The Genius of Luther's Theology - Book Report/Review Example

?The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church by Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand The book The Genius ofLuther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church is a result of teamwork and is written by Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand. This book is about the German reformer - also a theology professor - called Martin Luther who had a major hand in the Protestant Reformation. He believed in many things but one of his major achievements was translating the Bible into a language the general public easily understood. On the other hand, as his health started to deteriorate, he became quite anti Jew, which resulted in a controversy. He had his own theology called the Wittenberg theology and the two themes revolving around it have been discussed in detail in this book. The book starts off with a list of abbreviations which have been used throughout the book by the writers. This is so that the reader has no problems with understanding the context. This is followed by an introduction cleverly written by the authors. In the introduction, they start off talking about the several books which have been written over the man and why he is considered to be so popular in the history of Christianity. How – even today – his message is important to bring the people close to their religion. They mention the Luther’s theology - how Luther understood the message of the Bible. This has been divided into two parts, both of them about the two themes in his theology. The first one is about what Luther’s thoughts were on being a human and the second part is on how he understood God to work in the world he lived in. Next, they connect Luther’s thoughts to the life today. Of how they can help out the Christians living right now with understanding the religion, with whatever problems they face in practicing the religion. Luther did not come up with his teachings on his own, he had certain colleagues help him out too but it was he who did the considerable part of the preaching. The rest of the introduction is just a brief know how of what the following essays will be about. Why Luther is well known for his beliefs and the history of Christianity during his times and how he contributed towards it. The first section is titled ‘“Our Theology”: Luther’s Definition of the Human Creature through “Two Kinds of Righteousness”’. But first the authors give us a brief explanation for as to what exactly they mean by the first section of the book. Luther theology’s first theme is about what it truly means to be human. Luther defined humans as having two types of righteousness: “passive righteousness” and “active righteousness”. The former is about the righteousness with God which may come only through God. The humans carry out acts so they may earn His grace and His kindness. The latter is righteousness which defines the relationship of the human to the world he lives in. It is about how the human may act with God’s creations be it other humans or living creatures or even the nonliving objects. The human beings’ positive intention of doing good work for everyone around them is the result of how they respond to the faith and trust given to them by God. It has five further chapters in it which spread out to talk about the different branches of the topic. The first chapter of this section is ‘Luther’s Anthropological Matrix’. This is followed by the second chapter called ‘The Core of Human Identity’. ‘The Shape of Human Performance’ is the title of the third chapter. The fourth chapter is ‘The Subversion of Our Human Identity’. The fifth and the last chapter of the first part is ‘The Dynamic of Faith’. The first part starts off with how over the times, human beings have experienced various things. How they have lived their lives through different kinds of circumstances. The situations and how they respond to them are different depending on the positions and the person himself. Everyone reacts to different things depending on their personality and mindsets and lots of other things which play a role in making judgments. Luther’s theology gives advice on how to react to these circumstances, on how to be a human being. Humans may not know how to act towards certain happenings in their lives. They are not the All-knowing, it is God who is. They may feel inferior and insignificant for not being able to solve their problems, for not knowing what to do. It is the faith in God which helps them to deal with life in general. It is here that the two kinds of righteousness are mentioned and the term ‘righteousness’ is explained. It is to follow the proper path, to do the right thing, and do what God wishes us to do. The writers say that there is an innate need of knowing that what we are doing pleases God that we may even be rewarded for it in this life or the next. We need to know what the results of what we are doing may be. We may question ourselves and even others during every step of our or their lives. We are unsure and inexperienced but we want to do what is best for everybody and want positive results. When things backfire or if we are being told off for anything – for example things like getting fired from our jobs - these statements tend to affect us deeply and we may get depressed. Similarly when we are being appreciated and complimented on we get happy and our spirits are instantly