Martin Luther and the Council of Trent

Peter M. Folan

Description

Seeking to understand the doctrine of justification by way of biblical hermeneutics, this book uncovers the differences between Martin Luther and the Council of Trent that set them on a collision course for conflict, and the church toward what has arguably been its most significant division in the West.

As Catholics and Lutherans continue to engage in dialogue about their shared faith and differing confessions, the need remains for a discerning study of the ways in which the Bible functioned in the Reformation’s central theological clash: the understanding and import of the doctrine of justification. Peter Folan’s incisive analysis in this volume fulfills that need. Through a careful reading of the debate’s most significant texts, he shows both how Martin Luther and the Council of Trent relied upon scripture to arrive at their respective formulations of the doctrine and how such seemingly divergent conclusions about the human person’s salvation in Christ could be grounded in the same sacred book.

This study begins with an examination of the key texts that Luther and his allies produced on justification and then turns to their Catholic respondents, whose work would ultimately inform the Council of Trent’s decree on the doctrine. By comparing precisely which texts both parties relied upon to articulate and defend their positions, Folan puts into sharp relief how infrequently both sides made use of the same biblical passages and, when they did avail themselves of the same passages, just how distinct their interpretive tendencies were. This book will be a critical addition to the libraries of scholars and students in Catholic and Lutheran biblical hermeneutics, Catholic-Lutheran dialogue, ecumenical studies, and church history.

Now separated formally from the Catholic Church, at least as far as Rome was concerned, Luther began to write furiously, motivated to transmit with his words an authentic presentation of the gospel and a reliable account of the proper worship of God. In November 1521, he wrote The Misuse of the Mass; in May 1522, he released his Personal Prayer Book; in September 1522, he published his translation of the NT; and in December 1525, he responded to Erasmus’ Diatribe on Free Will with what is perhaps his most well-known writing from this period of his life, On the Bondage of the Will. When one adds to this Luther’s daily—often twice daily—sermons, his extensive letter-writing, and his university lecturing, the portrait of a Luther ceaselessly at work in service of the gospel becomes the portrait of Luther in the years immediately following the publication of the Reformation treatises.

Before long, however, that image of Luther as the solitary opponent of the Catholic Church, someone armed with a pen as a sword, requires additional layers. Room must be made for Luther’s wife and children, each of whom further cemented his break with ecclesiastical authorities. Brecht argues that Luther himself created the conditions for the possibility of his taking a wife by urging priests to marry, and runaway nuns to do likewise. Not surprisingly, Luther turned to Scripture to support his conclusions. He cited Gen. 2:8 (“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner’”) in a

March 1525 letter encouraging a clergyman to get married, an encouragement that he himself took to heart in June 1525 when he wedded Katerina von Bora, a former nun who was fifteen years his junior. The two had six children together, the fourth of whom was born while Luther was in the midst of the 1531 Galatians lectures (LG).

Thus, we arrive at the year announced in the title of this chapter—1531. That very title, however, draws our attention to a dynamic that requires addressing: not only was Martin Luther’s understanding of justification in the Reformation treatises not the final word on the matter in the sixteenth century, it was not even his final word on the matter. As the events rehearsed in the paragraphs above were unfolding, so too were Luther’s thoughts on justification continuing to take shape. His position on the battlefield was, so to speak, being fortified. Without repudiating either what he wrote about the doctrine in the Reformation treatises, or how he spoke about it in texts he published around the same time as the treatises, Luther, by 1531, refined his reading of justification to such an extent that that refinement cannot be seen simply as a footnote to what he said in 1520. His more mature appropriation of the doctrine, even if it is a change more in emphasis than in substance, deserves its own treatment. And the proper place to begin that treatment is with LG itself, a set of lectures that Gerhard Schulze characterizes as one of the most important documents of Luther’s theology.

Luther first lectured on Galatians beginning in 1516, and he clearly had those lectures in mind when he took up the same Pauline text again some fifteen years later. Regarding the first series of lectures, he commented, “I would not have considered my first Galatians commentaries to be especially weak. O, how they will always be suitable for this generation! They were but my first struggle against the faith [that does] works.” Because his assessment of these earlier lectures was tentative, and in light of the focused attention he began to place on justification beginning in 1520, it made perfect sense for Luther to return to Galatians, a text that he called “my dear epistle,” and even, “my Katy von Bora.”

