Martin Luther once said: “The world is like a drunken peasant. If you lift him into the saddle on one side, he will fall off on the other side.” These are the chronicles, thoughts, and questions of a Lutheran pastor just struggling to stay on his theological horse, and not fall off one side or the other.
"Koch pointed out that it wasn't until later in his life that Luther began to call into question the role and structure of the church. Because of this, he said, it isn't fair to see the posting of Luther's theses as the moment the church split into Lutheranism and Catholicism."
It seems the Romanists think we should call off the quincentennial celebration in October. Fat chance!
Even though there weren't any ILC Lutheran's presenting, there were nevertheless some good scholars. Some of the panels were, as one of my professors put it, dreadful. But others were quite good. It definitely would have been helped by some good ILC Lutheran scholars.
As for Cardinal Koch . . . I have heard two cardinals speak now, and neither has impressed me. His view of Luther is characteristic of one school of Catholic research on Luther, which sees him favorably up to about 1520, and then he went off the rails. This was at least an improvement from the earlier school which completely and utterly vilified everything about him.
The purpose of the whole thing was to examine how Luther effected the Catholic Church. So the panels were to present (1.) the situation in the medieval church before Luther; (2.) Luther's theology on a particular subject (justification, Eucharist, ecclesiology); and then (3.) what was the effect on the Catholic Church after Luther. Point #2 was definitely the weak spot throughout. One panel I did appreciate was on Eastern Christianity and that interacted with Luther and Rome.
So all in all there was good and bad. The papers are to be published (though these things seem to take a while). Some I would definitely want to read; others will be good for composting. :-)
3 comments:
At this Romanist Conference, are any of the speakers Lutheran?!?
And here "Lutheran" means that the church body of a speaker is a member of the International Lutheran Council.
The June 1, 2017, International Roman Catholic News Weekly article, "Medieval Catholic Church to Blame for Lutheran Split, Cardinal Koch Tells Ecumenical Leaders," puts the Romanist spin on the Lutheran Reformation:
"Koch pointed out that it wasn't until later in his life that Luther began to call into question the role and structure of the church. Because of this, he said, it isn't fair to see the posting of Luther's theses as the moment the church split into Lutheranism and Catholicism."
It seems the Romanists think we should call off the quincentennial celebration in October. Fat chance!
Carl,
Even though there weren't any ILC Lutheran's presenting, there were nevertheless some good scholars. Some of the panels were, as one of my professors put it, dreadful. But others were quite good. It definitely would have been helped by some good ILC Lutheran scholars.
As for Cardinal Koch . . . I have heard two cardinals speak now, and neither has impressed me. His view of Luther is characteristic of one school of Catholic research on Luther, which sees him favorably up to about 1520, and then he went off the rails. This was at least an improvement from the earlier school which completely and utterly vilified everything about him.
The purpose of the whole thing was to examine how Luther effected the Catholic Church. So the panels were to present (1.) the situation in the medieval church before Luther; (2.) Luther's theology on a particular subject (justification, Eucharist, ecclesiology); and then (3.) what was the effect on the Catholic Church after Luther. Point #2 was definitely the weak spot throughout. One panel I did appreciate was on Eastern Christianity and that interacted with Luther and Rome.
So all in all there was good and bad. The papers are to be published (though these things seem to take a while). Some I would definitely want to read; others will be good for composting. :-)
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