Where God Meets Man: Luther's Down-to-Earth Approach to the Gospel

by Gerhard O. Forde

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 1972

Overview

This book about Luther's theology is written out of a two-fold conviction. First, that many of our problems have arisen because we have not really understood our own traditions, especially in the case of Luther; and second, that there is still a lot of help for us in someone like Luther if we take the trouble to probe beneath the surface. It is an attempt to interpret Luther's theology for our own day.

The fundamental theme of the book is the "down-to-earth" character of Luther's theology. In using this theme, Forde points out that we have failed to understand the basic thrust or direction of Luther's theology and that this failure has caused and is still causing us grief. Modern scholarship has demonstrated that Luther simply did not share the views on the nature of faith and salvation that subsequent generations have foisted upon him and used to interpret his thinking. This book attempts to bring the results of some of that scholarship to light and make it more accessible to those who are searching for answers today.

The central questions of Christianity are examined in this fresh restatement of Luther's thought—the God-man relationship, the cross, the sacraments, this world and the next, and the role of the church. The author presents the "down-to-earth" character of Luther's theology in the hope that it will help individual Christians today to be both faithful to God and true to their human and social responsibilities.

Key Features

• Shows the practical brillaince of Luther's theology
• Links Luther's thought to contemporary faith
• Covers Lutheranism's core questions

Contents

• "Up the Down Staircase"
• The "Down to Earth" God
• The Glory Road or the Way of the Cross?
• A Man for This Earth
• Treasure in Earthen Vessels
• This World and the Next
• The Church and the Charter of Freedom

Top Highlights

“For what is the Gospel? It is the end of the law! That is to say that what the gospel does is to put an end to the ‘voice’ of the law. And that means actually to put a stop to it, to ‘shut it up,’ to make it no longer heard.” (Page 16)

“A theology about the cross (a theology of glory) is a spectator theology.” (Page 33)

“A theology of the cross affirms in the first instance that he was not doing anything else in his death but dying. He wasn’t ‘paying God’ or giving us an example or any such thing, he was dying—painfully, excruciatingly, really. A theology about the cross makes it seem as though he were really doing something else, as though his death had some other ‘meaning’ than just death. It is as though (and I suspect this is the real reason for such theology) we cannot bear the thought of a down-to-earth death and cover it over with some other meaning so we don’t really have to look at it. For the frightening thing about death is that ultimately it has no meaning. It is the triumph of meaninglessness, of darkness, of the nothing. That is what happened to Jesus. He ‘was crucified, dead and buried.’” (Page 37)

“The purpose of the cross is not to pay a debt which man owes for not making it to heaven, not to assist man in his aspirations toward some kind of religious perfectionism. The purpose of the cross is to create that faith which man has lost, that faith which enables him to live once again as a creature on this earth. The cross and resurrection therefore is that power which makes new creatures; it makes anew the kind of person intended for this earth. Christ dies not to make us gods, but new creatures. He does this by putting an end to—putting to death—the old Adam, the man who is not content to be man. In his place, the new man, the man of faith, is raised up.” (Pages 55–56)

Product Details

• Title: Where God Meets Man: Luther’s Down-to-Earth Approach to the Gospel
• Author: Gerhard O. Forde
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 1972
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Pages: 128
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546
• ISBNs: 0806612355, 9780806612355
• Resource ID: LLS:WHEREGODMEETSMAN
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:45:15Z

About Gerhard O. Forde

Gerhard O. Forde was professor of theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He also taught at Luther College in Iowa and St. Olaf College in Minnesota. His many publications include The Law-Gospel Debate, Justification by Faith: A Matter of Life and Death and Where God Meets Man: Luther's Down-to-Earth Approach to the Gospel.