lifted. It allows us to see what our worth and value is to others. We judge how much they care about us, whether we are important to them at all or not and we may feel accordingly. We care about what God thinks of us and also about what the people around us think of us. The human righteousness before God refers to how we owe Him for all that He has provided for us. From the parents who gave birth to us to the elements of nature around us, which are also necessary for our survival, it is all thanks to Him. The food that we eat, the air which we breathe is all essential for us to live in this world and without God; we would not have had those. So we need to be thankful to God and try to show our graciousness by doing what He wishes us to do, by following the steps of Christ and practicing our religion properly and making Him happy. If He had not provided us with these things we would have died. We are nothing in front of Him and His bounties which He has given to us. When people were sinning a lot and Christ was crucified, it was Him who brought him to life, He who resurrected him. It is suggested that humans ‘suffered’ through God’s work. Thus, the righteousness which we carry out before God is passive. The righteousness towards the world can only be carried out properly if we follow God’s teachings. If we do what He advices us to do then only can we fulfill the task of being nice towards God’s creations. The things we do should be beneficial for all. We should not just think of ourselves and our betterment, but also of others and how what we do will affect them whether it will be a good or a bad thing for them. God has created men and women together to bring balance to life. One compliments the other and together they build a community. They are responsible for carrying out life and continuing the generations to come. God has provided us with the guidelines of how to live our lives. On the same hand, He has left it to us to decide between wrong and right. God has explained everything to us, now it is up to us to choose between the right and the wrong path. It would be, of course, good for all if everyone did what was right but, unfortunately, not everyone can ignore Satan’s promptings and there are some who tend to stray to the wrong path. The second part is called ‘When the Word Is Spoken, All Things Are Possible: Luther and the Word of God’. This section has four chapters which help in explaining the main topic further. The sixth chapter is called ‘The Functions of the Word’. The seventh chapter is ‘The Enfleshed and Written Forms of God’s Word’. ‘The “Means of Grace” as Forms of God’s Word’ is the eight chapter. The ninth one is titled ‘God’s Word Takes Form as His People Convey It to One Another’. The second of Luther’s theology theme is about God’s relationship with His creation by the help of His Word. It talks of how Luther considered the Word of God to be, the Word which grants passive righteousness. In the end of the day, the righteousness and the Word of God are all related, the focal point being the faith a human has on his God. This theory is, of course, related to the first one. This one is more focused on how the Christians, if they follow God’s teachings, will do all the things that are right and this will lead them to them automatically living a blessed and successful life. God has given us the instructions and the guidelines of how to live our lives but, in the end, the choice has been left up to us. We have to decide whether we want to follow the right or the wrong path. What God says is the ultimate truth and nobody can ever prove it to be wrong. What He says is law, it is there, it is happening, so there is no use of fighting against it. In cases in which God is talking about something that has not occurred yet - that is only for now and not forever, it does not mean that He is wrong. One day or another, what God has predicted will come true, it will happen. It is because He has made us, He has breathed life into us. We are His creations and the world around us is also made by Him. He knows the past and the present and the future because He has written it. We may pray and plead and beg Him to change the destiny of our lives. We may think we have influenced His decision, but in the end, all that happens to us, all that we go through is what God thinks is best for us. It has all been planned to perfection for Him but we do not realize that since we do not know the whole story. To help His people out in living a better life, God sent several prophets to earth and to them He sent revelations through the angels mostly. There were people whose faith in God only increased over the period of time whilst there were some who got drifted away. They were influenced by the worldly pleasures and all that they would get in this life but would be committing sins on the way of fulfilling their own desires and wishes regardless of the outcome. They would have a great time here but, inevitably, the result would be punishment in Hell. God is merciful and generous, He is kind and forgiving and wants only what is best for His people. So eventually, He sent Jesus Christ, and His book the Bible, for the Christians - to bring the strayed back to the right way to remind them of God and His bounties and why they should worship Him. Why He is the one who deserves to be worshipped and not the creations which He Himself has created. If it were not for Him, they would not even be