Luther & the
Pietists
Christian Mysticism
School of Prayer
Presented by David
Schütz
Theologia Germanica
• Luther’s first published work was Eyn geystlich edles Buchleynn
(1516), a German translation of a handwritten manuscript that
came into his possession
• It was an anonymous work, which, Luther wrote in his preface
“almost resembles the style of the illumined Doctor Tauler of the
Preaching Order”.
• In 1518—following the “Ninety Five Theses” and the outbreak of
the dispute over indulgences—he published a fuller version of
the same work, having discovered a more complete manuscript in
the library of the Erfurt Carthusian monastery.
• This time he called it Eyn Deutsch Theologia, and it has become
known by its Latin title: Theologia Germanica.
• The fuller version actually quoted Tauler, and so could not have
been authored by him, but was obviously greatly influenced by
his mystical theology and came out of the “Friends of God”
Theologia Germanica
“This little book warns all those who wish to read and understand
its message, especially those of bright intellect and sophisticated
reason, that they should not precipitately rush to swift judgement
only because it appears awkward in its choice of words or speaks
in the way of ordinary preachers and teachers. Indeed, this book
does not float on top, like foam on water. It has rather been
fetched out of the rock bottom of Jordan by a true Israelite whose
name only God knows and whoever is informed about it by God.
…Be that as it may, here we have the true solid teaching of Holy
Writ. One has to choose between calling it all a folly and
becoming a fool, as the Apostle Paul indicates in 1 Cor 1: We
preach Christ, a folly to the heathen but to those who are called,
the wisdom of God.”
Martin Luther, Preface to Eyn geystlich edles Buchleynn (1516)
Theologia Germanica
“This noble little book, poor and unadorned as it is as far
as wording an purely human wisdom are concerned, is all
the richer and abundantly precious in true knowledge
and divine wisdom. And , if I may speak with biblical
foolishness: Next to the Bible and Saint Augustine, no
other book has come to my attention from which I have
learned—and desired to learn—more concerning God,
Christ, man, and what all things are.”
Martin Luther, Preface to Eyn Deutsch Theologia (1518)
From the Theologia
Germanica
• “Even if God would
take to himself all humans in the world and
become humanised in them and they would become divinised
in him and this did not happen in me, my fall and my apostasy
would never be amended. No, it must also occur in me.” Ch. 3
• “But if our inner being would make a leap into the Perfect, one
would find and taste that the Perfect is limitlessly, endlessly,
insuperably nobler and better than all imperfect and
incomplete things. That inner being of ours would also find the
Eternal above the transitory and the wellspring and origin
underneath everything that flows from it and ever will flow
from it.” Ch. 6
• “It should also be pointed out that eternal bliss is rooted in God
alone and nothing else. And if man and his soul are to be saved,
this one and only God must be in the soul.” Ch. 9
The Traditional View
Harold J. Grimm, “Introduction” to Preface to the Complete Edition of a German Theology (1518),
in Luther’s Works, American Edition (Fortress Press, 1957)
• “During his formative years, Luther was much impressed by the
writings of the late-medieval German mystics, particularly by
their emphasis upon the necessity of a spiritual rebirth of
despair before one could be united with God….
• “…Like the mystics, Luther was most concerned that the sinner
should find a way out of sin and to salvation in communion with
God– in other words, that he should annihilate his own
personality and substitute God’s.
• “…Yet one looks in vain in Luther's writings for doctrines of the
mystics. Unlike these, he never become subjective in his
approach, but continue to emphasize at every step the doctrine
which had resulted from his own experience and study, namely,
justification by faith. …”
Hoffman’s Revolution
• Thus the general view was that Luther abandoned the
sapientia experimentalis of the German mystics for a more
objective sapientia theologica
• Bengt R. Hoffman Luther and the Mystics (Augsburg,
1976) reissued as Theology of the Heart: The Role of
Mysticism in the Theology of Martin Luther. (Kirk House
Publishers, 1998)
• Hoffman rejected “the rather common supposition that
Luther embraced mystical ideas in his youth, only to
abandon all of them for a supposedly more evangelical
reliance on outer signs and justification as “imputation” in
his mature years.”