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Introduction

1. Mapping the Battlefield: Highlights of the Genesis and the Pre-Sixteenth Century

Development of the Doctrine of Justification

2. Stepping on To the Field of Battle: Luther on Justification in 1520

3. Fortifying a Position: Luther on Justification in 1531

4. Squaring Off Against an Unnamed but not Unknown Opponent: The Council of Trent on Justification

5. The Tactics of the Battle: An Analysis of the Biblical Texts and Hermeneutics Operative in Luther and Trent

Epilogue

Works Cited

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie du langage
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Theology
• Biblical Studies
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• Book of Concord
• Christian Church
• Tridentine
• The Ninety-Five Theses
• Hermeneutics
• Theology
• Systematics
• History
• 95 thèses

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268203283
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

MARTIN LUTHER AND THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
MARTIN LUTHER AND THE COUNCIL OF TRENT

The Battle over Scripture and the Doctrine of Justification
PETER M. FOLAN, SJ
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2022 Peter M. Folan SJ
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022935750
ISBN: 978-0-268-20329-0 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20331-3 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20328-3 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
God is the giver of all life, human and divine.
May he bless the father of this child.
He and his wife will be the first teachers
of their child in the ways of faith.
May they be also the best of teachers,
bearing witness to the faith by what they say and do,
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
—Rite of Baptism for Children
To my mother, Peggy, and my late father, Peter,
my first and best teachers
CONTENTS List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction Abbreviations ONE Mapping the Battlefield: Highlights of the Genesis and the Pre-Sixteenth-Century Development of the Doctrine of Justification TWO Stepping onto the Field of Battle: Luther on Justification in 1520 THREE Fortifying a Position: Luther on Justification in 1531 FOUR Squaring Off against an Unnamed but Not Unknown Opponent: The Council of Trent on Justification FIVE The Tactics of the Battle: An Analysis of the Biblical Texts and Hermeneutics Operative in Luther and Trent Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index
TABLES Table 1.1. Distribution of dikaio- words in LXX, the Pauline Letters, and NT Table 1.2. Distribution of dikaio -words in each Pauline Letter Table 5.1. Scriptural citations in To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Improvement of the Christian Estate Table 5.2. Scriptural citations in The Freedom of a Christian Table 5.3. Scriptural citations in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church Table 5.4. Scriptural citations in Luther’s 1531 Lectures on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians Table 5.5. Scriptural citations in Trent’s Decree on Justification Table 5.6. Biblical verses appearing in TDJ and either another examined text of Luther or a Lutheran Confession
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to more people than I could possibly mention in these few paragraphs, but some were so essential to this project that, to take some liberties with 1 John 1:4, I write their names here so that my thanks may inch toward being complete.
In its earliest form, this book was part of the dissertation I wrote at Boston College under the expert guidance of Richard Gaillardetz, Christine Helmer, Pheme Perkins, and Jeremy Wilkins, all of whom were and remain wise and kind mentors of mine. The years I spent in studies at BC were rich ones thanks to them, the Theology Department, the Jesuit community, friends at and beyond the university, and the good people of the Parish of St. Ignatius Loyola. I am especially thankful to my friend Joseph Costantino, SJ, the pastor of St. Ignatius, for welcoming me week after week, and day after day, to minister to and be nourished by that Spiritfilled community.
Georgetown University has been an intellectually stimulating place for me since my arrival here in the fall of 2019, and that continued even after a global pandemic struck during my second semester on campus. My colleagues in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies have been engaging interlocutors filled with good cheer, and the Jesuit community has been warm, welcoming, and supportive. There is nowhere else I would rather be. I give my heartfelt thanks also to Carole Sargent, director of the Office of Scholarly Publications at Georgetown, for helping me frame and pitch my book, and to J. Leon Hooper, SJ, who always happily arranged for me to use the ample resources of Woodstock Library. I am also grateful to the following Georgetown undergraduates who assisted me in the final stages of copyediting this book: Matthew Crandall, Jack Gasdia, Christian Gjelaj, Naomi Greenberg, Margaret Maglio, John Muckler, Louie Pham, Ana Ruiz, Megan Skinner, and Emma Trone.

