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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, DECEMBER. 30, 1983
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post-Enlightenment Lutheranism.
The ex-Augustinian doctor of
theology who said, "Not even the angels can judge my doctrine,"
and, "He who does not follow my doctrine cannot be saved," was
certainly not a relativistic liberal.... Today, Luther, a real
conservative, a profoundly religious man...would probably feel
more at home in a Benedictine monastery than at the headquarters
of the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
TIME magazine, in its October 17, 1983 issue, devoted considerable space to
the impact of Martin Luther down through history and the posthumous role he
plays today.
As the reformer who fractured Christianity, Luther has latterly
become�� to reuniting it. With the approval of the Vatican,
and with Americans taking the lead, Roman Catholic theologians
are working together with Lutherans and other Protestants to sift
through the 16th century disputes and see whether the Protestant
Catholic split can be overcome some day. In a remarkable turn
about, Catholic scholars today express growing appreciation of
Luther as a "father in the faith" and are willing to play down his
excesses. According to a growing consensus, the great division
need never have happened at all••.• Ecumenically minded Catholic
theologians have� to rank Luther in importance with Augustine
and Aquinas.
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No one who came after Luther could match him,"
says Father Peter Manns, a Catholic theologian in Mainz.
In Germany, the Lutherjahr features an onrush of books, special
lectures and films on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
East
Germany's listings of state- and church-sponsored events run to
66 pages; West Germany's to 69. The West German President Karl
Carstens opened an exhibition at Nuremberg last June by declar
ing: "Luther has become�symbol of unity of all Germany. We are
all Luther's heirs." Museums are mounting displays of art and
artifacts, choirs are offering Reformation music.
There are
innumerable campus colloquia, with Catholics almost always par
ticipating...•
The scope of his thought has made him the subject of endless
reinterpretation. The Enlightenment treated him as the father of
free thought, conveniently omitting his belief in a sovereign God
who inspired an authoritative Bible. During the era of Chancel
lor Otto von Bismarck a century ago, Luther was fashioned into a
nationalistic symbol; 70 years later, Nazi propagandists claimed
him as one of their own by citing his anti-Jewish polemics•.••
The latest phase in the Luther assessment is discerned by, among
others, Heike Oberman, a Dutch Reformed clergyman who teaches at
West Germany's Tuebingen University and is widely recognized as
one of the world's leading Luther scholars. Says he:
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There is a
hunger for an ecumenical Luther, so now they are busy extractlng
all his teeth.
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Oberman contends that Luther would have con
demned Pope John Paul II as a throwback to the politically med
dlesome Popes he fought in the 16th century. Oberman also thinks
that Luther, were he alive now, would attack Protestants even
more fiercely, for having wandered far from "true Catholicity
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by
making political issues more important than doctrine and worship.