Luther's Progress to the Diet of Worms

128 Pages·1964·8.969 MB·English

by  Gordon Rupp

LUTHER'S PROGRESS
to the
DIET OF WORMS
A reference-list of Harper Torchbooks, classified
by subjects, is printed at the end of this volume.

LUTHER'S PROGRESS
to the
WORMS
DIET OF
by
GORDON RUPP
HARPER TORCHBOOKS
THE CLOISTER LIBRARY
HARPER & ROW, PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND EVANSTON i
TO
MY WIFE
LUTHER'S PROGRESS TO THE DIET OF WORMS
Introduction to the Torchbook edition
copyright © 1964 by Gordon Rupp
Printed in the United States of America.
This book was originally published in 1951 by S.C.M. Press Limited,
London, and is here reprinted by arrangement.
I nst HARPER rORCHBOOK edition published 1964 by Harper & Row, Publishers,
Incorporated, 49 East 33rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
CONTENTS
Introduction to the Torchbook edition 1
Introduction
y
YOUNG LUTHER
I 9
II MR. FEARING 36
III <IN EXITU ISRAEL' 36
IV THE HUBBUB 48
V GREAT ARGUMENT
59
VI THE REFORMER 71
VII THE KNIGHT OF FAITH 93
Epilogue 103
Index 109
INTRODUCTION TO THE
TORCHBOOK EDITION
Luther's Progress to the Diet of Worms was written soon
after World War II when there had inevitably been a slow-
ing down of Luther studies, particularly in Germany. The
last decade has seen a great stepping up of their pace. Two
great international congresses have been held, at Aarhus in
Denmark and at Miinster in Germany, to consider some of
the latest problems of this intricate field of scholarship. The
Luther Yearbook (edited by Professor Franz Lau of Leipzig)
continues to list year by year the number of publications deal-
ing directly or indirectly with the life, thought, and influence
of Martin Luther; these now top the figure of 600 annually,
and though many of them are slight articles many others are
printed volumes and substantial monographs. It has to be
confessed that of the printing of theses there is no end: as
the learned studies pour out of universities in Germany,
Scandinavia, andAmerica there is inevitablya tedious amount
of repetition, so that the reader needs a guide to what not
to read, and often would be far more profitably engaged in
reading Luther for himself.
And it is in this respect, the availability of Luther for Eng-
lish readers who lack what may be called the "sacred" lan-
guages ofGermanand Latin, thatthese lastyearshavebrought
a revolution. The change has been made by the launching of
the great American edition of the Works of Martin Luther,
in 55 volumes, under the editorship of Dr. Lehmann and Pro-
fessor Pelikan. Though in such a great enterprise there are
bound to be variations in the quality of the editing and
translating, the project is already an achievement which
British scholars must hail with admiration and respect. The
influence of great teachers like Roland Bainton, Wilhelm
1
INTRODUCTION
I
Pauck, Theodore Tappert, and others is bearing fruit in a
generation of American Luther scholars who combine theo-
logical perspective with the technical linguistic equipment.
The great new edition puts a mass of lively, first-hand docu-
ments at the disposal of historians, theologians, and students.
The four volumes devoted to the Career of the Reformer
themselves constitute a major event in the Englishizing of
Luther. We now have before us major theological documents,
Luther's extended exposition of his 95 Theses, and the ac-
count of his important dealings with Cardinal Cajetan: the
pregnant and profound Against Latomus, so important for
the evaluation of Luther's doctrine of the relation between
justification and the work of grace in the soul: the devastat-
ing polemic of Against the Heavenly Prophets, a formidable
disposal of the errors of the left wing radicals, and inciden-
tally of their modern admirers. Of the volumes so far pub-
lished the most impressive is volume 37, devoted to Luther's
eucharistic treatises of 1527-8, admirably edited by Dr.
Robert H. Fischer. There are also important volumes de-
voted to his doctrines of Word and Sacraments, Church and
ministry, and a wide selection from his sermons and ex-
pository lectures.
But the American edition of Luther's works does not ex-
haust the new material. Three recent volumes in the trans-
atlantic venture, the "Library of Christian Classics," are
devoted to Luther's writings. The first, Letters of Spiritual
Counsel (edited by Theodore Tappert), is an admirable mis-
cellany, perhaps the best book to lend anybody who wants to
get the flavour of Luther's character and mind. Two further
volumes contain Luther's lectures as a young Professor, with
his Commentary on Romans (selections edited by Wilhelm
Pauck) and with his other early lectures (edited by Canon
J.
Atkinson). In England, James Clarke has published new edi-
tions of older translations, the famous Commentary on Ga-
latians—so influential in English history, not least on John
Bunyan and Charles Wesley—(edited by P. S. Watson) and
The Bondage of the Will (edited by James Packer). Recently
a selection from Luther's Meditations on the Gospels has
been translated by Roland Bainton; it is an excellent intro-
TO THE TORCHBOOK EDITION
3
duction to Luther and the reader will find much to delight
and move him in these comments, which are often profound
and always luminous with poetry and humour. Of late, Eng-
lish translations of the admirable monographs on Luther by
Gerhard Ritter and Franz Lau also have appeared.
Luther's subtle teaching about spiritual and civil govern-
ment, The Two Kingdoms, has been the subject of inter-
mittent debate for centuries. In 1953, a learned and provoca-
tive study, Lex Charitatis, by Johannes Haeckel, sparked off
a lively debate about the place of law in Luther's teaching on
this subject. Important questions about Luther's teaching
in relation to scholastic theology must wait until fifteenth
century studies are more advanced. Among the more useful
discussions in English is B. A. Gerrish's Grace and Reason;
in German there is a more perceptive essay on the same
theme, Ratio und Fides, by B. Lohse. The Danish scholar
