Category: Martin Luther

Two kinds of love

Martin Luther coined the phrase “theology of the cross” in his Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. The cross, he held, is where differences between human and divine loves are sharpest. Human love seeks personal benefits and satisfaction—whatever is good. While God’s love forms what is good in humans. “Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; …

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Affective Lives

“What do you mean by ‘affective theology?’ I’ve never heard of it before I met you.” This was the lead line of the Spreading Goodness entry for June 4, 2018. In that piece—and I invite readers to visit there—I explained why I adopted this uncommon phrasing. I also use the phrase “heart-based spirituality” to say the same …

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Fighting Feelings

In The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition (Coulter & Yong, eds.) E. A. Dreyer cites Classical Greek thinkers who demeaned human feelings. Plato, for one, compared human reason to a charioteer who must whip his horses—the emotions—to rule them. This distrust of feelings is still in vogue among many. But so, too, is …

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Power & Love

I enjoyed a six-week internship at Christianity Today magazine many years ago. The Army paid for it as I returned to civilian life after two years as a draftee. At the same time Richard Nixon was impeached for his role in the Watergate burglary cover-up. Back then the CT offices were just a block from …

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Optimistic or Alive?

A number of scholars have commented on Augustine’s “pessimism.” The label has also been attached to Martin Luther and John Calvin who shared Augustine’s belief in Original Sin. That is, they all affirmed the Bible teaching that humanity died in Adam. So that no one has spiritual life without new birth. Jesus supported this when …

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Abba

Years ago in seminary one of my professors asked me, “Do you see yourself as a mystic?” The question startled me since it didn’t have any context! I had never claimed to be a mystic. In fact the idea had never crossed my mind. But it did alert me to a likely difference in our …

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Affective Spirituality

“What do you mean by ‘affective theology?’ I’ve never heard of it before I met you.” It’s a fair question. I first found the label in Heiko Oberman’s The Dawn of the Reformation where he wrote of fourteenth-century Christians whose “suspicion of speculation” led them away from prior theological streams. They preferred “an affective theology …

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Enjoying God’s Gifts

What does it mean to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength? In Matt Jenson’s book, The Gravity of Sin he traces, among other things, how Martin Luther portrayed sin as a centripetal force in the soul. It drags all of life back to self. So that everything—including vocation, religion, and God’s …

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