Luther's Outlaw God

Hiddenness, Evil, and Predestination

Steven D. Paulson

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9781506432960
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506432977
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

In this first of three volumes addressing Luther's outlaw God, Steven D. Paulson considers the two "monsters" of theology, as Luther calls them: evil and predestination. He explores how these produce fear of God but can also become the great and only comforts of conscience when a preacher arrives.

Luther's new distinction between God as he is preached and God without any preacher absolutely frightened all of the schools of theology that preceded it, and for that matter all that followed Luther, as well. That fear coalesced in various opponents like Eck and Latomus, but in a special way in Desiderius Erasmus.

For Paulson, bad theology begins with bad preaching, and since the church is what preaching does, bad preaching hides the church under such a dark blanket that it can hardly be detected. He argues that the primary distinction of naked/clothed or unpreached/preached radiates out in all directions for Luther's theology, and shows what difference this makes for current preaching. Specifically, Paulson takes up the central question of all theology (and life): What is God's relation to the law, and the law's relation to God? Luther's answers are surprising and will change the way you preach.

2

Author and Subject Index

Aaron, 17

Abraham, Abram, x, xxxviii–xxx, xxxii, 1–2, 8–12, 15–18, 21, 36, 38, 47, 52, 99, 110–18, 122, 138, 200, 202, 222, 236–39, 248, 252

absolute, xxv, xxxiii; certainty, xx, 30, 33, 58n2, 61, 82, 97, 111, 251; dependence, xxviii, 14; God, xxvii, 4, 21–22, 43, 51, 81, 231, 238, 240–41, 248, 250; law, 60, 109, 111, 132–37, 150, 174–76, 185; mercy, xix; necessity, 65–73, 76–77, 144–45, 152–53, 160, 166–69; negative, xxiii–xxiv, 9, 218, 228, 239

absolution, ix, xvi, xx, xxii, xxv–xxx, xxxiii, 8, 24, 49, 53, 61, 81, 138, 156, 172–73, 176–79, 221, 225, 229, 235, 248, 248–52

abstraction, xvi, 46, 108, 118n14, 250

accident, 27, 82, 101n26, 107, 187

accusing: God, 209, 235–36; the gospel, 175; self, xxxiii, 226

Achilles, 228; arrow of, 112

act: Act of all Acts, 147; act of being, 146–48; act of preaching, xi, 118; actuosissimus, 125, 164; actus essendi, 146–48; actus purus, 130n37

actual, xxxiii, 45, 47, 50, 64, 94, 98–100, 107, 115, 117–19, 127–34, 138, 146–52, 154–55, 166, 168, 179–82, 211, 223, 232

Advent, 128

aesthetics, 32n10, 204

after-the-fact necessity, 134, 170, 216, 231, 234

agent: intellect, 147; moral, 27, 79, 81, 102, 126

Alfsvåg, Knut, 31n6

alienated, 101n26

alien work, 13, 50

allegory, 15

analogy, 4–8, 22, 84; analogical interval, 32–33, 76–77

Anfechtung, 19–20, 31, 33, 39–40, 203; attack, xiv, xxxi–xxxii, 4, 17–24, 37–41, 43, 46, 49–53, 64, 78–81, 83, 106, 116, 144, 159, 182, 185, 194, 197–98, 203, 206, 215, 225, 227, 231, 242, 248; trial, xx, xxviii, xxxii, 20, 33, 40–43, 45, 72, 91, 105–6, 125, 141, 186, 199, 208, 222, 246–48; tribulation, 35, 241

angels, 13, 62

Anselm, 62–64, 124, 143

apologetics, 204

apophatic, xx, xxiii, xxiv n15, 4, 15, 18, 31n6, 54, 179, 218, 240

Aquinas, Thomas, 4, 58, 62–73, 76–77, 84, 130, 138, 143–44, 162, 208, 233–34, 243

Areopagus, xxxii, 246

Aristotle, 13n3, 25n1, 31n6, 38, 62–63, 126, 129, 132, 146, 184, 210, 217

ascend, 35, 92, 180–81

Assertio, 75–80, 112, 115

assertion, xxvii, 76, 84, 88–92, 104–5, 108, 111, 116, 120, 122, 131, 146, 149, 206, 220, 251

assurance, xxiii, xxviii, xxix, 69, 75, 81, 89–92, 97, 100, 104, 108, 111, 115, 119, 138, 144, 159, 163–64, 181, 193, 211–12, 219–20, 234, 243, 251

atheism, 96

Atlas, 206

attack. SeeAnfechtung

attribute/s, xiv, xxix, 7, 21–22, 28, 29, 32, 43, 46, 59, 80, 90, 95–96, 100, 103, 108–9, 112, 119–20, 130, 145, 167, 178, 183–84, 192–96, 199–203, 213–14, 219, 251

