Christ Hidden and Present. The Relationship of the Ontological and Cognitive Aspects of Faith in...

Christ Hidden and Present. The Relationship of the Ontological and Cognitive Aspects of Faith in Martin Luther’s Theology

Ilmari Karimies. 28.5.2008.

Faculty of Theology

28.5.2008Ilmari Karimies - Christ Hidden and Present. 2

In ipsa fide Christus adest

”Christian faith … if it is true faith, is a kind of certain confidence of the heart and firm assent, that grasps (apprehenditur) Christ, so that Christ is the object of faith, no indeed, not object, but as to say, in faith itself Christ is present. Faith is a kind of cognition or darkness (cloud) that sees nothing. But still in these darknesses Christ sits embraced by faith, just as God sat in the Sinai and in the Temple in the middle of darknesses. Therefore our formal righteousness is not love that informs faith, but faith and the cloud of heart, that is, trust in what we do not see - in Christ, who certainly is not seen, but still is present.”

Quare fides Christiana … si est vera fides, est quaedam certa fiducia cordis et firmus [34] assensus quo Christus apprehenditur, Sic ut Christus sit obiectum fidei, imo [15] Dr] non obiectum, sed, ut ita dicam, in ipsa fide Christus adest. Fides ergo [16] est cognitio quaedam vel tenebra quae nihil videt, Et tamen in istis tenebris [17] [Jes. 6, 1 ff.] Christus fide apprehensus sedet, Quemadmodum Deus in Sinai et in Templo [18] sedebat in medio tenebrarum. Est ergo formalis nostra iustitia non charitas [19] informans fidem, sed ipsa fides et nebula cordis, hoc est, fiducia in rem [20] quam non videmus, hoc est, in Christum qui, ut maxime non videatur, [21] tamen praesens est. (WA 40, I, 228, 31 - 229, 21 = Commentary on Galatians)


A Brief Look at Research History in Finland

Much of the research of the Mannermaa school has been

focused on justification and its ontological dimension,

union with Christ (especially Mannermaa, Peura) Only some short remarks were made on the cognitive

aspects of faith These were sometimes even contradictory:

Faith is cognitive darkness: The presence of Christ is not

known, it is hidden. (Mannermaa 1995. Kaksi rakkautta, 2nd

ed., not translated in English)

Faith is light: God is known through faith, because of Christ

present in faith. (Mannermaa 1994. Hat Luther eine

trinitarische Ontologie? –Luther und die trinitarische

Tradition)


The Problem as it Appears in Luther’s Texts

This juxtaposition of the light and darkness in faith is

common on Luther: ”Faith is a kind of cognition or darkness that sees nothing.”

(Commentary on Galatians)

”Faith is rightly called the light of the face of God, because it

is a divine illumination of our mind and a kind of ray of

divinity infused into the heart of the one who believes … that

is, recognition of and confidence in the God who is present.”

(AWA 2, 200, 3 - 201, 15)

It has caused multiple problems in interpretation Orthodoxy vs. pietism controversy

Present vs. future goods


Some Basic Questions

What is the relationship of light and darkness in faith? Are they on the same ’level’? Do they exist at the same

time, or at different times? What kind of ’information’ does the presence of God in

faith give of God, if any? Is faith primarily human action,

or divine action? How is the presence of God in faith understood (both

ontologically and cognitively)? If Christ would not be

present, would if affect the subjective side of faith?

Primary sources: Luther’s Psalm commentaries of 1513-

15 and 1519-21


The Hiddenness of God

For Luther, God is hidden in two ways 1) The supra-aspect: God is in his nature invisible,

incomprehensible, ineffable etc. 2) The contra-aspect: In the world God is hidden ”under

contraries”, in things that appear to be in contrast to his

essence as summum bonum Humanity of Christ, cross, suffering, tribulations

This hiddenness prevents the human being from

recognising and understanding with his abilities the

presence and work of God


Luther’s Theological Anthropology

Luther divides a human being in parts in two different

ways, into two parts according to the ’quality’ of love and

into three parts according to the nature of soul The two-part ’spiritual’ division: Flesh (caro) and spirit

(spiritus) Flesh and spirit are two basic ’affects’ in human life. Carnal

life is a life governed by concupiscense, spiritual life a life

governed by the love of God.