there, so it is our first priority to thank and worship Him for all that He has provided for us and all that He will be granting us in the future. It is us who, by word of mouth, carry the religion and its teachings to different people who help others in becoming better Christians, better human beings. This is followed by the final chapter written by Kolb and Arand and is called: ‘Conclusion: Thinking with Luther in the Twenty-first Century’. It is, as the title itself suggests, a summary of what the book is about and what the authors think of Luther’s theology. They have hinted to it throughout the book but it is here that they put their views forward properly. Martin Luther lived between the years 1483 and 1546. The year we live in is 2012 and the year Kolb and Arand’s book was published was in 2008. There is a gap of several centuries in between and yet people continue to talk about Luther and his life and theologies even in this day and age. It is not easy to compare the two and yet we continue to become interested and fascinated by his life and his beliefs. Over the centuries, there have been political, social, economical as well as financial changes. Everything has changed so much but we still want to learn more about those times, of Luther’s times. Luther’s ideas and thoughts were not just a result of his thinking. It is not the person who can come up with these things all on his own. The life around him helped him, what his parents and teachers taught him, the way the people who were around him daily shaped his thinking. Similarly, when we read about his life and how he acted during his life, what his beliefs were, we are also influenced by his thinking. He may be dead but he continues to play a role in our lives, thanks to the variety of books written about him over the years. It is because of him that we may question ourselves about the religion and it is because of him that we may be able to answer the questions we have had since so long. The authors say that they have not written the book in a way through which they can convince the readers to what they think is right. There are no opinions given in any part of the book. It is left to the readers to form their own ideas and thoughts. And it is here that, once again, Luther’s theology is talked off but in this part of the book, Kolb and Arand are being personal. They just do not write about the monk’s theology as something to be studied or philosophized over but rather as the way of life, the life Luther lived. This was how he led his life and it is the Lutherans who follow him. He formed his opinions based on what he saw and was taught. He preached about these and is still widely popular. His understanding of the Bible was different from the way the others understood it. Those Christians who are doing their own part of trying to comprehend the various parts of the Bible may find Luther’s work beneficial. It may help them find their own meanings and in following their religion better. This book by Kolb and Arand is sought after due to the manner it is written in. The authors have penned one essay each for both the theories. The introduction in the beginning of the book helps to make the reader aware of what exactly it is that they will be reading further ahead, what they should expect from the following pages. The book is not long, in fact, by usual standards; it is positively short with just around 240 pages in it. But that is the beauty of it - the authors are not giving the readers a lecture but have written just enough to inform the readers, increase their knowledge about the Wittenberg theory. But there is also a bibliography given in the end of the book so that the enthusiastic readers who wish to know more of the sources and want to do research on their own can do so without much problem. It is written in a very friendly manner- as the book itself says; it is more of a conversation over the topic rather than an academic essay of sorts. And this is the quality of it which attracts the reader. This is also a great example of how quality matters over quantity. The two authors may not have written much but it is enough to bring their points across, to make the people aware of whatever they are talking about and if they would like to know more about it, they can always look into other books. The Genius of Luther's Theology: A Wittenberg Way of Thinking for the Contemporary Church just does enough to grasp the reader’s interest and once that is done, it is surely a matter of time before they start looking into the theology in detail. There is also a list of abbreviations given in the beginning of the book so new readers do not face problems in understanding certain things as they come across them during the reading of the book. It is very user friendly and, thus, comprehensible. Also, as the introduction of the book itself states, this book allows the reader to answer any doubts or questions that they may have in their minds regarding their religion. What with the media and word of mouth, questions may be raised about Christianity, questions regarding their faith and their Book. These queries can be answered with the help of Luther’s theories. He himself led a tumultuous life, facing innumerable challenges and, thus, had an experience of all these. The Christians living in the 21st century can seek advice and help from Luther’s work and get the answers to the questions they face when living in this age. Read More