The Mystical Luther
In Heiko Oberman’s excellent book, The Dawn of the Reformation, he has an interesting chapter on Luther called, “Simul Gemitus et Raptus: Luther and Mysticism.” Below are a few passages that caught my attention, and are worth sharing.
“In the particular case of Luther, I believe that a consensus can be reached among scholars in the field that it is highly precarious to separate the mystical tissue from the living organism of Luther’s spirituality. The tissue of mysticism cannot be treated as one aspect of Luther’s theology, such as his relation to certain historical events, men, or movements […] but it is part and parcel of his overall understanding of the Gospel itself and therefore pervades his understanding of faith, justification, hermeneutics, ecclesiology, and pneumatology” (p. 127).
“In the case of Pseudo-Dionysius we have the very positive statement by Luther in 1514 that the via negativa is the most perfect. ‘Hence, we find with Dionysius often the word “hyper”, because one should transcend all thought and enter darkness’ (Schol. To Ps. 64(65):2 [W A 3,372.13-27; early 1514]). Luther seizes here an aspect of the theology of Dionysius which in the Disputation Against Scholastic Theology in 1517 will be formulated as ‘the whole of Aristotle relates to theology as shadow to light’ (W A 1,226, 26; Cl. 5,9.29-31). […] It is the ‘hyper’ element which Luther approves and by no means the anagogical facere quod in se est of man which would bypass God’s revelation in Christ. In 1514 it is already clear that ‘darkness,’ – tenebrae, umbra, or caligoi –shares in the double meaning of abscondere and absconditus; not only apart from faith is God obscured in our speculations, but even in faith the faithful live ‘in umbraculo, in God’s protective custody, as friends of God on earth” (pp. 131-32).
5 Responses so far
11:21 am
Hi Cynthia,
Isn’t Oberman terrific! The Dawn of the Reformation is indeed a great work. I’m sure you are already familiar with these as well, but just in case: I highly recommend Oberman’s Forerunners of the Reformation and Luther: Man Between God and the Devil. Happy reading!
1:23 pm
Hi Keith,
Yes, Obernam is excellent. I look forward to reading many more of his books.
Cheers,
Cynthia
7:23 pm
As I recall, Luther was also responsible for the publication of the Theologia Germanica, which is a work of mystical theology in a somewhat neo-platonic, contemplative vein. What an interesting fellow Luther must have been. I wonder how this all fits with Luther’s theologia crucis emphasis?
7:35 pm
Hi Joel,
I’ll definitely have to check out the TG.
It is interesting how the mystical aspects of Luther are so often downplayed in Protestant circles. As Oberman notes, “Protestant theologians are not too helpful for our purposes because they have by and large chosen the via negativa in their evaluation of mysticism, inclined to regard the Christus pro nobis and extra nos as alternatives to the Christus in nobis” (p. 128).
Cheers,
Cynthia
7:55 pm
I should nuance my last comment and the post in general by saying that Luther’s relation to mystical theology is one of “sic et non”–Oberman brings this out in detail in his book. Also, Luther is clear from a very early date that his focus is on the incarnate and crucified Son, and his flavor of mysticism is “German Mysticism”.
Cheers,
Cynthia
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