Law and Gospel- how far?

[FireDragon76]

How far do mainline Lutherans take the Law/Gospel hermeneutic? How would this interact with a theologian that insists that the Bible's message is more properly understood as a narrative of liberation, and that God has a preferential option for the oppressed (Liberation Theology)?

My time attending the Lutheran church and reading has lead me to ask this question. There is a lot of emphasis on forgiveness from guilt, which seems to be an issue mostly of white northern Europeans.

 

[grasping the after wind]

Well, there is a bit of that forgiveness from sin stuff in the Bible isn't there. Since the truth is what Jesus said would set you free there would not be much actual liberation for such a theologian as you describe

 

[FireDragon76]

Yeah, but the whole point of liberation theology is that sin doesn't effect everyone in the same way. Some people are more the victims of others' sins, and asking them to just "turn the other cheek" doesn't serve justice or love in a fallen world. Contrast this with the theology of Anabaptists (pacifism and non-resistance as a law for Christians to obey), for instance, and you see the stark difference.

Jesus never says he comes to merely make the abusive sinner feel pardoned - he comes to inaugurate real change in human relations, and that only happens if he speaks blessings and promises to those who mourn, who are poor, who hunger for justice.

 

[Arcangl86]

Law and Gospel I think works really well with the theologies of liberation actually. I would take a look at Luther and Liberation by Walter Altmann, a pretty famous Brazilian Lutheran liberation theologian.

On your point about forgiveness from guilt, I've noticed a tension in the ELCA. There is either a focus on personal sin, which is very pietistic and I think actually closer to Luther's context, or you have those who focus exclusively on corporate sin and liberation, and there needs to be both I think.

 

[FireDragon76]

Law and Gospel I think works really well with the theologies of liberation actually. I would take a look at Luther and Liberation by Walter Altmann, a pretty famous Brazilian Lutheran liberation theologian.

I will have to write down that name and look him up.

I am more concerned because a lot of people that face oppression deal with shaming and despair, not guilt, as their biggest barrier to faith.

 

[Soyeong]

Righteousness is in accordance with the law and sinfulness is in transgression of it. We can only be in bondange to one, so we have been set free from sin so that we can become slaves of obedience leading to righteousness and slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification.

Romans 6:15-19 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[c] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

 

[Arcangl86]

I will have to write down that name and look him up.

I am more concerned because a lot of people that face oppression deal with shaming and despair, not guilt, as their biggest barrier to faith.

And I think that Law and Gospel actually can be applied to that situation. I was fortunate to hear Tim Wengert speak in September, and he re-framed Law and Gospel in a very interesting way. In his view, Law is the fact that we live in a broken, sinful world, and the Gospel is that things don't have to be that way. I've also seen justification by faith used as away to say that regardless of how the world views you, you are of value because you are a beloved child of God.

 

[FireDragon76]

Law and Gospel I think works really well with the theologies of liberation actually. I would take a look at Luther and Liberation by Walter Altmann.

That sounds good, I'll have to read it.