Abstract
It is the task of contemporary Christians to continue the reforms begun by Paul and Luther, especially in areas where they were not successful. The meaning of their messages of reform needs to be translated into our current times as recognition of the ultimate value of each person and the need to fight against oppressive boundaries. This essay examines the sparks that ignited the reforms of Paul and of Luther in order to draw inspiration for igniting a third spark today, based in mysticism, that will be manifested in a Dialogical Bible as well as in interreligious cooperation in the pursuit of universal human rights.
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Notes
- 1.
Compare Krister Stendahl, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays (London: S.C.M. Press, 1977); Parish Sanders, ed., Paul and Palestinian Judaism. A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1977); James D.G. Dunn, “The New Perspective on Paul,” in: Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 65 (1983): 95–122. This new perspective on Paul is not at all present in the “Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre” (Augsburg 1999); compare Gemeinsame Erklärung zur Rechtfertigungslehre, (Frankfurt aM: Lembeck, 42000). That is hard to understand: If the doctrine of justification opens the door to other human beings, it has an ecumenical dimension.
- 2.
Victor Stoll, Luther und Paulus. Die exegetischen und hermeneutischen Grundlagen der lutherischen Rechtfertigungslehre im Paulinismus Luthers, in Arbeiten zur Bibel und ihrer Geschichte 10 (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 2002).
- 3.
Compare Gerd Theissen, Glaubenssätze. Ein kritischer Katechismus (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2012 32013), no. 126, 217 on the descent to hell.
- 4.
Gerd Theissen, Glaubenssätze, no. 124, 214–15 on the myth of Satan.
- 5.
Gerd Theissen, Glaubenssätze, no. 111, 191–2 and no. 112, 193–4 on the vicarious death of Jesus.
- 6.
Gerd Theissen, “The New Perspective on Paul and its Limits. Psychological Considerations,” Alexander Thompson Lecture Princeton 26.2.07 in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin 27 (2007): 64–85. A fair comparison of Paul and Luther can be found in Wilfried Härle, “Paulus und Luther. Ein kritischer Blick auf die ‘New Perspective,’” in Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 103 (2006): 362–93, in Spurensuche nach Gott. Studien zur Fundamentaltheologie und Gotteslehre (Berlin: de Gruyter 2008), 202–39.
- 7.
Martin Luther in his preface of his opera latina of 1545, Weimar Edition, 54, 185.
- 8.
Compare Gerd Theissen and Petra v. Gemünden, Der Römerbrief. Rechenschaft eines Reformators (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), 311–26: “Der Traum von der Öffnung des Tempels.”
- 9.
Compare Otfried Hofius, “Das Evangelium und Israel. Erwägungen zu Römer 9–11,” in Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 83 (1986): 297–324, 320: “Israel kommt auf die gleiche Weise zum Glauben wie Paulus selbst! […] Paulus sieht und weiß sich als den Prototyp des dem Evangelium gegenüber verschlossenen und des von dem erwählenden Gott preisgegebenen Israel.” Editor’s translation: Israel came to believe in the same way as Paul himself. … Paul saw and knew himself as the prototype of the captive liberated by the Gospel and of the abandoned Israel elected by God.
- 10.
Compare our arguments for a biographical background of the typical “Ego” in Gerd Theissen and Petra von Gemünden, Der Römerbrief. Rechenschaft eines Reformators, 425–37; Gerd Theissen, Psychological aspects of Pauline Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress 1987), 177–265. The dominating interpretation of the “Ego” of Roman 7 as a rhetorical figure was also refuted by Will Timmins, “Romans 7 and Speech-In-Character: A Critical Evaluation of Stowers’ Hypothesis,” in: Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 107 (2016): 54–115.
- 11.
The three pillars were defined by Adolf von Harnack, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte I. Die Entstehung des kirchlichen Dogmas (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 31901; Darmstadt 1983), 353–425.
- 12.
A convincing synthesis of the traditional and the new social interpretation of Paul is James M.G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Grand Rapids MI/Cambridge: Eerdmans, 2015).
- 13.
Johannes Ehmann, Luther und die Türken (Bielefeld: Luther-Verlag, 2017).
- 14.
