God not preached is the absconder, one who hides behind the naked abstractions, and there is nothing theology as such can do about that because theology is a collection of abstractions. It is only in the concrete proclamation, the present-tense Word from God, spoken “to you” the listener, that the abstraction is broken through for [...]
Systematic theology is reflection between yesterday’s and today’s proclamation. Having heard and been claimed by the Word of God, we reflect on how to say it again. We begin such reflection with the God we have heard. That is proper since “God” is the word we use for the beginning, as well as the ending, [...]
The claim that godless sinners are justified by faith alone without the deeds of the law entails also the claim that the Lord’s supper is properly understood and used only when it is administered and received as gospel—as sheer, unmerited gift. It is a beneficium not a sacrificium. What happens in the supper, that is, [...]
When one looks at the history of the church from the perspective of the relation between proclamation and systematic theology, it becomes apparent that a perpetual problem has been the eclipse of primary discourse, especially in the form of proclamation, so that it tends to get truncated or to survive only marginally. Almost from the [...]
If proclamation and systematic theology are to be distinguished, then how are they to be related? They are necessarily correlated: one is impossible without the other. Without systematic reflection there will be no conscious proclamation. … Systematic reflection is necessary to make the move to proclamation conscious and explicit. … It ought to be the [...]
Systematic theology, whatever else it might be for, has to be for proclamation. Not, heaven forbid, that systematic theology is what is to be proclaimed! That, I contend, is precisely one of the more persistent misadventures. Systematic theology, whether god or bad, gets substituted for and displaces proclamation. … systematic theology, while not itself to [...]
Thesis 28. The love of God does not first discover but creates what is pleading to is. The love of man comes into being through attraction to what pleases it. Now we have arrived at the opposite side of the great arch described by the Disputation. All else has been shorn away, put to death. [...]
Thesis 27. Rightly speaking, therefore, the work of Christ should be called the operative power, and our work, the operation; so our operation is pleasing to God by the grace of the operative power. The real operative power in all works that can be called good is the work of Christ, that outrageous assertion that [...]
Thesis 26. The law says, “do this,” and it is never done. Grace says, “believe in this,” and everything is already done. Looking back, we see that the law simply cannot bring about what it commands. Furthermore, we see that whatever the law does bring into being bears no real relationship to what grace inspires. [...]
Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 103-107. We have arrived not at the other pier of the great arch spanning the way from the law of God to the love of God. Theses 25-28 set forth the life raised from the death spoken of at the conclusion of the proof for thesis [...]
Thesis 24. Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner. The negative assessment of the wisdom of law in theses 22 and 23, indeed, throughout the entire Disputation, is likely to make believers [...]
Via The Captivation of the Will, pp. 102-104. (@eerdmans) What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? (Matt. 8:28-34) What shall we do with Jesus? A Jesus who carries on in such outrageous fashion? Or what shall I do, faced with the [...]
Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 95-97 Thesis 23. The law works the wrath of God, kills, curses, accuses, judges, and damns everything that it not in Christ. The law does not work the love of God, it works wrath; it does not give life (recall thesis 1!), it kills; it does [...]
Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 91-95 Thesis 22. That wisdom which perceives the invisible things of God by thinking in terms of works completely puffs up, blinds, and hardens. Thesis 22 takes aim particularly at our religious sensibilities, that uneasiness of conscience or feeling of resentment arising within us when our [...]
Tuesdays with Forde We find ourselves in a situation in which there is increasing talk about the theology of the cross but little specific knowledge of what exactly it is. In the absence of clear understanding, the theology of the cross tends to become sentimentalized, especially in an age that is so concerned about victimization. [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 81-90 Thesis 21. A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the cross calls the thing what it actually is. This is the way the thesis reads in the earlier printings of the American edition of Luther’s Works. [...]
Tuesdays with Forde I. The Law The only way to overcome the problem of the hiddenness of God not preached is by God preached. But that will not happen by attempting to infer God’s will from the law. (Forde, G., “Postscript to The Captivation of the Will,” Lutheran Quarterly (19:1, Spring 2005) p.78.) The gospel, [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 77-81 Thesis 20. That person deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God through suffering and the cross. What is meant here by the “visible and manifest things of God?” The Latin original furnishes a [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 72-77 Thesis 19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things that have actually happened (or have been made, created). Theologians of glory are [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 69-71 In theses 19 to 24 we come to the keystone of the great arch spanning the cleft between the law of God (thesis 1) and the love of God (thesis 28). Theses 19-24 are the most commented on of all the theses [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 65-67 Thesis 18. It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ. When, as theologians of glory, we think our own works are the only way out, we get tapped [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 63-64 Thesis 17. Nor does speaking in this manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ. The natural protest of the theologian of glory against what has been said so far is [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 59-61 Thesis 16. The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty. But all of this is no doubt devastating to the theologian of glory. If we [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 56-58 Thesis 15. Nor could free will remain in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in its passive capacity. Although it may appear to be an obscure point, thesis 15 indicates clearly the kind of [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross pp. 54-56 Thesis 14. Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can always do evil in an active capacity. What does this mean? In its passive capacity the will can do good when it [...]
Tuesdays with Forde This is an essay about the function of law as it confronts sexual behavior. Therefore the first thing that needs saying is that it cannot be a paper about compassion. To be sure, Christians, not to say human beings in general, are called upon to act with compassion and care toward all, [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Thesis 13. Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do it commits a mortal sin. After the fall, free will exists in name only and not in reality. How is this audacious claim to be understood? It is, of [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross pp. 50-51 …we always come back to the question of the “little bit,” one of the telltale signs of the theology of glory. This is the issue in theses 13-18. Can we or will we by our own natural powers, doing our best, prepare [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross pp. 46-48 Thesis 11. Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work. Thesis 12. In the sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal. [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross, pp. 43-45 Thesis 8. By so much more are the orks of man mortal sins when they are done without fear and in unadulterated, evil self-security. If the works even of the righteous are not just venial but deadly sins when done without fear [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross p. 42 Thesis 7. The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God. The point here is that when we have no fear of the [...]
Tuesdays with Forde Via On Being a Theologian of the Cross pp. 36-38 Thesis 5. The works of men are thus not mortal sins (we speak of works that are apparently good), as though they were crimes. Thesis 6. The works of God (we speak of those that he does through man) are thus not [...]
Tuesdays with Forde An essay on “The Viability of Luther Today” Via Word & World 7/1 (1987) 22-31. Forde Viability of Luther