Hoffman’s Revolution
• Hoffman, Introduction, The Theologia Germanica of
Martin Luther: ‘The Theologia Germanica, like many
mystical writings in medieval and modern times,
seems to lay little direct stress on Christ’s redemption,
the “for you” of salvation. It is more interested in the
other side of salvation, the “Christ in you”.’
• Luther maintained a dialectic between the internal and
the external, between the experiential and the
objective, between “Christ in us” & “Christ for us” that
was lost by his later interpreters
• Following Hoffman, Scandinavian (especially Swedish
and Finnish) Luther scholars began to emphasise
Luther’s “Theology of the Heart”
Luther the Mystic?
• Hoffman made use of Nathan Söderblom’s distinction
(1975) between “personality-mysticism” and “infinitymysticism”.
• Infinity Mysticism = “an experience of the superhuman
beyond the vicissitudes of life …an immersion in nature and
exercise according to technical patterns …a dissolution of
the person into the impersonal Beyond …”
• Personality Mysticism = “an experience of God in the midst
of life’s problems …an experience of the human ‘I’ meeting
the divine ‘Thou’ …trust and forgiveness in this life… a
relationship to a personal God”
• Hoffman equated Eckhart with the former, and Tauler, the
author of the TG, and Luther with the latter.
The Fate of the “German
Theology”
• 20 editions in Luther’s lifetime
• Popular among the radical reformers; Anabaptists (eg.
Schwenkfeldt) and the “Schwärmer” (eg. Carlstadt)
• Rejected by Calvin: “For although there are no
outstanding errors in it, it contains frivolities,
conceived by Satan’s cunning in order to confuse the
whole simplicity of the gospel. And if you look deeper
into it you will find that it contains a hidden deadly
poison which can poison the church. Therefore, my
brethren, shun like the pest all those who try to defile
you with such impurities.”
The Fate of the “German
Theology”
• Because it was so highly valued by their master, it was
accepted by Luther’s 16th Century disciples despite
their strong emphasis on objective, external, “Christ for
us” justification, and their suspicion of the “Schwärmer”).
• Johan Arndt (a proto-Pietist?) issued new edition by at
the beginning of the 17th Century
• Thereafter, Lutheranism was split into two camps:
• Anti-Theologia Germanica: The rationalist, systematic
Orthodoxy which systematised Lutheranism
• Pro-Theologia Germanica: The experiential and personal
life of faith emphasis of the German Pietist movement
The Fate of the “German
Theology”
• Philipp Jakob Spener, the “father of German pietism”
spoke warmly of the TG in both his Pia Desiderata and in
the foreword to his edition of Tauler’s works.
• Louis Bouyer (“The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism”
1954) : “Authentic Lutheranism is not a theological
system. It is wholly a religious movement, single and
wide-ranging, which follows not always logically but
vitally from a few basic intuitions, or rather from one
[intuition] viewed from every possible standpoint,
quarried from every angle. Calvinism, on the other
hand, is quite clearly a system as compact, perhaps
more so, as Thomism before it, or Molinism or
Jansenism later.”
Louis Bouyer’s Thesis
• Although Paul V place the Theologia Germanica on the
Index, its popularity among some Protestants shows
that there is a form of reformation spirituality which
shares a commonality with Catholic mystical tradition
• This fits well with a thesis put forward by Louis Bouyer
in his 1954 work “The Spirit and Forms of
Protestantism”, which predates but supports Hoffman’s
thesis:
Louis Bouyer’s Thesis
• “It is absolutely certain, as a matter of history, that the
intuition of Luther, which we find to lie at the root of
that of Calvin, takes us back directly to the Rhenish
school of mysticism originated by Eckhart and Tauler.”
• “If Luther had no hesitation in acknowledging his debt
to the Theologia Germanica…if he went so far as to
translate it into German to popularise it, that shows
that he recognised it as one of the sources of his
conception. The God whose very light is a
‘superessential darkness’ is the Deus revelatus, but
revelatus as absconditus.”
