Outer Rim Territories

A Brief Introduction to Lutheran Ethics

Rev. Grobien, a former classmate and now pursing PhD studies at Notre Dame, posted an excellent introduction to the Lutheran approach to ethics. Avid readers of this blog know that ethical matters are often discussed. I admit I haven't done the best job of presenting them in a thoroughly Lutheran way.  The best tidbit to glean from his post is that ethics are always about the Law but that the Law of God is good and wise. The Christian's ability to live under the law is not internal but external, granted to him at his baptism, where Christ now lives and dwells in and through him.  I discussed this topic in my paper for "Theological Ethics" last summer. I urge you to read the paper (and the source text Adolf Köberle's "Quest for Holiness"). 

A Brief Introduction to Lutheran Ethics « Lutheran Theology …Man never need seek the knowledge of good and evil, but only the good. The irony of this is lost on most ethicists. We should never seek the knowledge of good and evil because we already have it. We have eaten of the fruit. We sit in judgment of what is right and wrong. We deliberate, consider, exercise casuistry, and invent new conditions in order to question the validity of the law. We already determine. We do not need to develop our knowledge of good and evil; we need to be restored to the knowledge of the good… To be restored to the knowledge of the good suggests also that our will is restored to act in accordance with the good. The bondage of the will in Lutheranism has become a slogan-an unchallenged aphorism that denies the legitimacy of the Christian trying to pursue the good and of the preacher exhorting the Christian to pursue the good. But to confuse the fallen will that is unable to seek, fear, or trust God with the will of a human person that is able outwardly to choose to do good things is to have departed from biblical and traditional Christian anthropology. Luther and the Confessions continued to insist that the Christian must try to do good works and overcome temptation. Read more...