Flesh and spirit do not refer to body or soul, but the basic

drive of all the actions of a human being

The human being can either be wholly carnal

(unbeliever), partly carnal and partly spiritual (Christian),

or wholly spiritual (only Heaven)


Luther’s Theological Anthropology Continued

The three-part ’natural’ division: Spirit (spiritus), soul

(anima), body/flesh (caro, corpus) The spirit is the highest part of the human being. It is

(passively) capable of being in touch with the divine,

invisible, incomprehensible and eternal

The soul is the mover of the body. It does not understand the

invisible and incomprehensible things. Human reason is an

ability belonging to the soul. It works using concepts and

images from visible reality.

The flesh is the body and the limbs. They put in action, what

the spirit and the soul desire and want.

See Magnificat, StA 1, 320-322.


Spiritual and Carnal Man Compared

(Will, voluntas) Nature (natura)

Flesh (caro)

Homo animalis

Grace (gratia)

Spirit (spiritus)

Homo spiritualis

Spirit

(spiritus)

(imago dei)

- Faith (fides)

Intellect (intellectus)

Experience (experientia)

Soul

(anima)

Reason (ratio)

’Concepts’, opinions,

appearances (species)

Reason (ratio)

’Concepts’, opinions,

appearances (species)

Body

(corpus, caro)

Visible and sensible

things

Visible and sensible

things


The Anthropological Functions Compared

The Carnal Man

Reason (ratio)

Senses, feeling (sensus)

Appearance (species)

Visible things

Comprehensible things

The Spiritual Man

Intellect = faith (intellectus)

Experience (experientia)

The thing itself (res)

Invisible things

Incomprehensible things

Even though the anthropological structures are not on same level

in their nature, functionally a following comparison can be made

The carnal man relies on the things he knows by his natural

abilities directed at the visible

Even reason uses concepts extracted from the visible reality


The Conflict between the Spirit and the Flesh in Christian

Nature (natura)

Flesh (caro)

Vetus homo

Grace (gratia)

Spirit (spiritus)

Novus homo

Spirit

(spiritus)

Faith = darkness

Self-seeking love

Will against the Law

Faith = light

Self-sacrificing love

Will in the Law

Soul

(anima)

Wishes to rule

Senses and reason

battle against faith

Ruled by faith

Senses and reason

augmented by faith

Body

(corpus, caro)

Hates suffering

Excess pleasure

Wishes to suffer for the

sake of the neighbour

Moderated pleasure


Components in Luther’s understanding of faith

1. Light of faith and intellect of faith Faith is an infused divine virtue, an ontologically divine light,

through which the presence of God is ’felt’ and known.

The real intellect grasping the invisible is faith. It

understands the invisible present in the visible (sacraments,

Scripture, tribulations)

Background: Theories of intellectual illumination

2. Cloud of faith, darkness of faith Even in the light of faith God in his divine nature remains

incomprehensible, supra captum

For the old nature, also the light of faith is darkness. Flesh

”sees nothing and feels nothing”, though spirit is consoled

Luther utilises images and concepts from the tradition of

negative theology and late medieval mysticism


Light and Darkness Together

”That in the holy of holies there was no light, signifies God to be present in the Church via the faith of Christ in their hearts, that does not comperehend and is not comprehended, does not see and is not seen, but still sees all things. It is a poweful proof of present, but not visible things. Likewise the Ark of Covenant was present in the holy of holies, but was not visible, because the Tabernacle was around – in the middle of which at the holy of holies the very seat of God was – as is said in Ps. 46 ’The God is present in the middle of the congregation’, so that they cannot be shaken… God does not rule among us superficially, with tongue and words, but in might, and they do not remain unshaken, who believe with tongue and words, but ’those who believe in the heart, are justified’, in the middle of whom God is present. They are the strong, who receive help from the face of God (that is, the presence of God), as Ps. 46: ’They will be helped from the face of God’, or, ’in daybreak’, that is, in the presence of the might and divinity and the face of God.” (WA 5, 506, 12-25)


Ecumenical and Contemporary Significance?

The interest in theology of spirituality, also in ecumenism Reasessing and understanding the Lutheran tradition as

not opposed to, but continuing and developing the

spiritual (mystical) traditions of the Church Common issues both to Orthodox and Catholic

Christianity (negative theology, humility, infused

theological virtues)

Luther’s understanding, that a certain kind of spiritual

experience is a part of the Christian faith itself Theology of the Cross means also that the conflict

between faith and reason cannot be solved by easy,

’fundamentalist’ answers, but belongs to the nature of

faith itself. Faith is more that human activity.

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