Cross in Tensions. Philip Ruge-Jones. Читать онлайн. Newlib. NEWLIB.NET

Автор: Philip Ruge-Jones
Издательство: Ingram
Серия: Princeton Theological Monograph Series
Жанр произведения: Религия: прочее
Год издания: 0
isbn: 9781630878108
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the hidden God. Consequently the revealed God would be none other than the hidden God.”32 A shift has taken place in the meaning of the hidden God. “In the former the idea of the hidden God means that revelation in principle is possible only in concealment; in the latter it means that also in the revealed God secrets remain. Both lines intersect in the concept of faith.”33

      Thus we come to Loewenich’s final point. Knowledge of God hidden in suffering corresponds to the new life that is given for the faithful to live. The epistemology is to be embodied in “practical suffering.” This suffering is summarized in four points:

      1. Our life will be one of lowliness and disgrace.

      2. Christ calls the Christian to a discipleship of suffering, trusting that it is in suffering that God meets us.

      3. The “true meaning of Christ’s suffering can be discovered only in the act of experiencing, acting, and suffering.”

      Loewenich has understood the theology of the cross in terms of its relationship to the conflict Luther had with the institutional church. Though Loewenich is helpful in this sense, does he goes far enough in mapping out the total conflictive context in which this thought takes place? Furthermore, is Loewenich right in his claim that Luther continues throughout his career to ask the same question in relation to the hidden God? Do not his shifts in the concept of the hidden God indicate shifts in broader commitments within Luther and his movement? Is it not the case that similar concepts came to function in very different ways as both the context and Luther’s own commitments within it underwent a change?

      Althaus

      Resonating with Loewenich’s epistemological concern, Althaus locates the theology of the cross under the rubric of “The Knowledge of God: the Word of God and Faith.” Althaus begins the section with a footnote marking his conversation with Loewenich for his particular understanding of the Luther’s theology of the cross; this is rare in a book whose footnotes almost exclusively reference the reformer’s own writing. Althaus also follows Loewenich in holding up theses 19 and 20 as the heart of the Heidelberg Disputation. These, again, define the theologian of the cross and the theologian of glory in contradistinction. The two kinds of theologians are marked by different epistemological priorities. The first is attentive to God’s always paradoxical revelation in sufferings; the second is fixed on the “invisible things of God” or on “works”. Althaus echoes what Loewenich made clear in his third aspect of the theology of the cross when he asserts: