Finnish Interpretation of Luther

[JacobBoheme]

What do you make of it? Personally I think it points in the right direction regarding salvation as theosis or partaking in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) but others seem to think it stress one side of Luthers thinking at the expense of others. I tend to care more about Christian truth rather than the opinion of Luther (though I certainly value Luthers opinon in that regard) so even if that's the case it's not a stumbling block for me accepting it. It seems right on in my book.

Here is some info on this interpretation of Luther:

The “new Finnish interpretation of Luther†finds the essence of his doctrine of salvation not in forensic justification—God declaring us just solely by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice—but in something more akin to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis, or deification.....

Mannermaa expounds the book’s thesis as follows: “According to Luther, Christ (in both his person and his work) is present in faith and is through this presence identical with the righteousness of faith. The idea of a divine life in Christ who is really present in faith lies at the very center of the theology of the Reformer.†The forensic element in Luther’s doctrine of justification is thus viewed by the Finns as a function of his central emphasis on the believer’s actual participation in the divine life through union with Christ.

This in turn means, in the words of the book’s editors, that for Luther “righteousness as an attribute of God in Christ cannot be separated from his divine being. The righteousness of God that is ours by faith is therefore a real participation in the life of God.†To ascribe such views to the German Reformer flies in the face of the German Protestant tradition, which has “notoriously read Luther under the spell of neo–Kantian presuppositions†that ignore “all ontology found in Luther†and instead define faith as “purely an act of the will with no ontological implications [such as the believer’s actual participation in the divine nature].â€

Mannermaa cites the German philosopher Hermann Lotze as one such neo–Kantian culprit whose ontology denies the idea of “being in itself†in favor of the notion of things “standing in relationship†and having no real existence apart from the effects they have on each other. An epistemological corollary of Lotze’s ontology is that “things in themselves cannot be objects of human understanding, but only their effects.†Lotze’s approach places an epistemological gap between knowledge of Christ’s person (object, being) and of his work (effects).

Luther, on the other hand, “does not distinguish between the person and work of Christ. Christ is both favor of God (forgiveness of sins, atonement, abolition of wrath) and gift (donum).†Faith means “justification precisely on the basis of Christ’s person being present in it as favor and gift.â€

Union With Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther

[SIZE=+3]Rethinking Justification
[/SIZE][SIZE=+2]A Review of [/SIZE][SIZE=+2]Christ Present in Faith: Luther's View of Justification[/SIZE][SIZE=+2]
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[JacobBoheme]

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.
-Luther, Sermons on the Day of Sts Peter and Paul

"Just as the word of God became flesh, so its 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 becomes God. Thus power becomes powerless so that weakness may become powerful. The logos puts on our form and manner.
-Luthers Christmas Sermon 1514
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