself in a real way to the Christian to make him or her participate in the divine nature. To emphasize the union between Christ and the Christian, Luther sometimes even borrows expressions from the mystics, as in his reference to the Song of Songs in the Heidelberg Thesis 27.

For Luther the Golden Rule, "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Mt 7:12 NIV) is both a natural law and the principle of Scripture. As a natural law, it is also a spiritual law. The Golden Rule is the guiding principle of our relationship both to God and to other persons. The requirement of the Golden Rule with regard to God means giving God all the honor and praise that God deserves and wills--in other words, returning to God that which fallen human nature wants to rob of God. Thereafter the human being is ready to give the neighbor what she also wants herself.

For a human being it is not possible to fulfill the requirements of the law. Christ is the one who fulfills the law. All of the commandments of the Second Tablet are to be found in love:

Love is the common virtue of all virtues, their fulfillment and source.
Love feeds, gives drink, clothes, consoles, prays, makes free, helps,
and saves. What do we say then? It gives itself, body and life,
possessions and honor and all its power internally and externally to
meet the desperate need of the neighbor for his benefit. It does not
hold back anything either from a friend or fiend with which it can serve
other people. Therefore, no virtue can be compared to it, neither is it
possible to describe or name any specific work for it as with regard to
other virtues, which are actually partial virtues, such as purity,
charity, patience, and goodwill, etc. Love does everything ... so much
so that Saint Paul says that all the commandments are included in this
summa: love your neighbor. (WA 17 II, 100, 26-101, 4, Lent Postil, 1525;
my translation)

Luther is critical of an interpretation of the Golden Rule that exhorts one to love oneself first in order to be able to love another. On the contrary, Luther believes that every person already knows how to love himself; what is lacking is the capacity and desire to love another person, especially when nothing good is to be expected in return. The natural tendency of human love is to look for good things for oneself rather than for others. According to Luther, the commandment to love oneself first as a presupposition of love toward one's neighbor "is one of the things by which we are led away from love as long as we do not fully understand it. For as long as we first use each good for ourselves, we are not concerned about our neighbor" (LW 25:512).

Against the tradition, Luther also maintains that good motives are not enough for true neighbor love. Love has to take a practical form. The criterion for true love of the neighbor is nothing short of the need of that person. According to the Golden Rule, each and every person is capable in principle of knowing what the other person needs by placing herself in that other person's situation and thinking of what she would want others to do for her. Consequently, it is not enough to have the right motivation if the appropriate act of love is missing. Luther states two requirements for a loving deed: the person of the doer should be good, and the need of the receiver has to be fulfilled. In the final analysis, they merge into a single principle, because the goodness of the deed always depends on whether it is helpful to the other person and is not motivated by selfish purposes. Also, Luther maintains, the spiritual law requires us to love both God and our neighbor with a wholehearted love.

A test for genuine love is the willingness to love sinners. In Luther's theology, in contradistinction to later Lutheranism, love toward the sinner is a leading theme. Luther expresses this by arguing that, as good as it is to help the neighbor, loving the sinner and covering his sins with righteousness is even more valuable:

External work of love is very good, when we give away our possessions
to another person and become servants. Greatest, however, is to give
away my own righteousness and let it serve a sinning neighbor. For in
the external service and aid with the help of one's possessions, love
is only in the external, but to share one's righteousness is great and
it is to be found in the internal: I have to be a friend to the
sinner.... I have to regard himself so dear that I seek for him and
become like a shepherd who is looking for a lamb, or the woman who was
seeking for the lost coin. Therefore, we want to speak of the high work
of love according to which the righteous man has an obligation to defend
with his righteousness the sinner; a pious woman likewise is obliged to
share her honor with the worst whore. For the world or the reason does
not do works like this. (WA 10 III, 217, 13-18; 22-30; Sermon, 1522)

The church as hospital and as mother

Luther's understanding of God's love and love toward neighbor also has important ecclesiological implications. Since Christians are living in the world they are involved with people who are both sinful and less than perfect. Therefore, the church of Christ in the world cannot be anything else except a hospital for the incurably sick. The summa of the Christian life is to bear the burden of one's neighbor; consequently, the task of the bishops and pastors is to act as if their dioceses were hospitals and their church members were in need of medical treatment:

This is the summa of the Gospel: The kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of
mercy and grace. It is nothing else than continuous bearing of [each
other's] burdens. Christ bears our wretchedness and sicknesses. Our sins
he will take upon himself and he is patient when we are going astray.
Even now and forever he carries us on his shoulders and never tires of
carrying us.... The task of the preachers in this kingdom is to console
consciences, associate in a friendly spirit with the people, feed them
with the nourishment of the Gospel, carry the weak, heal the sick, and
take care of everybody according to their need. That is also the proper
ministry for every bishop and pastor. (WA 10 I, 2; 366, 18-34; Summer
Postil, 1526, my translation)

The theological basis for this kind of caring attitude is Luther's idea of church members as "Christs" to each other. This comes into focus in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. As Christ has given himself to the Christians in the bread and wine, so also do Christians form a single bread and drink as they participate in the Eucharist. The Christian is bread to feed the hungry neighbor and drink to quench the thirst: "Also with us it happens so that we all become one cake and we eat each other" (WA 12, 489, 9-490, 5). Luther compares the eucharistic eating to the baking of bread in which the ingredients get totally mixed without being able to be distinguished from each other, or to the preparation of wine in which the grapes are mashed.

