The Rev. Matthew Lynn Riegel, Obl.OSB(CSC)
October 1998

Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Grace and Peace! It is an honor to share in this multilateral conversation with you. The West Virginia Council of Churches is to be praised for engaging in such a work which is so appropriate to the spirit of Faith and Order.

Asked to present to you "Lutheran Spirituality," I can think of no more appropriate action than to follow the venerable tradition of providing a set of theses. It is to be hoped that this format will be user friendly.

There is no way that this paper can provide an exhaustive analysis of Lutheran Spirituality. Not even our scholars are in agreement on the subject at this time. I am aware of a publication in the works by one of our seminary instructors in Philadelphia. I am also aware of efforts to develop a spiritual direction program at ourGettysburg Seminary. Consequently, I find myself in the position of one navigating uncharted waters, unfamiliar not only to self but to the whole tradition.

I am grateful for the assistance provided by the Rev. Dr. Scott Hendrix of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg. I also wish to thank my bishop, the Most Rev. Ralph Dunkin, for inviting me into this work. Lastly, I must thank the Council for providing this occasion to explore something in my own tradition which has been so sadly neglected. I commend these theses to your consideration, recognizing their provisional nature and hoping that our discussion will lead to their refinement and our mutual edification.

The Rev. Matthew Lynn Riegel, Obl.OSB(CSC)
December 1997

the formal and creative element of the core of the Christian existence.... It was only in the 17th century that the French spiritualite' was established in its technical sense to indicate the personal relation of man [sic] to God.⁽¹⁾

One might ask whether spirituality is used in this technical sense today. Luther provided a definition for the term "spiritual," writing,

Surely "spiritual" must mean what the Spirit does and what comes from the Spirit, just as "fleshly" is what the flesh does and what comes from the flesh, as Paul says in Romans 8.... Here, indeed, you find that even the fruit and works of the Spirit are called "spiritual" because they come from the Spirit, as he also says in Galatians 5 "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, patience, etc." In short, he calls the entire life of the Christian spiritual, and he calls them altogether spiritual in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2.⁽²⁾

Speaking of the Homo spiritualis (the spiritual person), Luther writes,

The sensual person is the one who relies upon the senses; the rational person is the one who relies upon reason; the spiritual person is the one who relies upon faith. The Apostle appears to call the first one carnal and only worldly persons reach this level; philosophers and heretics reach the second level as well, but only true Christians qualify as spiritual persons.⁽³⁾

"Piety" was the term used among Lutherans which probably comes the closest to what is intended in the modern age by "spirituality."

4. Spiritualite', in its technical sense, has cross referents within Lutheranism to theological anthropology, theological epistemology, sacramentology, pneumatology, and sanctification.

A discussion of "the personal relation of man to God" necessarily involves a discussion of the faculties of the human creature. It also forces us to ask how it is that the human creature comes to know God or more precisely have faith in God. Since Lutheranism understands "spiritual" to entail the agency and effect of the Holy Spirit, pneumatology cannot be ignored. The mediation of the Holy Spirit requires consideration of sacramentology. The effect of the Holy Spirit's agency leads us into sanctification.

5. Lutheran theological anthropology rejects any claim that the human creature can, within the limits of his/her natural faculties, initiate or prepare for a relationship with God.

6. The human creature is entirely dependent upon God for the initiation of the divine-human relationship.

7. Faith is the esse of the relationship of the human creature toward God.

8. The human creature receives faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

9. The Holy Spirit is given to the human creature by God through the external Word.

10. The Sacraments are the visible Word.

11. Any spirituality which claims that the human can receive the Holy Spirit without benefit of the external Word is rejected.

Lutheran theological anthropology holds that the current condition of the human creature is thoroughly affected by the Fall. The pre-Fall human possessed faculties in complete freedom. This human could freely choose to embrace or reject the divine. The exercise of this freedom in the form of the Fall, however, has subjected the human creature to brokenness. Not only is the human creature after the Fall subjected to disease, frailty, and even death, the human creature's faculties have been corrupted. The human will is now bound. The human heart is cor incurvatus ad se (a heart curved in upon itself). This depravity is much more than simple privation of original righteousness as was generally believed in the pre-Lutheran schema. It is original sin as a very real stain upon the human creature. What is more, it is damnation for the human creature.⁽⁴⁾ Lutherans confess that we are born damned.

