LOGIA
A JOURNAL OF LUTHERAN THEOLOGY
EASTERTIDE 1999 VOLUME VIII. NUMBER2
CONTENTS
MAY 20 1999
ORRESPONDENCE ................................................................................................................................................................ 2
RTICLES
Quatenus or Quia? An Interchange on the Nature of Confessional Subscription
Pfurrer Hoppl & Hermann Sasse ............................................................................... ..................................................................... 5
The Distinctive Spirituality of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
David P. Scaer .................................................................................................. ................................................................................ 9
The Impact of the German Apology
Fritz Sclunitt ..................................................................................................................... ............................................................. 13
The Confessional Principle: Church Fellowship in the AJtttfflt1IrJiHntheLuthera1J Church
Torn G. A. Hardt ................................................................................. ::::': .. :: .................................................................................. 21
The Worthy Communicant in SD VII
Charles R. Schulz .............................................................................................................................. ; ............................................. 31
EVIEWS ................................................................................................................................................................................. , ..... ' ....... '39
REVIEW ESSAY: Hymnal Supplement 98: A Symposium
Reformed Confessions: Theology from Zurich to Barmen. Jan Rohl. lianslatedby John Hoffmeyer.
A Different Death. Edward J. Larson & Darrel W. Amundsen.
Predestination: Chosen in Christ. John A. Moldstad Jr.
Where Earth Meets Heaven. John G. Strelan.
Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium. Donald E. Miller.
)GIA FORUM .............................................................................................................................................................................. 53
TLH and Y2K • Why Call Anything Sin? • Be Not Discouraged • Stand and Deliver
Classical Lutheran Education Seminar • Academy of Apologetics • Few Are Chosen
The Sunday School Movement in America • Public Absolution for Public Sins
Communion Closed and Full • A Comment on Translations
LSO THIS ISSUE
A Call for Manuscripts .................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Inklings by Jim Wuson .................................................................................................................................................................. 20
The Distinctive Spirituality of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church
DAVID P. SCAER
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.7l S IS ALSO THE CASE with other denominations, Luther- tism up until death. Lutherans should have difficulty singing in ans do not include the word spirituality in their theolog- the first stanza of (~azing Grace" the words "I once was lost ical vocabulary. In fact, taken in the abstract, the term but now am found." That part of me which remains sinner is as
would make many Lutherans uncomfortable, because spiritual- unregeneJ;ate as is an unbeliever. The condemning law, which
ity might suggest an emphasis on the Holy Spirit apart from threatens unbelievers, those who have not confessed Jesus as the
Christ, or suggest that a planned program of personal, private Christ, and forces them to outward conformity, must be
religious improvement was possible. Programs of private spiri- preached to the unbelieviIig part of the Christian as long as he
tuality were most,notice;lbly introduced into Lutheran theol- lives. Lutheran spiritualiW5:enters around the continued aware-
ogy with Pietism at the juncture of the seventeenth and eigh- ness that baptized saints are as much sinners as they were before
teenth centuries, with such disastrous results that Lutheranism they were baptized.
was hardly recognized as Lutheran any longer.' c_-=-,,,:~=-1!hlsspiti.t~<\lity, centef-ing around the reality encountered by
At the heart of Lutheran theology is the doctrine of the free theb~1ievej: tha.the ls'both sinner;tnd saint needing bQth the
justification of the sinner before God because of the death and law and the gospel, is based on the more profound reality that
merits of Christ., The emphasis on Lutheran spirituality, if we God's relation to man, ap,4 the world is threatened by Satan and
must use this word, is on what Christ has done for us before God sin. To demonstrate tMt' Gociahci not Satan is the Lord over his
and not what he is doing in us. Thus in a certain sense Lutherans creation and thaf'lieloye~ the2fallen creature in his state of fall-
know of only this one doctrine of justification. All doctrines are enness, God has become man in the person,ofhisSQJ;l Cln;ist to
viewed from the standpoint of justification. The God who con- atone for the sins of all men. Thus it be<;:omes impossible for
demns the sinner in the law is the same God who fully accepts J-ut;heran spiritv¢ty to'understClIl,q Gpg ~part from, his 'inc~r- '
the sinner as saint in Christ. This is the gospel. nation in Christ. It is not so much that God reveals 'himself in
The Christian lives with a dichotomous, yes, even a dualistic Christ-which is, of course, absolutely true-but everything
or bifurcated awareness of himself as a sinner and saint. When that God is, Christ also is. Everything that God :is, is found in
he hears the gospel preached to him, he is led to believe that God Christ. This means that Lutheran spirituality'is lifall points
regards him as a saint and has given him everything in heaven inherently Christological and hence ,incarnational .and sacia-
and earth. vVhen he looks at himself, he sees not a saint, but only mental, since the sacram~nts are seen as Christ's real presence
a sinner who has totally displeased God in everything he has lmd activity in the chur