Thomas Kaufmann, Luthers “Judenschriften”: Ein Beitrag zu ihrer historischen Kontextualisierung (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011). According to the definition of antisemitism by “The European Parliament Working Group on Antisemitism,” Luther was an anti-Semite: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” http://www.antisem.eu/projects/eumc-working-definition-of-antisemitism/ (20.09.2017). Of course, we must differentiate between religious antijudaism and racial antisemitism. Religious antijudaism gives Jews the chance to convert; racial antisemitism gives them no chance at all. Religious antijudaism is able to differentiate between different forms of Jewish faith; racial antijudaism refuses Jews as Jews.
- 15.
Francisco de Vitoria (ca. 1483–1546) criticized the arguments that legitimized in those days the conquering of the new world and developed a ius gentium, an international law which gave basic rights to all human beings. Compare Daniel Deckers, Art. “Vitoria, Francisco de,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie 35 (2003): 169–173. Bartholomeus de las Casas (1484–1566) fought after his conversion in 1514 against the enslavement of the native peoples and for the recognition of the Indios as people, who are just as capable of civilization and faith as all the others. Mission must only be carried out without violence. Compare Mariano Delgado, “Las Casas, Bartolomé de,” in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart4 5 (2002): 80f; Willi Henkel, “Las Casas, Bartolomé de,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie 20 (1990): 445–48. Francisco Suarez (1548–1617) derived the king’s authority not only from God, but from the people, but gave the Pope the right to depose heretical rulers. Compare Johann P. Sommerville, “Suarez, Francisco,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie 32 (2001): 290–93; Walter Sparn, “Suárez, Francisco,” in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart4 (2004): 1811–1813. The ideas of these Spanish late scholastics were later taken up by the protestant lawyer and theologian Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), the founder of a neutral international law that is independent of confessional traditions. Compare Christoph Strohm, “Religion und Recht in der frühen Neuzeit,” in Zeitschrift für Rechtsgeschichte 133 (2016): 283–316.
- 16.
Volker Leppin, Die fremde Reformation. Luthers mystische Wurzeln (München: Beck, 42016).
- 17.
I am quite aware that most exegetes refuse this interpretation. My arguments against the refusal of a biographic background of Rom 7 are summarized in Gerd Theissen and Petra v. Gemünden, Der Römerbrief. Rechenschaft eines Reformators, 425–37.
- 18.
Compare my ideas on religious experience in Gerd Theissen, Erleben und Verhalten der ersten Christen (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2007), 111–250; Id., “Paulus und die Mystik. Der eine und einzige Gott und die Transformation des Menschen,” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 110 (2013): 263–290; Id., “Spuren Gottes in der religiösen Erfahrung. Ein philosophischer Versuch,” in Polyphones Verstehen. Entwürfe zur Bibelhermeneutik, Beiträge zum Verstehen der Bibel, Band 23 (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2014 22015), 459–487; Id., “Polyphone Bibelhermeneutik und protestantische Spiritualität. Über kontemplatives und transformatives Verstehen,” in W. Zager, ed., Liberale Frömmigkeit? Spiritualität in der säkularen und multireligiösen Gesellschaft (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlaganstalt, 2015), 77–111.
- 19.
Compare Gerd Theissen, “Bibelhermeneutik als Religionshermeneutik. Der vierdimensionale Sinn der Bibel,” in EvTh 72 (2012): 291–306, ibid., 305. U. Luz, Theologische Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag 2014), 558, has supported this suggestion.
- 20.
The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 refers at the beginning to God: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. That among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Virginia Bill of Rights (1776), written a couple of months before, speaks instead of the God of nature: “All men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights.” This was in those days no contradiction: God was the creator of nature and its laws. For the relationship between human rights, religion, and reason, compare Heiner Bielefeldt, Philosophie der Menschenrechte. Grundlagen eines weltweiten Freiheitsethos (Darmstadt: Wiss. Buchgesellschaft, 1998).
- 21.
See Acts 5:29; also 4:19.
- 22.
Gerd Theissen, Glaubenssätze.
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Theissen, G. (2021). Open Temple and Dialogical Church: How to Fulfill the Reform of Paul and the Protestant Reformation? A Keynote Address. In: Mannion, G., Doyle, D.M., Dedon, T.G. (eds) Ecumenical Perspectives Five Hundred Years After Luther’s Reformation. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68360-3_2
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