Louis Bouyer’s Thesis
• “Both the Moravians of Zinzendorf, and even the first
pietists (Luther too, for that matter), had recourse to
the great medieval mystics, notably of the Rhenish
School, as both sources and living examples of the
Reformation and the Christianity it ought to produce.
It is certain that the entire movement, pietist as well as
Weslyan, which we have described, profited by the vast
mystical trend apparent from the beginning of
Protestantism, sometimes in anarchical forms, but
often at the heart of the most conservative movements
in thought and action.”
Louis Bouyer’s Thesis
• Bouyer goes on to link together the “succession of
German mystics who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth
century Protestantism, continued the teaching of
Tauler”, incluidng Sebasian Franck, Valentin Weigl, and
Jacob Boehme
• In a sweeping vision, he follows the influence of these
pietists, mystics and revivalists to the the Low Country
Anabaptists, Rembrant, the Quaker George Fox, the
Swedish visionary Swedenborg, English Evangelical
turned Catholic John Henry Newman, Evangelical
Bavarian Pastor Wilhelm Löhe, Danish Pastor Nicolai
Frederick Severin Grundtvig, and English Archdeacon
Frederick Denison Maurice.
Johann Arndt (1555–
1621)
A Lutheran pastor and theologian
•
• At Wittenberg in 1577 during the “Crypto-Calvinist”
controversy (he sided with Melanchthon)
• In Strasbourg studied under a strong anti-Calvinist Lutherans
• In Basel studied under a more moderate teacher who sought to
unite Lutherans and Reformed churches
• In Badeborn in 1583 served as a pastor tending more towards
Lutheranism than Calvinism
• In 1590 deposed by the Calvinist authorities for retaining
pictures in his church and using the baptismal exorcism.
• Worked in Brunswick, Eisleben, and (until his death in 1621)
Celle as local “superintendent” (bishop).
Johann Arndt (1555–
• Author of mystical and1621)
devotional works inspired by St
Bernard, Johannes Tauler and Thomas Kempis, including a
new edition of the Theologia Germanica
• Wahres Christentum (True Christianity) 1599 published in many
translations, becoming a model of devotion for both Catholics
and Protestants.
• In it he “asserts categorically that the true faith which justifies
is that which bears fruit in justice and sanctity.” (Bouyer)
• Arndt “stressed in his teaching and preaching the “Christ in us”
not to the exclusion of but in a justified reaction against the
“Christ for us” theology of orthodox Lutherans. He
represented a genuine Lutheran mysticism, orthodox with
respect to pure doctrine, yet a proponent of inner “heart
theology”.” (Hoffman).
Philip Jakob Spener (16351705)
• Although Arndt predated
the pietistic movement, they held
him in high regard
• Spener is generally regarded as ‘Father of German Pietism’
• Bouyer: “Philip Jacob-Spener, president of the seminary of
Frankfort on the Maine from 1666,…while maintaining his
allegiance to Luther, called Arndt the ‘father of the faithful’,
and considered him the real founder of pietism, placing him,
for this reason, ‘immediately below Luther’. He declared his
conviction that justification by faith in divine grace was the
main principle, but he set himself against confusing it with
extrinsic justification; on the contrary, he put all the
emphasis on its association with practical sanctity, expressly
including voluntary effort.”
Count Nicholas-Louis of
Zinzendorf
(1700-1760)
• Bouyer: “a strange figure, combining pathological traits with
very pure flights of mysticism”
• Joined efforts with the “Moravian Brethren” in 1722, giving
them property to establish their quasi-monastic commune,
the village of “Herrnhut”.