The effect upon the possibility of salvation is extreme. As stated in the Small Catechism, "I believe that by my own reason or strength I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him."⁽⁵⁾ Spiritualities, therefore, which suggest that human reason or effort can bring the human into right relationship with God simply fail to consider the gravity of original sin. With the heart incurvatus ad se, every thought and every work is intended for the self (even if unconsciously).

Luther's debates with Erasmus on the freedom of the will provide the best in sights into the way Luther understood the issue and the way at least one opponent understood it. In De servo arbitrio (On the Bondage of theWill), Luther argues that the human creature's contingent necessity is to sin. The consequent necessity (the sins committed/omitted) was merely supporting evidence. As a side note, Luther considered the De servo as one of his three best works, ranking it alongside his two catechisms.

With such a gloomy perspective on the human faculties, Lutheran theology has to look outside the human creature for any hope of salvation. Thus, it is said that God's work of salvation is extra nos (from outside ourselves). After making the cited statement about the inadequacy of human reason and effort, the Catechism continues,

But the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and preserves it in union with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.⁽⁶⁾

Here we find that "faith" is itself a gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not understood among Lutherans to be an intellectual process nor an act of will. Faith is "love, fear, and trust in God above all things."⁽⁷⁾

The preceding should provide a clearer picture of the article on justification: "Our churches also teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works but are freely justified for Christ's sake through faith...."⁽⁸⁾

Faith is the medium (per fide) of reception for the justifying grace of God. It is faith which apprehends God's grace. Thus, that which is not a natural possession of the human creature is the very thing which takes hold of Christ. Divine monergism is preserved all around. The human has contributed nothing to his/her salvation because both grace and faith are from God.

How do I get this faith? The Augustana responds,

In order that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted. For through the Word and the Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy Spirit is given, and the Holy Spirit produces faith, where and when it pleases God, in those who hear the Gospel.⁽⁹⁾

The external Word is the medium through which the Holy Spirit enters our lives. It is the Holy Spirit which then creates faith in us. This working of the Spirit is not under human control because it is ultimately God who will decide whether the Spirit works faith. The role of the Sacraments is identical to that of the Word. They are in fact the "visible Word" in that the Word has been connected with the physical element so that the Sacraments are media for the medium.

So insistent were the Lutheran Reformers on the mediation of the Holy Spirit through the extra nos Word that the following anathema was attached to this article: "Our churches condemn the Anabaptists and others who think that the Holy Spirit comes to men without the external Word, through their own preparations and works."⁽¹⁰⁾

12. When God justifies the human creature, he sanctifies the human creature.

13. Sanctification is both immediate and a process.

There is increasing discussion of sanctification among Lutherans. It is admittedly an underdeveloped locus in modern Lutheranism. The emphasis upon justification unmerited by human works has resulted in a forget fulnessof the Lutheran Reformation's understanding of sanctification.

The issue is complicated by sanctification being used in two different senses: wide and narrow. In its wide sense, sanctification embraces all the works of the Holy Spirit which free the human creature from sin and bring him/her into relationship with God. In this wide sense it is so closely related to justification that a distinction is nearly impossible (or perhaps even a little artificial). Quenstedt argued that sanctification in its wide sense includes justification.⁽¹¹⁾ Luther makes the following distinction:

As the Father is called Creator and the Son is called redeemer, so on account of his work the Holy Spirit must be called Sanctifier, the One who makes holy. How does this sanctifying take place? Answer: Just as the Son obtains dominion by purchasing us through his birth, death, and resurrection, etc., so the Holy Spirit effects our sanctification through the following: the communion of saints or Christian church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. In other words, he first leads us into his holy community, placing us upon the bosom of the church, where he preaches to us and brings us to Christ.⁽¹²⁾

Whereas discussion of justification among Lutherans has limited itself to the language of forensic justification (the legacy of Lutheran scholasticism), i.e., justification is by imputation, Luther speaks of sanctification (in its wide sense) as real transformation--the Holy Spirit "makes us holy."⁽¹³⁾ In this wide sense, sanctification is immediate.

In the narrow sense, sanctification refers to the change in life, a move to greater holiness of life. This change is understood to follow justification. It is a process in which the human creature can be said to cooperate. The Spirit's activity in the human creature frees the human creature to do the works of God. A wide variety of disciplines may be used by the human creature to aid him/herself in this process. These disciplines include study, prayer, fasting, and the like. Here we see the proper place for spiritual disciplines. They are tools of sanctification in a narrow sense. They contribute nothing to justification.

