Sunday, March 28, 2004

A More Radical Gospel: Essays on Eschatology, Authority, Atonement, and Ecumenism

This book collects some of Gerhard Forde's essays. It is also the third book in the Lutheran Quarterly series. If you don't know Forde, his teaching and writing on law and gospel are just some of the treasures I and others owe to him. In Carl Braaten's book on justification he claims it was Forde, Robert Bertram, and Robert Jenson who did the most to preserve justification and the "one true treasure of the church."

An example:

Forde loves to quote one of Luther's table talks when people talk about sin, human freedom, the fall, and other things. Someone asks Luther: Why did God create if God saw sin was to come into the world and bring creation into bondage? Luther (or Forde) answers: well, suppose you were to approach the divine throne and ask God that. He would answer: so that you would know my Son and how much I glory in him.

Forde answers: if you caught a little bit of that Son or his cross, you would say to the Father:

Do it again.

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