Augsburg Confession, 57

Augustine, xii, xxviii, 3, 5, 7, 9, 27, 31, 62–63, 75–76, 86, 89, 93, 125, 143, 146, 161–64, 177–78, 189, 197, 207–12, 251

autonomous, xxi, 79, 126–29, 188, 215

Babylon, 37–50, 105

Babylonian Captivity, xxii

Bacon, Francis, 10, 12

Barth, Karl, xxii, 144

baptism, xvii, xxvi, xxxiv, 20n12, 81, 104, 106, 243,

Bayer, Oswald, 23n16, 109, 110n3, 192

beatific vision, 7

beauty, 10, 21, 28, 30, 32n10, 33, 37, 171, 180, 210, 231

being: bene esse, 64; beyond being, xxiii–xxiv, 13, 23, 33, 44, 48, 57–58, 171, 195; beyond law, 59–61, 67, 92, 119, 176, 211, 228; beyond names or words, 4, 6–8, 15–16; beyond reason or knowing, 22, 26–27, 31, 84–88, 110, 120–21, 142, 179, 213, 246

Berlin, Isaiah, 70n10

Biel, Gabriel, ix, 143, 167–72, 189, 208

Blake, William, 25

blessing: of law, xxv, 66, 69, 146, 160–63, 180; of promise, 6, 8, 143

body, 29, 87, 90, 97, 100, 171, 219, 241

Boehme, Jacob, 18, 19n10

Bonaventure, 31n7

Bondage of the Will, 81, 83–84, 89, 99, 107, 116, 127, 143, 245–46, 248

Cajetan, Thomas, xx

Calvin, John, xvi, 10, 19–20

Capreolus, xxvii

cataphatic, xxiii, 15

Catholic, Roman, 58, 80, 143–46, 151–53, 247

causality, 216–18; divine, 62; secondary, 113–14, 120, 233

cause and effect, 199, 212–18, 225, 232

cave of Corycos, 85, 88, 92–93, 110

certain, certainty, xx–xxi, xxvi, xxviii, 30, 35, 45, 51, 60–61, 69, 72–73, 81–82, 88, 89–100, 105–6, 111, 116, 120–21, 131, 138, 142, 148–49, 157, 159, 161–63, 175, 178–79, 212, 221, 234–42, 251

chance, 21, 107–8, 126n30, 129–30, 136, 139, 142, 160, 206, 208, 212, 219, 235–36, 238, 252; second chance, 157, 217, 239

chaos, xiv, 12, 39, 47–50, 61, 76, 86, 185, 194, 219, 236

choice. See will

Christ, Jesus, xxviii; alone, 65; betraying and killing, 135, 139, 151–52, 154–58; commands of, 71, 82, 196; cross of, xxxi–xxxii, xxxiv, 8, 24, 29–30, 41, 46, 182, 226, 234, 246–47, 252; God opposes, xxix, 246; gospel of, xx, xxii, xxx, 39, 48, 52–53, 61, 76, 115, 134, 172–74, 181, 189, 202, 213, 226, 240, 251; hatred for, 53, 182, 188, 216; law until, xxxiii–xxiv, 18, 27; presence in faith, 25n1, 60, 73, 91, 229, 238, 247; and scripture, 98; speaks, xxi; suffering, xxii, 101n26, 226, 241–43; two natures of, 79, 102; without, 79, 81, 83, 113–14, 119–20, 124, 127, 163, 168, 183, 197

Christian, xiv–xvi, xxvi, xxvii, 19; Erasmus’s, 79–80, 86–87, 114, 120, 127–28, 163, 172–73, 204, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Introduction
• The Battle of Words
• Moses, the Bloody Husband
• Isaiah’s Amen Gloss
• Hiddenness and the Law, Thomas and Luther
• Saving Erasmus: From Cave to Fountain
• No More Sleeping God
• Judas and Necessity: Erasmus’s Dilemma
• The Painful Awareness
• How Evil?
• God, Evil, and Suffering
• A Look Ahead: Future Volumes of Luther’s Outlaw God
• Author and Subject Index
• Scripture Index