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Friday, April 01, 2016

Why I've abandoned law/gospel preaching

Recently I was in an interview with a Lutheran radio host. He brought up law/gospel in relation to liberal theology. I thought and still think that all those terms are tired.

For one, a lot of liberation theology gets lumped in with liberal theology, and unfairly. Where liberal theology elevates experience (along the lines of the epigones of Schleiermacher), and rightly puts experience higher in the pantheon of resources for theological reflection (although with the needed corrective of Barth and others who warn of the dangers of elevating experience above Scripture and tradition), liberation theology only elevates experience for one thing in particular: an emphasis on God's preferential option for the poor. God is on the side of the oppressed.

Furthermore, liberation theology formulates this theology not out of experience per se, but in continuity with the Biblical tradition itself, and then in conversation with the experience of those seeking liberation in solidarity both with Scripture, God, and the poor.
So, going back to law/gospel preaching, I guess I just find it tired and tiresome. It's too "white." It assumes pristine conditions. Similarly, I find the Lutheran doctrine around orders of creation equally tiresome. In fact that one I find creepily false and philosophically bankrupt.

So then, what do I have against law/gospel preaching.

My first thought was this: law/gospel is such a narrow, idiosyncratic concept that 99% of Christians think never at all about it, and it isn't a very useful concept on that level. In addition, I think it is tiresome. Basically, you're supposed to identify the law (that which orders society, first use, or that which convicts of sin, second use, perhaps with a third Christian use thrown in), and then you're supposed to save yourself from the trouble you've gotten yourself in preaching the law by then preaching the gospel. 

Somewhere in there you're supposed to disambiguate doing the right thing by following the law from the idea that one can be saved though adherence to the law. All in twelve minutes. As if most of life or any of Scripture can be split so cleanly.

That formula is tired, problematic, and more.

Finally, I just don't think about the law in those terms anymore. I think of it in a much more organic, covenantal, and robust way. Probably more along the lines of Luther's commentary in Genesis. In communitarian terms, I guess. Certainly not in the pristine fashion I was presented it in seminary education.

Somehow law/gospel stuff in Lutheran tradition has separated itself from the messiness of the cross. Perhaps it has stopped being a resource for analysis, and instead offers itself either as formula, or even dogma. I don't find this helpful in the slightest.

How about you?

11 comments:

  1. Is this Blog an April Fools joke? If Law/Gospel preaching is old and too white - why not let go of "Lutheran" all together?

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  2. Assuming for a moment that this is NOT an April Fool joke, the final conclusion to Clint's blog would lead us to believe that people are saved by works or deeds. Salvation by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9) demands a clear presentation of law and gospel, and Scripture reiterates this over and over (cf. Isaiah 1:18, which was the text of my law and gospel Easter sermon). If the preaching of law and gospel is "tired," I assert that this is the problem of the preacher, and not the timeless message of God's Word. Here is the link to my Easter sermon, just in case anybody is interested: http://www.mightyfortress.us/index.php?p=1_730_27-March-2016-BR-Easter

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  3. Law and Gospel are two fundamental words of God, and it is this word of God which we are called to proclaim. Maybe what is tiresome is a narrow, undynamic, overly scripted use of Law and Gospel in homiletical practice. Don't confuse the substance with the style.

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  4. So far the comments here, though not surprising given that I wrote the blog post in a rhetorically strong fashion, illustrate the extent to which people tend to confuse the thing itself under question and the formula by which it is communicated. I certainly don't believe that people are saved by works or deeds, and didn't say that. Nor do I think that Lutheran theology requires formulaic law/gospel preaching in order to be Lutheran.

    Lutherans are to much into the freedom of the gospel to be tied so much to formulae.

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  5. Yeah, we don't need no Romans anymore. We got a modern gospel, a gospel that can understand human nature without that ancient need for righteousness. Modern people don't need no righteousness anymore.

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    Replies
    1. It's really hard to have a conversation with people who make comments that imply you've said something you've never said. Give me the righteousness of God any day. Give up your vacuous asinine snark.

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    2. Ok. I give it up. Bless you.

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  6. One book that put everything in perspective for me is the "Hammer of God" by Bo Giertz (Augsburg-Fortress Publication). It was required reading for one of my seminary classes. This speaks directly to that which you have written. I can't recommend it highly enough. http://www.amazon.com/Hammer-God-Bo-Giertz/dp/080665130X

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    Replies
    1. I read that book twice in seminary, and probably another three times since then. It's wonderful.

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  7. Church is so boring.
    What about the whole question of "saved"? Who even cares about this pathetically obvious attempt at guilt inducement and manipulation?

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