Cross in Tensions. Philip Ruge-Jones
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Название: Cross in Tensions

Автор: Philip Ruge-Jones

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Религия: прочее

Серия: Princeton Theological Monograph Series

isbn: 9781630878108

isbn:

СКАЧАТЬ Deification is not apparent to sight, though it has actually occurred. It is hidden under the opposite, that is, under the reality of the believer who is also a sinner. Only faith living under the sign of the cross is able to make the profession that God is certainly within the Christian bringing about deification.

      The threat to Forde and Ebeling’s approach that this interpretation poses is clear. Peura makes this explicit in his summary of his research. He writes:

      Peura’s work is dramatically different from, and even contradictory to, that of Forde and Ebeling. Although he helps us to see things that had not been seen by the others, he does not help us in seeing Luther’s theology of the cross in its broader, historically-embedded context. The challenge that Luther brings is formulated in light of conflicts in ideas alone; the Reformation seems to be a clash of ideas or even, more specifically, ontologies. The public nature of the Reformation itself is lost in the process.

      Though the interpretation of Luther lacks the interest in social context and reception that drives this study, it could provide some resources for the constructive challenge stated at the outset of ending the divorce between history and spirituality. This contribution could come by way of Peura’s confession that there is a real, actual presence of God in the person and thus in history. Though it is not the direction that I will take, the confession that God’s relationship to the world is not simply external, but is an actual ontological presence, might provide others constructive resources for addressing this same challenge in a different manner.

      On a personal note, what first drew my attention to Peura was the way he offers an alternative to the near total dominance of Ebeling’s interpretation in Luther studies. The content of Peura’s interpretation does not lend dramatic assistance to my own program, nor do I at the end of the day find it compelling. Yet the dynamic challenge that Peura throws at contemporary ways of reading Luther opens a space of legitimacy for other alternative approaches. Peura’s attention to neglected or denied elements of Luther (indwelling, participation, deification) and the resultant re-reading offer hope to others like myself who have seen something different in Luther than generally has been observed. Peura and others amenable to his position have prepared the field of Luther scholarship for power shifts in the realm of interpretation. This resembles part of the dynamic that Luther unleashed in his own day’s field of discourse.

      Prenter

      Luther’s focus on the forgiveness made possible through the vicarious suffering of Jesus tragically is lost in this theological trend. Bultmann and others have forgotten the scandalousness of God’s identification with human crosses through the cross of Jesus; the connection, when not altogether ignored, is made too lightly.