• The “ecclesiolae”, or “small churches”—ancestor of the “small
groups” or “base ecclesial communties” of today
• A direct influence on John and Charles Wesley and
Methodism
• “Herrnhutter” commune near Penshurst in Western Victoria
(Dr.William Metcalf and Betty Huf, "In Search of Utopia - Herrnhut,
Australia’s First Commune” (Melbourne University Press)
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Luther’s Spiritual
Heritage
Luther was an Augustinian
Monk. St Augustine had pride of
place in his spiritual formation
In 1508 Luther bought an edition of Tauler’s sermons
which he thoroughly annotated in the margins
Behind Tauler and the Theologia Germanica was the influence
of the “Friends of God” movement.
The Friends of God was an international network of those
working for spiritual and moral renewal in the 14th and
15th centuries. They specifically opposed the radical
movement which called itself “the Brothers and Sisters of
the Free Spirit”
He rightly supposed the Theologia Germanica came from this
tradition, but wrongly ascribed it to Tauler himself.
Luther and Bernard
• Luther, like many of his contemporaries including Erasmus, was
schooled in the studia humanitatis, the via moderna, and the schola
Augustiniana moderna
• He was a life-long anti-scholastic, completely rejecting
Aristotelianism (“Philosophy”), and embracing a corresponding
nominalism
• Thus it is not surprising to find that he was a keen admirer of St
Bernard of Clairvaux, the foe of Peter Abelard (the ‘pioneer’ of
Scholasticism)
• Franz Posset, “Bernard of Clairvaux as Luther’s Source”,
Concordia Theological Quarterly, 1990:“In Bernard’s time a new
theology influenced by the ancient pagan philosophy of Aristotle
arose in the form of what today is called Scholasticism. It was
fostered and inspired by Peter Abelard, Bernard’s foe.”
Luther and Bernard
• “We must be selective because Luther’s references to Bernard
amount to more than five hundred, not counting allusions
made in his table-talk and in his correspondence.”
• “If one compares Luther’s allusions to the representatives of
the so-called “German Mysticism” (such as Meister Eckhart,
Johannes Tauler, and the anonymous Frankfurter who wrote
the Theologia Germanica), one comes upon some surprising
facts: Luther never directly or indirectly quoted or mentioned
Meister Eckhart by name; and, compared with Bernard,
Lutehr referred relatively rarely to Tauler and to the
Frankfurter whose work he had edited. Luther’s often literal
quations from, direct references to, and indirect allusions to
Bernard outnumber these others by the hundreds.”
Luther and Bernard
• Luther said: “I love Bernard as the one who among all
writers preached Christ most charmingly. I follow him
wherever he preached Christ, and I pray to Christ in the
faith in which he prayed to Christ.”
• Posset: “Luther the preacher was most interested in Bernard
the preacher, that is, the preacher of the crib and the cross of
Christ”, nevertheless, “not only the preaching and teaching
Bernard made a great impression on Luther, but also the
praying Bernard.”
• Still, Posset asserts that: “the Reformer was interested in
Bernard as a biblical theologian & a preacher of the gospel,
not as a ‘mystic’ in the sense in which the term is usually
understood today… The Reformer alerted his audience
primarily to Bernard’s christocentric piety, that is, to
meditation on the wounds of Christ, to his incarnational
christology, & to his theology of grace alone & faith alone.”
Key themes in Luther’s
Spirituality
• The dialectic of Law and Gospel
• Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus
• ‘Theologia Crucis’ (vs. ‘Theologia Gloriae’)
• Deus Absconditus, Deus Revelatus and especially the God
revealed in hiddenness
• The Incarnation: finitum capax infinitum (contra Calvin
who insisted on finitum non capax infinitum, leading
later Lutherans to joke about the “extra-Calvinisticum”,
the bit of God that didn’t fit into Christ).
• Thus a Christocentricity which focused upon the “crib
and cross”, as Posset puts it.
Law and Gospel
•Treatise on Christian Liberty (1520)
•Grace gives, faith receives. Thus, since all salvation is by
grace, all salvation is by faith.
•The “works of the Law” have no part in this.
•“In the scriptures, two things are to be distinguished–the
commands and the promises. …If you desire to fulfil the
law and overcome concupiscence, believe in Jesus Christ,
in whom you are offered grace, justice, peace and liberty.
By faith, you possess all these; without it, you are a
stranger to them all.”