Luther also knows the beautiful ancient symbol of the church as mother. In fact, he compares the church with the physical womb of the mother to deliver a baby. The task of the church is noble: "The church namely teaches, cherishes us warmly, carries us in her womb and lap and arms, shapes us and makes us perfect according to the form of Christ until we grow to become perfect men" (WA 40I,665, 13-17).

The pneumatological potential of Luther's theology

Generally speaking, Reformation theology viewed faith as the decisive work of the Holy Spirit, as the familiar quotation from Luther (repeated in the Lutheran Confessions) clearly shows: "I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to him, of my own reason or power, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and upheld me in true faith" (WA 30, 1, 367-68). Luther's exposition of the Third Article of the Creed in the 1531 Small Catechism understands faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

However, the later development of Reformation soteriology, especially in the Lutheran tradition, came to be expressed in more Christological than pneumatological terms. The commonly held forensic doctrine of justification by faith as articulated by later confessional writings does not easily lean toward a dynamic pneumatological spirituality. The ecumenical encounter with the Eastern Orthodox Church, with its emphasis on the Holy Spirit in salvation and liturgy, has helped Lutherans to rediscover some of their own pneumatological treasures. The pneumatological orientation was acknowledged early in the Lutheran-Orthodox conversations. Defining "the new road leading to deification" as a "process of growing in holiness," the joint document cites two important Pauline texts: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:18), and deification takes place under the influence of the grace of the Holy Spirit by a deep and sincere faith, together with hope and permeated by love (1 Cor 13:13).

Pneumatological implications of the new interpretation are obvious. The leading idea, Christ present through faith, can also be expressed pneumatically: It is through the Spirit of Christ that the mediation of salvatory gifts is accomplished. Participation in God is possible only through the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of adoption. As the American Lutheran theologian Kenneth L. Bakken puts it, "There is no justification by faith without the Holy Spirit. Justifying faith is itself the experience that the love of God has been poured into our hearts 'through the Holy Spirit' (Rom 5:5)." (6)

In a monograph published by the Finnish Lutheran theologian Markku Antola, another student of Mannermaa, charismatic Lutheran theology is connected with mainstream Lutheranism via the key idea of the "Charismatic Experience as the Presence of Christ in Faith." (7) Based on the theological proceedings of a work of an international team of more than twenty Lutheran theologians titled Welcome, Holy Spirit (8) (WHS), Antola discusses the new perspective in relation to key emphases of charismatic Lutheran theology and renewal. In keeping with Luther's own view, the charismatic theology of Lutheranism describes charismatic experience as the presence of the Triune God through the Spirit. The purpose of the Spirit's work is to create faith in Christ and lead the believer into a "living union" with Christ.

But the Holy Spirit alone creates true faith, whereby one is actually
united with the living Christ as the present and redeeming Lord. (WHS,
141)

"If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). The
newness is not simply the fact that human nature has been forgiven and
cleansed. That is, in a sense, preparation. The newness goes deeper: a
person now lives in union with the risen Christ. That which has been
created, the "new creation," is precisely the reality of the indwelling
Spirit establishing and maintaining the risen Christ and the believer in
a living union. Every believer must experience the reality of the
indwelling Christ. (WHS, 57)

Faith describes the whole action by which the Holy Spirit brings the
living, redeeming presence of Christ into a living union with a human
being. The initiative and the power to accomplish this lies with the
Spirit. (WHS, 69).

Salvation and spirituality

The Reformed theologian Jurgen Moltmann has a helpful section on soteriology in his Spirit of Life (9) where he criticizes the traditional Reformation/Lutheran view for not paying due attention to the role of the Spirit in salvation and consequently being weak on spirituality. Referring to passages such as Titus 3:5-7, which speaks about the "washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly," Moltmann emphasizes that "'regeneration' as 'renewal'" comes about through the Holy Spirit when the "Spirit is 'poured out'" (p. 146). By making further reference to John 4:14, the metaphor of the divine wellspring of life that begins to flow in a human being, he contends that "through this experience of the Spirit, who comes upon us from the Father through the Son, we become 'justified through grace'" (p. 146).

Moltmann writes that "in order to present regeneration of men and women as their justification, the Reformation doctrine of justification has to be expanded" in three interrelated directions (p. 411). First, it must show the saving significance of Christ's death and resurrection. Second, it must from the outset be presented pneu-matologically as experience of the Spirit. Third, it must be eschatologically oriented. This is clearly happening in the widely acknowledged--and widely debated--Joint Declaration between Catholics and Lutherans. In a most helpful way it highlights the dynamic and elastic nature of the doctrine of salvation, including the concept of justification. There are a number of metaphors and images available in the Christian canon:

Justification is the forgiveness of sins (cf. Rom 3:23-25; Acts 13:39;
Luke 18:14), liberation from the dominating power of sin and death (Rom
5:12-21) and from the curse of the law (Gal 3:10-14). It is acceptance
into communion with God: already now, but then fully in God's coming
kingdom (Rom 5:1-2). It unites with Christ and with his death and
resurrection (Rom 6:5). (Joint Declaration #11)

Sticking to only one definition, say, forensic, is not only biblically and theologically misguided but also reductionistic in terms of spirituality and spiritual life. Under the subheading "Justification as Forgiveness of Sins and Making Righteous" the document says: "These two aspects of God's gracious action are not to be separated, for persons are by faith united with Christ, who in his person is our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30): both the forgiveness of sin and the saving presence of God himself" (#22).