My arguments, ideas, and writing were all improved tremendously thanks to the hard work done by my friends Brian Daley, SJ, John O’Malley, SJ, and Ligita Ryliškytė, SJE, as they read, commented on, and discussed parts of the book with me. James Conn, SJ, my former Latin teacher and ever my friend, was always at the ready, even from across the Atlantic Ocean, to work with me on textual translations. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Jared Wicks, SJ, who spent an extraordinary amount of time reading and commenting on multiple drafts of my work. His insight and precision, both so very impressive, are outdone only by his generosity.
Many fellow Jesuits encouraged me throughout the entire process of writing this book, including, but not limited to, those I have already listed here, but none has done so more than my beloved friend Joseph Marina, SJ, who always believed in me.
Finally, there is my family. My siblings, Kevin Folan and Erin Diskin, are simply extraordinary people, as are their spouses, Rachel Folan and Neil Diskin, as are their children, Quinn, Seamus, Keegan, Tess, and Maeve. Kevin, Erin, and I all had the privilege of having our maternal grandmother, Mary Buckley, live with us when we were children. I still think of her as a second mother, and thus as an integral part of our family, even though she died many years ago. Last of all, which, of course, is to say, first of all, I thank my parents, Peter Folan, who died when I was in high school, and Peggy Folan, with whom I have been enjoying conversation nearly every day for more than forty years. We never run out of things to say.
Georgetown University
Washington, DC
August 28, 2021
Memorial of St. Augustine
INTRODUCTION
Scripture has a wax nose.
—Martin Luther, Decem Praecepta Wittenbergensi Praedicata Populo
“The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.” 1 So proclaims Antonio, the title character of the Merchant of Venice , in the play’s opening act. His conviction is as old as the biblical text itself. Undoubtedly, the remark amounts to an attack on Shylock, Antonio’s chief antagonist, and potentially it alludes to the Matthean (Mt. 4:1–11) and Lucan (Lk. 4:1–13) accounts of Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness, wherein the devil calls on Psalm 91:11–12 (“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone”) to try to talk Jesus into flinging himself from the pinnacle of the Temple. 2 Antonio’s quip suggests that the words of scripture can be so twisted and bent, and sometimes so warped and contorted, that even the wicked, be they in Elizabethan England or Roman-occupied Palestine, can enlist them to attempt to realize their nefarious ends.
Other phrases, largely lacking the Bard’s pith, give voice to the same general principle that undergirds Antonio’s observation: the task of interpreting scripture admits of a high degree of plasticity. Indeed, the same can be said for interpreting any text whatsoever, but the Bible, given that so many hold it to be, in one way or another, the word of God, presents a special case. Thus it is that Origen of Alexandria declares, “Some men have involved themselves in numerous errors through not reading or understanding [the divine scriptures] aright”; 3 that Augustine warns, “Casual readers [of scripture] are misled by problems and ambiguities of many kinds, mistaking one thing for another”; 4 that Thomas Aquinas applauds the use of metaphors in scripture “because thereby divine truths are the better hidden from the unworthy”; 5 and that countless others have declared, warned, and applauded as did their forebears.
To find the insight of the theologian yoked to the economy of the poet in this matter, however, one need look no further than the sixteenth-century Reformer Martin Luther, who, as the epigraph to this introduction recalls, argued memorably, “Scripture has a wax nose.” 6 Luther, like Origen, Augustine, and Aquinas before him, knew better than most the malleability of the biblical text. He read scripture, studied it, prayed with it, argued over it, translated it, lectured on it, cited it, and preached about it. His hands knew well, so to speak, the contours of the wax, where it was worn thin, where it required further kneading, where air pockets made it appear to be something that it was not, and where a cool or a warm touch could harden or loosen it. In other words, and to move from the nose to another part of the head, scripture was, spiritually speaking, Luther’s mother tongue, and as a result, he knew with all the familiarity of a native speaker the myriad ways that it could be spoken, for good or evil.
It is profoundly unsurprising, therefore, that the signature theological issue of the Reformation for Luther was so intimately bound to the biblical text, the interpretation of that text, and the application of that interpretation to the understanding of Christian doctrine. It could hardly have been otherwise. To be sure, other full-throated objections that Luther registered against the practices of the Church of his day—among them the proliferation of indulgences, corrupt sacramental and quasisacramental practices, and the tyranny of the pope—were invariably articulated by him at least with the support of, if not in the very language of, scripture. But the paramount theological battle of the Reformation, at least for Luther, was fought not over these matters but over the doctrine of justification, whose biblical roots are extensive and consequently whose correct understanding, in his eyes, must not just be tethered to, but must be intimately interwoven with, script