•“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to
none; a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all,
subject to all.”
What is Faith?
• Bouyer summarises the doctrine of sola fide as follows:
• “The essential [thing], for salvation, is to realise that God is
its author; that it depends, not on one’s own strength, but
on God’s. In this realisation, where a radical distrust of self
is but the obverse of absolute confidence in God, consists
faith; nothing else can possibly replace it.”
• Saving faith is “fiducia” (trust) not just belief (“fides”).
• Such faith is an affair of the heart, and not of the mind
alone.
• In fact, Luther’s understanding of faith included a large
measure of what we would call caritas
• Cf. the explanation to the First Commandment in the Small
Catechism: “We are to fear, love and trust in God”
Grace in Luther
• Again, Bouyer describes the doctrine of sola gratia in
Luther’s theology as follows:
• The “point of departure” for Luther’s whole conception of
grace was “the positive certainty he at last attained that God,
not ourselves, is the prime author of our salvation.
Consequently, we have no call to be despondent at our
powerlessness to save ourselves by our own exertions; for
it is just to this powerlessness that the Gospel gives the
answer. What we could not do, God, in Christ, has done
for us.”
• This is “Christ for us”, but the experience of “positive
certainty” points to something internal also, and not
simply external.
Interior and Exterior in
Luther
• The dialectic of the interior
and the exterior justification
lies at the heart of Luther’s theology
• It is always grace alone that saves us, but
• when engaged in controversy, he stressed “extrinsic”
justification, without any inward change to our nature
• whereas when speaking pastorally he stressed the inner
experience of grace (referring to his own conversion
experience) and the presence of Christ in the heart
• Bouyer: “As soon as he speaks as a religious guide or
educator, [he becomes] anxious simply to give
Christians, learned and unlearned alike, a statement of
living Christianity as conceived and realised by himself.”
The “Theology of the
Cross”
• Heidelberg Disputation (1518)
(more significant for later
Lutheranism than the 95 Theses of 1517)
• Thesis 20. "The man who perceives the visible rear-ward parts
of God [Ex 33:23]as seen in suffering and the cross…[does]
deserve to be called a theologian" (Sed qui visibilia et posteriora
Dei per passiones et crucem conspecta intellgit).
• “The ‘back’ and visible things of God are placed in opposition
to the invisible, namely, his human nature, weakness,
foolishness. (1 Cor 1:25) …God wished to be recognized in
suffering, …it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no
good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he
recognizes him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus
God destroys the wisdom of the wise, as Isa. [45:15] says,
Truly, thou art a God who hidest thyself.”
The “Theology of the
Cross”
• Thesis 21: “A theologian of glory calls evil good and good
evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it
actually is.”
• “This is clear: He who does not know Christ does not
know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works
to suffering, glory to the cross, strength to weakness,
wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil…. God can
be found only in suffering and the cross.”
• Thus even when God reveals himself, it is in a hidden
way (eg. In the babe in swaddling clothes, on the cross,
in the bread and wine of the Eucharist)
Christology of the Crib
and
Cross
• Luther’s Christocentric
theology
is distinguished from
Calvinism and other forms of Protestantism primarily
because it is profoundly Incarnational
• Bouyer: “It should be clear to anyone that the God of Calvin
is, primarily, the God of Sinai, the God who makes himself
manifest in a splendour and majesty inaccessible to man.”
• Luther’s God, on the other hand, is the God of the manger
and of the cross, the God who makes himself accessible to
man precisely by hiding himself in humility.
• For Luther, “Finitum capax infinitum”, but for Calvin, Finitum
NON capax infinitum.
Luther’s Hymns
• “A Mighty Fortress”Verse 2:
• With might of ours can naught be done
soon were our fall effected:
but for us fights the valiant one
whom God himself elected.
Ask ye: Who is this?
Christ Jesus it is
of Sabaoth Lord,
AND THERE’S NONE OTHER GOD.
He holds the field for ever.
