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| Luther and Augustine chilling out. [Artist: Ron Hill. Used with permission.] |
From 2013 to 2015, I had the privilege to study for a "Master - Research and Thesis" in Philosophy the continuity between Augustine's and Martin Luther's soteriologies. Its title was Luther's Augustinian Philosophy of the Cross and the Origins of Modern Philosophy of Religion. Please, take few moments to read a brief summary of my thesis.
Martin Luther’s theology of the cross as presented in one of his most representative works, the Heidelberg Disputation, was intended by its author to be a faithful exposition and development of Augustine’s theology of absolute grace: "these theological paradoxes ... have been deduced well or poorly from St. Paul, the especially chosen vessel and instrument of Christ, and also from St. Augustine, his most trustworthy interpreter" (Luther, Preface to Heidelberg Disputation. Emphasis added). This claim of Luther is often dismissed by a significant part of the academic world as a misunderstanding of Augustine’s soteriology. Through the discussion of both Augustine’s and Luther’s teaching on the issues of free will, good works, righteousness and the cross, in the first part of this work I have demonstrated the Augustinian nature of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, and, consequently, of the theology of the cross that this document expounds. This close comparative reading of several of the most important works of Luther and Augustine will be instrumental for the second part of this thesis, which is dedicated to the discussion of a philosophical thesis that I have deduced from Luther’s Augustinian philosophy of the cross.
On the basis of the demonstration of the authoritative Augustinian origin of Luther’s theology of the cross, in the second section I have expounded Luther’s philosophical thesis. According to this thesis, no theology or philosophy which gives pre-eminence to the ethical presuppositions of man’s reason has at its foundation a proper understanding of the cross and its implied theology of absolute grace, and therefore every such theology or philosophy is necessarily Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian in its nature. In order to prove this philosophical claim, I have analysed the philosophies of religion of Immanuel Kant and G. W. Leibniz, focusing on their respective theological anthropologies. These two influential thinkers, according to their respective methodologies, ascribe a foundational role to reason with respect to religion and theology. In this regard, I have shown that Kant’s and Leibniz’s religions are Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian in nature respectively, thus proving Luther’s thesis concerning the antithetical nature of the philosophy of the cross.
Very recently, I have signed a contract with Resources Publications in order to publish my thesis as a book. I think this is the best way to offer my work to the public. Publishing my chapters as separate articles would have taken a lot of time and a lot of work, and I cannot afford either of the two. Moreover, this publisher is dedicated to keeping the book price as low as possible, differently from other more academically esteemed publishers who very often offer prohibitive prices for their new publications.
If you are wondering how exactly I gained a MA - Research and Thesis in philosophy by studying Augustine's and Luther's theologies (soteriologies), well ... you will have to buy the book to find out, possibly in multiple copies! 😉 Anyway, I have written this work in a comprehensible style, and I humbly think that all those even slightly interested in theology and philosophy will find the book enjoyable and instructing, or at least this is my hope (even though I do not claim that one by reading it should get excited as the guy in the video).
The book should be ready by next year. That is a pleasant "coincidence," considering that next year is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation! I am very glad to offer my little contribution in celebrating this great event.
I am excited about this project, and I consider it a good encouragement to keep studying and writing, possibly for some academic journal in the near future. However, I am not my achievements, nor I am my failures. The fact that I am a young philosopher and scholar does not ultimately say who I am. In and of myself, I am a wretched sinner. However, by grace alone through faith alone (Eph. 2:8), Christ tells me who I am: I am a child of God (John 1:12), reconciled to God, in Christ, by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:1-5), a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), chosen to be holy and blameless before God (Eph. 1:4), his workmanship (Eph. 2:10), loved by God (1 Tess. 1:4), made complete through the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; Col. 2:10). Who I am, my identity, is in Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20). In failure and success, in joy and sorrow, in prosperity and poverty, in health and in sickness, in life and in death, this is what I am. And this is who you are, believer in Christ, who are reading these words.
Finally, as usual, all the glory goes to the Triune God. I hope this project may bring glory to Him. As Hilary of Poitiers once said, “I am aware that I owe this to God as the chief duty of my life, that my every word and sense may speak of Him” (On the Trinity, 1.37).
I hope to continue my short series on the Trinity as soon as possible.
Stay tuned. Stay in Christ.
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