These emphases are in keeping with the new perspective on Luther's theology. Quoting Moltmann again,

The operation of the Spirit as we experience it is therefore a double
one: it is the justification of the godless out of grace, and their
rebirth to a living hope through their installation in their right to
inherit God's future. The justification of the godless is the initial
operation of the outpouring of the Spirit ..." (p. 146-47)

No wonder that one of the most recent publications of the Helsinki school, a collection of essays, focuses on Lutheran spirituality, asking the question we are asking in this occasion--namely, What are the resources in Lutheran theology and faith to a renewed spirituality and spiritual life? Unfortunately, that book is written only in Finnish, making it inaccessible to most of us. Yet, the rich resources in Luther's own writings as well as in the Lutheran traditions are accessible. The new interpretation is but one way to help rediscover and reappropriate that spiritual heritage.

Finally, the ecumenical discussion of the doctrine of salvation is urgent not only for the sake of Christian unity but also in light of the relation of Christian faith to other religions. The theology-of-religions question may open up new vistas for reconsidering ancient Christian doctrines and help us move beyond the ecumenical impasse. What if the doctrine of divinization were a viable candidate for all Christians to talk about salvation in relation to other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism and African spiritualities? The relevance and accuracy of soteriological discourse should also be studied in relation to other cultures, where the questions of "salvation" come from yet other angles. (10) Little work has been done in these areas specifically. This is a call for all of us, regardless of our respective traditions.

Veli-Matti Karkkainen

Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California 

University of Helsinki, Finland

1. The publications of the Mannermaa School are written mainly in German (and Scandinavian languages). Not until 1998 was the first English monograph, a collection of essays by Finnish Luther scholars edited by two leading American Lutheran experts, offered to the English-speaking world. It was titled Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther, ed. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998). 2005 saw the publication of the English translation of the groundbreaking work by Tuomo Mannermaa, Christ Present in Faith: Luther's View of Justification (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005; orig. 1979 in Finnish and later in German). A succinct introduction to the methodological orientations and the main results of the Mannermaa school can be found in Mannermaa's essay "Why is Luther so Fascinating? Modern Finnish Luther Research," in Union with Christ, 1-20. For a synopsis, see also Veli-Matti Karkkainen, One with God: Salvation as Deification and Justification (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2004), chap. 4.

2. For more of my critical comments on some of the issues discussed here see Veli-Matti Karkkainen, "Salvation as Justification and Theosis: The Contribution of the New Finnish Luther Interpretation to Our Ecumenical Future," Dialog: A Journal of Theology 45 (Spring 2006): 74-82. For my contributions on the various aspects of the topic with detailed bibliographical notes, see Karkkainen, One With God; "Justification as Forgiveness of Sins and Making Righteous: The Ecumenical Promise of a New Interpretation of Luther," One in Christ 37 (April 2002): 32-45; "The Ecumenical Potential of Theosis: Emerging Convergences between Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and Pentecostal Soteriologies," Sobornostl/Eastern Churches Review 23, no. 2 (2002): 45-77; "The Holy Spirit and Justification: The Ecumenical Significance of Luther's Doctrine of Justification," Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 24 (2002): 26-39; "Salvation as Justification and Deification: The Ecumenical Potential of a New Perspective on Luther," in Theology between West and East: Honoring the Radical Legacy of Professor Dr. Jan M. Lochman, ed. Frank Macchia and Paul Chung (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002), 59-76.

3. Mannermaa, "Why is Luther so Fascinating?" 10.

4. Simo Peura, "Christ as Favor and Gift: The Challenge of Luther's Understanding of Justification," in Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther, ed. Carl E. Braaten and Robert W. Jenson (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 50; WA 4, 278, 24-35.

5. Peura, "Christ as Favor and Gift," 47-48.

6. Kenneth L. Bakken, "Holy Spirit and Theosis: Toward a Lutheran Theology of Healing," St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 38:4 (1994), 410.

7. Subheading in Markku Antola, The Experience of Christ's Real Presence in Faith: An Analysis on the Christ-Presence-Motif in the Lutheran Charismatic Renewal. Schriften der Luther-Agricola-Gesellschaft 43 (Helsinki: Luther-Agricola-Society, 1998), 56.

8. Welcome, Holy Spirit, ed. Larry Christenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1987).

9. Moltmann, The Spirit of Life. A Universal Affirmation (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1992).

10. See Justification in the World's Context, ed. Wolfgang Grieve. Documentation 45 (Geneva: LWF, 2000).