Luther’s Hymns
• “From Heaven above to Earth I come”
• These are the tokens ye shall mark:
the swaddling-clothes and manger dark:
there shall ye find the young child laid,
by whom the heavens and earth were made.”
• Ah, Lord, who hast created all,
how weak art thou, how poor and small,
that thou dost choose thine infant bed
where ass and ox but lately fed.
• Ah, dearest Jesus, holy child,
make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
within my heart, that it may be
a quiet chamber kept for thee.
Luther’s Hymns
• “O Jesus Christ, all praise to thee”
• He whom the world cannot enclose
doth in Mary’s arms repose:
to be an infant small he deigns
who all things by his power sustains.
Hallelujah.
The Small Catechism
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
What does this mean?
I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has
given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my
reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also
gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home,
wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and
daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and
life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me
from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine goodness
and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For all this it
is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him. This is most
certainly true.
The Small Catechism
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
What does this mean?
I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has
given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my
reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also
gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home,
wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and
daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and
life. He defends me against all danger and guards and protects
me from all evil. All this He does only out of fatherly, divine
goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me. For
all this it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him.
This is most certainly true.
The Small Catechism
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, etc. …From
thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean?
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father
from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is
my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned
person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and
from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with
His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and
death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His
kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness,
innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead,
lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.
The Small Catechism
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the
communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean?
I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe
in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy
Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His
gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way
He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole
Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in
the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly
forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last
Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to
me and all believers in Christ. This is most certainly true.
The Small Catechism
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Cyril of Jerusalem
The Name of God is in its
nature holy, whether we say
so or not; but since it is
sometimes profaned among
sinners…we pray that in us
God's Name may be
hallowed; not that it comes
to be holy from not being
holy, but because it becomes
holy in us, when we are
made holy, and do things
worthy of holiness.
Augustine
We ask that His name may be
hallowed in us; for holy is it
always. …but He is always holy,
and His name always holy. It is
for ourselves, not for God, that
we pray.
Martin Luther
God’s name is certainly holy
in itself, but we pray in this
petition that it may be kept
holy among us also.
The Small Catechism
Thy Kingdom Come
…How does God’s kingdom come?
God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father
gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we
believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in
time and there in eternity.
The Small Catechism
• Posset: “[Bernard of Clairvaux] developed the concept of the
three comings of Christ…: the first coming is the
incarnation…ad homines,…then there is the parousia, usually
called the “second coming”, the advent on the day of
judgment…contra homines. The third advent is the spiritual
birth in the soul—a “mystical” advent, in homines.”
• Luther: “Christ’s face is triple: firstly, in his first advent when
he was made incarnate who as Son of God is the face of the
Father…; secondly, in the spiritual advent whithout which the
first is good for nothing—and so one has to recognise his face
through faith; thirdly, in the second and last advent when his
face will be fully visible.”
The Small Catechism
Thy Kingdom Come
…How does God’s kingdom come?
God’s kingdom comes when our heavenly Father
gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we
believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in
time and there in eternity.
“A Simple Way to Pray”
(1535)
• The Catechism was the basis for one of Luther’s best
known works on prayer “A Simple Way to Pray” (1535)
• Peter Beskendorf, a Wittenberg barber, though a devout
Christian, had killed his son-in-law in a drunken rage. By
Luther’s intercession he was exiled rather than executed.
• Peter the Barber asked Luther for help in how to pray.
• Luther responded: “I will tell you as best I can what I do
personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you
and to everybody to do it better than I! Amen.”
“A Simple Way to Pray”
(1535)
Some significant and practical pastoral advice:
• “when I feel that I have become cool and joyless in prayer…”
• “my room…or where a congregation is assembled…”
• “word-for-word the Ten Commandments, the Creed, …some
words of Christ or of Paul. or some psalms”
• “just as a child might do.”
• “the first business of the morning and the last at night”
• “‘Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to
this or that.’ …nothing comes of prayer for that day.”
• “St. Jerome “He who works faithfully prays twice.’ Yet we must
be careful not to break the habit of true prayer and imagine
other works to be necessary which, after all, are nothing of the
kind.”
“A Simple Way to Pray”
• Luther then provides a(1535)
series of model meditations on the
Our Father, the Ten Commandments and the Creed—
literally a “prayed catechism”.
• “You should also know that I do not want you to recite all
these words in your prayer. …Rather do I want your heart to
be stirred and guided concerning the thoughts which ought
to be comprehended in the Lord’s Prayer. These thoughts
may be expressed, if your heart is rightly warmed and
inclined toward prayer, in many different ways and with
more words or fewer. …If an abundance of good thoughts
comes to us we ought to disregard the other petitions, make
room for such thoughts, listen in silence, and under no
circumstances obstruct them. The Holy Spirit himself
preaches here, and one word of his sermon is far better than
a thousand of our prayers.”
“A Simple Way to Pray”
• Priests: “Like the priest(1535)
who prayed, “Deus in adjutorium meum
intende. Farmhand, did you unhitch the horses? Domine ad
adjuvandum me festina. Maid, go out and milk the cow. Gloria
patri et filio et spiritui sancto. Hurry up, boy, I wish the ague
would take you!””
• Barbers: “So, a good and attentive barber keeps his thoughts.
attention, and eyes on the razor and hair and does not forget
how far he has gotten with his shaving or cutting. If he wants
to engage in too much conversation or let his mind wander
or look somewhere else he is likely to cut his customer’s
mouth, nose, or even his throat. Thus if anything is to be
done well, it requires the full attention of all one’s senses and
members….How much more does prayer call for concentration & singleness of heart if it is to be a good prayer!”
Oratio Meditatio Tentatio
(1539)
• In the preface to the first
edition of Luther’s works, published
in his own life time, Luther points out “a correct way of
studying theology” with three steps: Oratio, Meditatio, and
Tentatio.
• What he describes is in fact a form of “Lectio Divina”
• This ancient practice, familiar to Luther from his monastic
days, also fitted his sola scriptura spirituality
• John Kleinig: “"Everything centres around the practice of
meditation, for prayer prepares for it and its results are
confirmed in the experience of conflict. For Luther,
meditation is the key to the study of theology. No one can
become a true theologian unless he learns theology through
it [ie. through meditation]."
Oratio Meditatio Tentatio
(1539)
Oratio:
• “Prayer”, but prayer focused on the Scriptures, “a
book which turns the wisdom of all other books into
foolishness” (note similar theme in Preface to TG 1516)
• Prayer is the necessary preparation and method for
reading the scriptures: “Teach me, Lord, instruct me,
lead me, show me…” – the prayer of an open heart
• “Reason and understanding” are useless and
presumptuous; “humility and earnestness”, with the
gift of the Holy Spirit, are necessary for
enlightenment
Oratio Meditatio Tentatio
(1539)
Meditatio:
• Note the emphasis on meditating “not only in your heart, but
also externally”, ie. reading the text aloud (or soto voce)
• Luther was a Hebrew scholar and knew that the word used in
Psalm 119 for “meditate” carried the inherent notion of
speaking or conversing aloud with someone; if that someone
was oneself it meant “to ponder”
• Thus one can “hear” the spoken Word, even when alone
• “For God will not give you his Spirit without the external
Word.” This emphasis had grown in reaction to the radical
reformers who emphasised interior revelation
• The necessity of repeated reading, hearing and speaking of
the word—once or twice is not sufficient
Oratio Meditatio Tentatio
(1539)
Tentatio:
• But the late-Luther had by no means abandoned the emphasis
of the early-Luther and the German mystics on the sapientia
experimentalis
• For Luther the sapientia theologica could not be attained
through oratio and meditatio without going on to “the
touchstone” of tentatio (“Anfechtung”/trial/suffering)
• Only this “experience” was capable of teaching “how right,
how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how
comforting God’s Word is, wisdom beyond all wisdom.”
• Here too we can see the constant presence and life-long
emphasis in Luther’s spirituality of the “Theology of the
Cross” and of the “God who reveals himself in Hiddenness”