I certainly believe that I owe it as a matter of obedience to the Lord to bark against philosophy and speak words of encouragement to the holy scripture. For if perhaps another were to do this, who was not acquainted with philosophy from his own observation, he would not have the courage to do so, or would not have commanded belief. But I have worn myself out for years at this, and can see quite clearly from my experience and from conversations with others that it is a vain and ruinous study. Therefore I admonish you all, so far as I am able, to be done with this form of study quickly, and to make it your sole business not to allow these matters to carry any weight nor defend them, but rather to do as we do when we learn evil skills in order to render them harmless, and obtain knowledge of errors in order to overcome them. Let us do the same with philosophy, in order to reject it, or at least to make ourselves familiar with the mode of speech of those with whom we have to deal. For it is time for us to devote ourselves to other studies, and to learn Jesus Christ, and him crucified.Ebeling, Luther 78
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Luther on bad and good theology
It's interesting to know which Luther sees as which. I've been reading a book by Gerhard Ebeling, a pretty significant theologian from a past generation, on Luther. Ebeling says that what Luther often condemned when he said negative things about "philosophy" wasn't reason or philosophy itself, but theology that became so academic as to become inaccessible. This relates to my previous post on writing and theology a bit. I thought it would be helpful to offer this quote from one of Luther's lectures that Ebeling cites at length:
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This isn't exactly the point I think you're making, but I also feel similarly about biblical studies--that for all the advancements we have made, very little of it has passed on to the general public in a positive way. I attended a good session at the Society of Biblical Literature a few years ago, where a scholar called for her colleagues to become "public intellectuals" and start making the advancements of biblical studies accessible to a broader audience. People pretty much ignored her in that session, which was lame, but I have never forgotten what she said. Think about it-how much of a better job the sciences have done at spreading advancements in science to the general public. Meanwhile, work on the Bible and theology, especially what I consider the "serious" work done by mainline scholars, it only gets to a fraction of the Christian pastors in the world, much less to laypeople or to the general public.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the SBL is getting a little better about this. They are currently working on a Bible website with the sole purpose of educating the general public. It's supposed to be called "Bible Odyssey."