27 April 2008
Very Much Enjoying
Oswald Bayer's *Theology The Lutheran Way* - I am supposed to be writing a review of it for CPR, but at the moment I am finding myself simply and utterly intrigued by his description of Luther's approach to theology and thus far, I haven't found a single thing to disagree with. Dr. Nagel told me to keep my eyes open and I might, but so far it's been absolutely beautiful and refreshing. Dr. Bayer is someone who approaches Luther's work, holding together in absolute unity his dependence on prayer and on meditating on the word (which for him meant speaking it out loud!) and on spiritual attack (the triad: oratio, meditatio, tentatio) to arrive at a life of receptivity, where God is the great giver and worker of all. Anyway, I'm only 60 pages or so into it, but I would highly recommend the work.
I like Bayer. You might find his book Living by Faith: Justification and Sanctification worthwhile as well. It's part of the same Lutheran Quarterly series.
ReplyDeleteWe read "Theology the Lutheran Way" in Dr. Masaki's Dogmatics I class, and Prof. Pless highly recommends it, as well as anything else by Bayer, and Forde.
ReplyDeletePr Weedon,
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your review of Oswald Bayer's book. I was introduced to his writings by my friend Dr Oliver Olson, and had the opportunity to speak with Dr Bayer in person when he visited Ft Wayne several years ago (perhaps 10 yrs ago now). Our conversations focused primarily on my questions concerning his articles in Lutheran Quarterly, which were excerpts on what became his dogmatic theology series.
I found, then, that he has a very forensic view of justification, and he was quite adamantly opposed to the Luther scholarship in Finland.
I would suggest that Dr Bayer's writings should be read in conjunction with the writings of Dr Ulrich Asendorf. Both in class and in private discussions, Dr Asendorf was kindly but pointedly critical of Bayer's read of Luther.
fwiw