Martin Luther’s Table Talk

Abridged from Luther's Works

Henry F. French

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781506434315
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506440255
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

Introduce your child to the practice of ending the day with a prayer with this calming bedtime book. Children give thanks for family, friends, and nature before saying good night. A parent page in the back helps moms and dads use this book to cultivate a prayer practice that lasts a lifetime.

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Table Talks on Theology and Theologians

Value of Knowledge Gained by Experience

Summer or Fall, 1531

“A doctor of the Scriptures ought to have a good knowledge of the Scriptures and ought to have grasped how the prophets run into one another. It isn’t enough to know only one part—as one might know Isaiah, for example—or to know only one topic of the law or of the gospel. Now, however, doctors are springing up who scarcely have a right comprehension of one topic.

“Teachers of law can humble their students when the students try to put on airs about their learning, because they have a court and get practical experience. On the other hand, we can’t humble our students because we have no practical exercises. Yet experience alone makes the theologian.”

About Augustine and Justification

Early November, 1531

“It was Augustine’s^[1] view that the law, fulfilled by the powers of reason, does not justify, even as works of the moral law do not justify the heathen, but that if the Holy Spirit assists, the works of the law do justify. The question is not whether the law or the works of reason justify, but whether the law, kept with the Spirit’s help, justifies.

“I reply by saying No. Even if, in the power of the Holy Spirit, a man were to keep the law completely, he ought nevertheless to pray for divine mercy, for God has ordained that man should be saved not by the law but by Christ. Works never give us a peaceful heart. Christ would never have been sad in spirit unless he had been pressed hard by the law, to which he subjected himself for our sake.”

Practical Versus Speculative Theology

Between December 14, 1531, and January 22, 1532

“True theology is practical, and its foundation is Christ, whose death is appropriated to us through faith. However today all those who do not agree with us and do not share our teaching make theology speculative because they cannot free themselves from the notion that those who do good [will be rewarded]. This is not what is written, but rather, ‘Those who fear the Lord will have a happy end’ [Ecclus 1:13]. Accordingly, speculative theology belongs to the devil in hell. So, Zwingli speculated, ‘The body of Christ is in the bread, but only spiritually because I think it is in the bread.’ Such is the theology of Origen also. David did not do it thus but acknowledged his sin and said, ‘Have mercy on me, O God’ [Ps 51:1].”

Nature Is Not Abolished by Grace

Between January and March, 1532

“Grace does not entirely change nature but uses nature as it finds it. So, if somebody is kind when converted through faith, he becomes a gentle preacher like Master Hausmann. If he is by nature irascible and severe, like Cordatus, he preaches after this fashion. On the other hand, if he is fitted by nature with some slyness, intelligence, and power of reason, like Philip, he uses these qualities for the benefit of mankind.”

The Omnipresence of God

Between April 7 and 15, 1532

When we were debating whether God truly is in each and every minute creature, in the grass, in a tree, etc., he [Martin Luther] responded, “It is so, for God is excluded from no place and is confined to none. He is everywhere and he is nowhere.”

The question was asked whether God is only potentially everywhere or is actually everywhere. He replied, “God is in every creature in both ways because although a creature acts through its properties, God acts not through his properties but through his being.”

Thereupon somebody said, “I do not understand that.”

He [Luther] countered, “Do you believe that Christ on the cross was God?”

“Yes.”

“Do you believe that God was in the womb of the Virgin?”

“Yes.”

“The principle here is the same, for it is equally impossible to man’s reason in both cases, as impossible that God can be enclosed in the womb of the Virgin as it is that he can be enclosed in every creature.”

Thereupon the other person said, “Then he is in the devil too!”

“Yes, and essentially! He’s in hell too, as it is written in 2 Thessalonians 1 [:9], ‘These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord.’”

God Is Unknowable and Yet Known

Between April 20 and May 16, 1532

“In his dialogue concerning being, Plato^[2] disputes about God and declares that God is nothing and yet is everything. Eck followed Plato, and other theologians also said that the affirmative definition is uncertain but the negative definition is absolute. Nobody has understood this. It ought to be put and can be understood thus: ‘God is incomprehensible and invisible, and hence whatever is comprehended and seen is not God.’ It can also be expressed in another way: ‘God is both visible and invisible. He is visible through his Word and work. Apart from his Word and work one should not look for him.’ These theologians have wished to apprehend God through speculations and have paid no attention to the Word. I recommend that speculation be laid aside, and I should like to have this rule adhered to after my death.”

Theology Is Not Quickly Learned

Fall, 1532

“Clever men see that the church is despised and that others are exalted. They judge according to reason, without the Word of God, and thus reach this conclusion. Hence it comes to pass that they despise all religion and say that the article concerning the resurrection was only invented to terrify the common people. Peasants, however, seldom go so far as to despise God and religion, for they hardly think about such things. But clever people are interested in them, reflect upon them, and weigh them according to reason. . . . But we know that the Holy Scriptures are confirmed, as no other teaching can be, by such miracles as the raising of the dead, the expulsion of demons, etc. It is for this reason that our Lord God warns us so often to abide by the Holy Scriptures.

“I didn’t learn my theology all at once. I had to ponder over it ever more deeply, and my spiritual trials were of help to me in this, for one does not learn anything without practice. This is what the spiritualists and sects lack. They don’t have the right adversary, the devil. He would teach them well. None of the arts can be learned without practice. What kind of physician would that be who stayed in school all the time? When he finally puts his medicine to use and deals more and more with nature, he will come to see that he hasn’t as yet mastered the art. Why shouldn’t this be so in the case of the Holy Scriptures, too, where God has provided a different adversary? It is therefore the greatest gift [of God] to have a text and to be able to say, ‘This is right. I know it.’ People think that they can know everything by simply listening to a sermon. Zwingli also made the mistake of thinking that he knew everything, that theology is an easy art. But I know that I have yet to comprehend the Lord’s Prayer. No one can be learned without practice. The peasant put it well: Armor is fine for a man who knows how to use it. To be sure, the Holy Scriptures are sufficient in themselves, but God grant that I find the right text. For when Satan disputes with me whether God is gracious to me, I dare not quote the passage, ‘He who loves God will inherit the kingdom of God,’^[3] because Satan will at once object, ‘But you have not loved God!’ Nor can I oppose this on the ground that I am a diligent reader [of the Scriptures] and a preacher. The shoe doesn’t fit.^[4] I should say, rather, that Jesus Christ died for me and should cite the article [of the Creed] concerning forgiveness of sin. That will do it!”

Difference Between a Lawyer and a Theologian

December, 1532

“The lawyer says: Let justice be done and the world be damned.^[5] The theologian says: Let sin be forgiven and the world will be saved, for justice is not done but sin is always committed.”

The Kind of God Men Think They Have

December, 1532

“When an epicurean thinks about God and observes how things happen in the world, he can’t do otherwise than conclude: Either God can’t stop these things, and then he must be very weak; he must not be omnipotent. Or else he doesn’t want to stop them, and then he must be very wicked, for he ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Introduction to the Abridged Edition
• Table Talks on the Life of Faith
• Table Talks on the Ministry
• Table Talks on the Word of God
• Table Talks on the Sacraments
• Table Talks on Theology and Theologians
• Table Talks About Martin Luther
• Miscellaneous Table Talks
• Index