LUTHERAN QUARTERLY

VDMA: Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum . . . the Word of the Lord remains forever.

AUTUMN 2003 Issue

Volume XVII, Number 3

As a biblical theologian, Martin Luther had many occasions to comment on the Virgin Mary, usually appreciatively; amid the powerful Marian piety and doctrine of his day, Luther also had a strong critique to mount. Sorting out his complex teachings on the subject is Beth Kreitzer, whose Duke dissertation (2000) on the subject is now being published as Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the Sixteenth Century (Oxford University Press, 2003).  Kreitzer teaches in the History Department at Saint Vincent College, 300 Fraser Purchase Road, Latrobe, PA 15650.

Students of the American Edition of Luther’s Works soon learn its limitations, not least in that it is only a partial selection of the larger and definitive Weimar Edition of the German and Latin originals.  Advanced Luther scholars also know some of the history and particular features of this Weimarer Ausgabe, perhaps especially the senior Luther scholar from Leipzig, Helmar Junghans.  The General Editor of Lutherjahrbuch and a 1999 LQ contributor (“Luther on the Reform of Worship”), Junghans is also known to English readers through the CD-Rom “Martin Luther: Exploring His Life and Times,” now also available as an Augsburg Fortress book.  His essay on the background and the particular features of the Weimar Luther Edition as well as some tools and advice for its use was first published by the Lutheran Seminary in Hong Kong, Theology and Life 25 (2002) and is reprinted here by permission of the author and of Pilgrim Lo, Editor-in-Chief. Gletschersteinstr. 37, D-04299 Leipzig, Germany.

When “theosis” is all the rage, perhaps “kenosis” needs renewed attention.  While contemporary spirituality urges us to ascend to God, kenotic Christology insists on the divine descent to us.  Matthew Becker follows his reintroduction of Johannes v. Hofmann in the previous issue with this more detailed look at Hofmann’s particular expression of the self-giving God and the atonement.  For Hofmann, in his historical context, it was “a new way to teach the old truth.”  Becker’s ongoing work on Hofmann brings him to Erlangen on occasion, but otherwise he teaches theology at Concordia University, Division of Theology, 2811 N.E. Holman St., Portland, OR 97211-6099.

The distinctive pairing of Lutheran theology’s material principle (justification) and its formal principle (Scripture) may seem to stem from the Aristotelian categories of seventeenth-century Lutheran scholasticism, but in fact comes from the nineteenth-century creativity of Schleiermacher’s successor in Berlin, August Twesten.  Erik Heen follows the twists and turns of this distinction, its uses and misuses among various American Lutheran theologians especially as they developed divergent twentieth-century views of Scripture.  Heen’s teaching area is New Testament studies, and he pursued this sabbatical interest in the history of biblical interpretation while a Resident Scholar at the Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research (St. John’s University) in Collegeville, Minnesota. The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, 7301 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19119.