[1] Followers of Luther began debating relationships between faith, ethics, and justification during Luther\u2019s lifetime.\u00a0 Heirs of Luther\u2019s theological vision have never ceased to debate them.\u00a0 Some Lutherans believe that ethical prescriptions beyond freely \u201cserving one\u2019s neighbor\u201d out of a response to the Gospel, constitute works righteousness, leaving believers anxiously wondering if they have done enough to be \u201cChristian.\u201d\u00a0 Others believe that teaching \u201cjustification by faith alone\u201d leads to antinomianism, and an inability to articulate why and how Christian practices form believers for Christian life.<\/p>\n
[2] The account of Luther\u2019s theology given by Gerhard Forde starkly separated Law and Gospel focusing on God\u2019s creation of faith through the believer\u2019s encounter with the preached word.\u00a0\u00a0 Steven Paulson, Forde\u2019s student, expanded that vision in a series of works on Luther\u2019s notion of God.\u00a0\u00a0 Other schools of Luther interpretation have given other accounts of the Christian life.\u00a0 For example, the \u201cFinnish School\u201d rooted an agent\u2019s ethical disposition in faith\u2019s ability to make the presence of Christ dwell ontologically in the believer, but this left unclear what agency was the believer\u2019s and what agency was Christ\u2019s, a problem that Nickel\u2019s account avoids. Another strand of Lutheran ethical thinking has gained prominence among thinkers such as Erik Hermann and Gifford Grobien who sought to build bridges between Luther and virtue ethics, often drawing on the work of Stanley Hauerwas.<\/p>\n
[3] Justin Nickel, Baxter and Frances Weant Professor of Lutheran Studies at Lutheran Southern Seminary, develops a nuanced portrait of Luther\u2019s account of human agency in response to \u201cradical Lutheranism\u201d of Forde and Paulson.\u00a0 He does a good job outlining their position in his opening chapter. Nickel wisely adds an exploration of the work of Yale ethicist Jennifer Herdt who doubts that Luther\u2019s account of the ethical life leaves believers with actual ethical agency, though for different reasons than those offered by \u201cradical Lutherans\u201d. Nickel sets his project in opposition to some of the claims made by \u201cradical Lutherans\u201d but is silent on how his case relates to other recent treatments of ethical agency in Luther offered by Mary Gaebler and Sun-Young Kim among others.<\/p>\n
[4] A limited number of treatises are typically used by those formulating Luther\u2019s account of ethics, namely The Freedom of the Christian, The Bondage of the Will<\/em>, and the 1535 Commentary on Galatians<\/em>. Nickel does not revisit these texts but turns instead to Luther\u2019s sermons, mining Luther\u2019s instruction to his Wittenberg congregants for insights into Luther\u2019s beliefs about human agency in relation to faith, ethics, and preaching.\u00a0 Nickel argues that Luther\u2019s use of classical rhetorical tropes while preaching show that his preaching was deliberate and plotted, he did not simply trust that the Holy Spirit would spontaneously give him words without his own preparation.\u00a0 Luther\u2019s practices show that he believed a well-crafted sermon could assist believers in hearing and grasping the Gospel by which the Holy Spirit would lead an individual to faith.<\/p>\n [5] Nickel carefully and methodically attends to the content and form of Luther\u2019s sermons. He shows that Luther believed that individuals had greater agency in their ethical life than \u201cradical Lutherans\u201d claim. Nickel does not deny that justification by faith is important but resists the common corollary that nothing more can be said about agency in Luther\u2019s corpus or that justification by faith means that only the Holy Spirit is acting through an individual without any action on their part.\u00a0 Acknowledging the inconsistencies and contradictions in Luther\u2019s corpus, Nickle notes that themes about the agency of the preacher and in the Christian life appear repeatedly in Luther\u2019s sermons.\u00a0 Our Christian freedom in response to God\u2019s gift of justification may allow us a spirit to freely serve the neighbor, however as, this freedom does not tell us how to act on that love toward the neighbor. Nickel argues that part of what we are given by the grace of justification is a renewed relationship to the Law, allowing the Law to serve as a guide for conduct in a way that aids individuals and communities rather than driving them to despair.\u00a0 Love made possible by our response to justification allows us to act, but human agency, reason, and prudence tell us how to act in love. The ethical contents of our actions in any specific situation are not given to us by the Holy Spirit alone.<\/p>\n [6] This means believers have real agency in their ethical lives and must be formed to understand how to best serve the neighbor in love.\u00a0 Which is to say, their motivations may be formed by the Holy Spirit, but their actions must also be guided by reason. Perhaps this is why we need a Lutheran theory of action in the same way that actions are given complex descriptors in thinkers such as Aquinas.<\/p>\n [7] This review does not do justice to Nickel\u2019s careful, complex, and interlocking argument.\u00a0 However, he convincingly shows that Luther\u2019s sermons clearly suggest that believers have moral agency, as do preachers when they spend time crafting sermons. While we trust the promise of the Gospel, the Holy Spirit transforms our desires, allowing us to have a renewed relationship to the Law that informs our service to the neighbor.\u00a0 While grace can create faith, a winsome sermon can help us find the journey of faith a compelling one.\u00a0 Nickel recognizes that Luther\u2019s depiction of human agency and Christian formation cannot be easily translated into an existing thought stream. He has made an important and innovative contribution to understanding the full nature of Luther\u2019s thinking about agency and ethics, adding an important confessional voice to one of the most debated topics in Christian ethics today.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [1] Followers of Luther began debating relationships between faith, ethics, and justification during Luther\u2019s lifetime.\u00a0 Heirs of Luther\u2019s theological vision have never ceased to debate them.\u00a0 Some Lutherans believe that ethical prescriptions beyond freely \u201cserving one\u2019s neighbor\u201d out of a response to the Gospel, constitute works righteousness, leaving believers anxiously wondering if they have done […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n