Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия (Dec 2021)
The image of Luther in liberal and dialectical theology
Abstract
Martin Luther creats a new form of Christianity which is suitable for the person the belongs to the culture of the modern period. His understanding of Christianity does not imply human freedom, the symbolism of the Sacraments, or the mystery of God’s incarnation. This article analyses the advantages and disadvantages of explicating the new image of Christianity, primarily in the liberal and dialectical theology of Protestantism, as well as in the theologically oriented phenomenology of religion in connection with the apology of ancient and mediaeval understanding of religion in the present-day Orthodox and Catholic theology and in Russian religious philosophy. Aware of the scale of the task, we only claim to defi ne attitudes in which it is possible to compare theological traditions scientifi cally and objectively, rather than solve them. We believe that the main direction of Protestant theological thought of the 19th and 20th centuries should be characterised as a consistent dissociation from the ancient and mediaeval understanding of religion and the establishment of a modern religious paradigm. We will try to substantiate this thesis within the framework of the transformation of the image of Luther in the liberal theology of A. Harnack, in the phenomenology of religion of R. Otto and F. Hailer, and in the dialectical theology of K. Barth. The continuity with Luther’s theology of these traditions is determined primarily by the attitude towards the ideal of faith and religion, which, on the one hand, meets the criteria of culture of the modern period and, on the other hand, shapes them. We discover the inner, organic unity and kinship in interpreting Luther’s image in liberal, dialectical theology and in Protestant religious phenomenology. Objecting to Protestant theologians, we believe that it is more relevant to argue that Luther contributed to the transformation of the mediaeval model of Christianity into that of the modern period rather than “reduced” Christianity ot destroyed the “syncretism” of Catholicism.
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