14. Perfection is an eschatological promise.

15. Until the eschaton, the sanctified are properly said to be simul justus et peccator.

But in this life Christians are not renewed perfectly and completely. For although their sins are covered up through the perfect obedience of Christ, so that they are not reckoned to believers for damnation, and although the Holy Spirit has begun the mortification of the Old Adam and their renewal in the spirit of their minds, nevertheless the Old Adam still clings to their nature and to all its internal and external powers.⁽¹⁴⁾

This internal conflict between the Old Adam and the New Man in Christ rages on until the death or translation on the Last Day. Simul justus et peccator (simultaneously saint and sinner) is the paradoxical description of human nature after justification but before resurrection. If God declares us to be saints, so we are, for his Word is an effective word. Nevertheless, empirical observations and the witness of the Holy Scriptures remind us of our ever present sinfulness. It should be remembered that at its core, this sinfulness is "unfaith." The external acts and internal thoughts which are called sins are merely the symptoms of the disease.

16. The life of the sanctified is one of perpetual contrition.

Since the Christian is simul justus et peccator, he/she is constantly confronted with his/her sinfulness. Convicted of this sinfulness, the Christian is full of sorrow and driven to repentance. As the first of the 95 Theses states, "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent,' he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."⁽¹⁵⁾

17. The sanctified remains dependent upon the Holy Spirit which continues to be given to the sanctified through the external Word.

There is no concept of human self-sufficiency either before or after justification. The human creature, because of its simul justus et peccator nature, is continually dragged down into sin by the Old Adam. Sin, Death, and the Devil constantly assail the New Man in Christ. If left unattended, faith can be weakened and even lost. The Holy Spirit renews and strengthens faith in the besieged Christian through the external Word. Hence, the Small Catechism says that the Holy Spirit "preserved me in true faith."⁽¹⁶⁾

18. The sanctified are not to be found outside the church.

"Church" in its proper sense is understood by Lutherans not to refer to any particular institution. The church is the body of Christ--"the assembly of saints in which the Gospel is taught purely and the sacraments are administered rightly."⁽¹⁷⁾ Where the Gospel is, there is also the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit which creates the church. In the larger sense, "church" refers to particular institutions which are always a mixed body--"hypocrites and evil persons are mingled with believers."⁽¹⁸⁾ Nevertheless, the visible church (larger sense) is the form under which the hidden church (proper sense) is encountered. Anyone claiming to be "spiritual" who is not in communion with the congregation of the faithful cannot be said to be a true homo spiritualis because he/she does not partake of the things of the Spirit (i.e., the external Word). Lutheranism retains the maxim extra ecclesiam nulla salus, rendered in the Large Catechism as "outside the Christian church (that is, where the Gospel is not) there is no forgiveness, and hence no holiness."⁽¹⁹⁾

19. Until the eschaton, the sanctified are properly said to be simul raptus et gemitus.

Although simul justus et peccator is a well-known phrase among Lutherans, the corollary which describes the paradoxical quality of life for the homo spiritualis is almost unknown. Since the homo spiritualis clings to the promises of God in Christ with a sure confidence, he/she knows great joy. This joy is rendered as "rapture" or "transporting bliss." On the other hand, the homo spiritualis also knows that perfection is eschatological--that until that Last Day, Sin, Death, and the Devil will wage war against God's elect. This knowledge, which is more than intellectual--indeed the homo spiritualis feels in both body and soul the slings and arrows of the enemy--is rendered as (gemitus) "anguish," "groaning," or even hyperbolically as "damnation."

The homo spiritualis suffers real pain. There is no need for spiritual exercises which vicariously engage the human in the Passion of Christ in an attempt to elicit Love. Rather, the homo spiritualis groans in travail with the whole creation, expectantly awaiting the Last Day when the pain will end. This anguished groaning is held in paradox with the joyful hope of rescue. What is more, this anguished groaning is a mark of experience which is called the school of faith, for through trial and tribulation and in the midst of our groaning the Holy Spirit instructs us in true faith.