Leif Crane has contributed a massive examination of Luther's
theses against the Schoolmen (published in 1517), with special
reference to the famous Tubingen theologian, Gabriel Biel,
who was the teacher of Luther's teachers. Most recently pub-
lished is a work by H. A. Oberman, of the Harvard Divinity
School, The Harvest of Medieval Theology, a study of Biel
which is to be followed by further volumes about the rela-
tion of Biel's teaching to Luther and to the Reformation.
But the major event of the last few years has been another
round in the ever-continuing debate about Luther's "break-
through" in the meaning of the Righteousness of God (Justi-
tia Dei). The great achievement of the "Luther Renaissance"
in the first part of the twentieth century was the discovery,
editing, and publishing of the mass of material from which
Luther lectured at Wittenberg (1509-17). Naturally enough,
research centered on the intriguing questions raised by the
interpretation of this new evidence, and on the Young
Luther. There was a parallel between the search for the his-
torical Luther and the Biblical quest of the historical Jesus,
for research in both cases pursued the historical method, re-
lating events to the documents viewed in a strict philological
context. It was inevitable that scholars should turn in this
direction for the answer to the old problems raised by Lu-
INTRODUCTION
4
ther's famous autobiographical fragment published in 1545,
towards the end of his life. Therein he declared that he had
been held up from exploring the world of Pauline thought by
the concept (in Romans 1) of the "Righteousness of God"
(Justitia Dei), which he had been taught to interpret as the
punishing justice of God. The breakthrough came for him
when he realized that Paul is speaking of another kind of
righteousness, one which is God's merciful gift in which he
saves and forgives us in Christ. Two essays by Erich Vogel-
sang were landmarks in the new discussion. Vogelsang sug-
gested that Luther's realization occurred when he came to
apply to the exegesis of the Psalms two of the four mediaeval
exegetical schemes, the so-called "Literal-prophetic" inter-
pretation in terms of Christ and the tropological which re-
ferred to the inward work of God in the individual soul. A
combination of these two references to the Justitia Dei, he
suggested, resulted in Luther's new conception: a righteous-
ness displayed in Christ and given to the soul in faith. He
thought to find evidence of the new conception in Psalm 70-
1 in Luther's lectures, and dated the discovery 1513-4. And
although his thesis was shaken by later investigations, notably
that by Wenndorf, a good many scholars agreed that the dis-
covery must be dated in this period, and certainly before the
outbreak of the church struggle in 1517.
Lately, there has been a reversal of this trend (and perhaps
here there is a parallel with the Bultmann era in Biblical
studies). A series of essays by W. Link, U. Saarnivara, A.
Peters, and others has appeared which would seek a later date
(returning to the ancient interpretation of the 1545 Fragment
which superficially suggests 1518-9 as the date of the dis-
covery). The most impressive of these essays is that of Ernst
Bizer's Fides ex auditu. His criticism of Vogelsang is indeed
damaging; he argues learnedly and powerfully that what we
have in Luther's lectures on Psalms, Romans, Galatians, and
Hebrews (1513-7) is still really within a Catholic framework.
Luther's real change of mind he finds evidenced in the crit-
ical months of the widening church battle, especially in Lu-
ther's battles with Cardinal Cajetan and with John Eck in
which for the first time he related the doctrine of justification
TO THE TORCHBOOK EDITION
5
to the Word and the promises of God to the hearing of faith.
Bizer's work is a permanent contribution to Luther studies,
for he makes clear that Luther's thought is in movement, in
development, during all these years, and he offers important
evidence as to the character of Luther's theological discoveries
during the exciting period of 1518-9. But brilliant as the at-
tempted demonstration is, it merits the 1961 riposte which
came from Regin Prenter, one of the great Scandinavian in-
terpreters of Lutheran our time. Prenter's book, The Merci-
ful Judge (Der Barkherzige Richter), not only did not ac-
ceptBizer's latedate butalsodamagingly assaultedVogelsang's
hypothesis by suggesting that Luther's "Tower experience"
(Prenter ably defended this description of Luther's break-
through, which had been in danger of being too easily aban-
doned) took place before any of Luther's courses of lectures
as a Professor, i.e., when he was first a Doctor of Theology in
1512. He shows powerfully, and I think convincingly, how
desperate it is to dismiss Luther's amazing lectures on Psalms
as entirely within the Catholic sphere—still more Luther's
lectures on Romans which followed. Doubtless Bizer's and
Prenter's studies will soon be translated into English; and
with the new materials available the interested reader can
follow the debate with reference to the primary documents
and reach his own conclusions. My own conviction is that the
breakthrough must certainly have occurred before 1515, that
is, before LutheFs Tectures ofT Romans. I clinnot believe that
this fine and powerful commentary could have been the work
of one prevented from entering the Pauline world by theo-
logical (and emotional) difficulties about the concept which
is the very heart of the epistle. However, there are still prob-
lems to be settled, and for me one of the signs that the mys-
tery is still far from being solved is its treatment as a problem
of the relation of justification to the Word (Bizer) or of
Justitia to misericordia (Prenter), whereas for Luther the
tension is evidently within the very concept ofJustitia, Right-
eousness itself. And one cannot but be a little suspicious of/
the new methodology which seems to be reading back into
the evidence the hardened theological categories of later (per-
haps the latest) Protestant theology. Prenter is surely right in