20. Any spirituality which claims to eliminate anguish this side of the eschaton is rejected.

The joy in the promise never negates the pain of the present situation. Attempts to escape the pain of human existence are common within human history. Stoics sought apathy. Epicureans sought pleasure. Some forms of Christian mysticism sought a mystical union with Christ or the Godhead. Lutherans, however, look to the Passion of Christ as a witness that the pain of human existence must be embraced. God comes to us sub contrario (under the opposite). Whereas the Jews expected a warrior messiah, they got an itinerant preacher. Whereas moderns look for salvation in health, power, and commercially marketed immortality (among other things), we encounter God in the midst of sickness, weakness, and even death. This is the heart of the Theology of the Cross which so characterizes Lutheranism.

21. Any spirituality which claims to transcend life is rejected.

22. The sanctified are engaged in life.

The sanctified are not taken out of the world. They continue to live in it. The arena of daily life is the arena of sanctification. Although the homo spiritualis experiences an interior change by the agency of the Holy Spirit, exterior evidences are produced in the form good works. These works are not toward God per se but are directed toward the fellow human (and the whole of the created order).

23. The life of the sanctified is in nature identical for both laity and clergy.

The doctrine of the Priesthood of All Believers democratizes the spiritual life. There is no indelible character conferred by ordination. There is also no radical power conferred by ordination. The homo spiritualis, be he/she priest, bishop, pope, or peasant, communes with God through the agency of the Holy Spirit, offers intercession, and even offers the (non-propitiatory) sacrifice of praise, thanksgiving, and good works.

24. The life of the sanctified is in nature identical for men and women.

In Lutheran theology, the male and the female human are equally born into sin. Justified, they are equally simul justus et peccator. There is no difference in the use of the external Word.

25. Individuals and classes among the sanctified have particular vocations which entail external differences.

While the homo spiritualis cannot be distinguished by either sex or class in matters of the nature of sanctification, the external living out of sanctification can be used to make superficial distinctions. In Lutheranism there are three estates: the civil (government), the economic (the household), and the ecclesiastical (the church). The homo spiritualis engages the work in one or more estates which necessitates that there are differences in engagement dependent upon the context. Civil magistrates exercise sanctification by providing for peace, security,and justice. Fathers and mothers exercise sanctification in raising up their children to the glory of God. The clergy exercise their sanctification in faithful teaching.⁽²⁰⁾

Men and women exercise their sanctification according to vocation. Historically, gender roles were more fixed than they are today. Consequently, discussions of sanctification in the Lutheran Confessions (especially theTable of Duties appended to the Small Catechism) are stereotypical. Nevertheless, vocation and context determine the specifics of sanctified living. This point is in contrast to suggestions that men have one particular form of relationship to God and women have another.

26. The Gospel ministry which communicates the Holy Spirit is discharged through the taught/preached Word, Holy Baptism, The Sacrament of the Altar, Holy Absolution, and the mutual conversation and consolation of the saints.

27. Among Lutherans, the Holy Scriptures are the rule and norm for faith and life.

28. Among Lutherans, the Psalter has had a privileged place in both private and corporate devotion.

29. Among Lutherans, the Small Catechism of Martin Luther has been the principal curriculum of religious instruction.

30. Among Lutherans, the Small Catechism has served as a guide for private devotion.

31. Among Lutherans, hymnody has been an important tool in religious instruction.

32. Among Lutherans, hymnody has served as the human word addressed to God.

1. Josef Sudbrack, Encyclodepia of Theology: The Concose Sacramentum Munid, K. Rahner, ed., 1624, cited in Hendrix.

2. LW 37, 94-95, cited in Hendrix.

3. WA 9, 103.40-104.3, cited in Hendrix.

4. CA 2; BC 29:2.

5. SC II:6; BC 345:6.

6. SC II:6; BC 345:6.

7. SC I:2; BC 342:2.

8. CA 4; BC 30:1-2.

9. CA 5.

10. CA 5. It must be remembered that the Anabaptist movement was as much in its infancy as Lutheranism was in 1530. In 1521, the "Prophets" arose in Zwickau, and, in 1524, the Peasant's War broke out. Certainly, these events were fresh in the minds of the Lutheran Reformers. We should keep the historical context in mind and remember that Anabaptism has developed into several different groups not all of which retained this historic error.

11. Pieper 3:4.

12. LC II:36-37; BC 415:36-37.

13. LC II:35; BC 415:35.

14. FC SD 6:7; BC 565:7.

15. LW 31:25.

16. SC II:6; BC 345:6.

17. CA 7:1; BC 32:1.

18. CA 8:1; BC 33:1.

19. LC II:56; BC 418:56.

20. The examples are merely illustrative, not exhaustive.