The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan

Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)

Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)

The Four: A Survey of the Gospels

Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom

From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John

Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture

Jane Austen
(A Biography)

Solomon Among the Postmoderns

The Baptized Body

1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary

The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter

A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons

Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen

The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism

A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel

Against Christianity

From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution

Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy

Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper

A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament

Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature

Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays

Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life

The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church

« Previous Post | Next Post »
« Previous post in category | Next post in category »

Theology - Liturgical: Liturgical test

Jenson again.  He notes that liturgy provides a test of theological truth, in the sense that “no teaching can be true whose consequences would pervert the practice or darken the understanding of irreversibly instituted liturgy.”

He illustrates: “the Reformers insisted there must be something wrong with established teaching about the mass because it sanctioned the proliferation of private and votive masses, a situation not coherent with the canonically instituted rite; Catholics charged that Reformation teaching about works must be wrong because it would lead to ‘abolishing the mass’ altogether.  Both accusations proved right.  Catholic theology has adopted the Reformers’ critique of the mass-theologies that justified much late-medieval practice.  And the Eucharist did quickly lose its rightful place in Protestant churches.”

In a footnote, he explains the last comment:

“Does ‘faith alone without works’ mean ‘without sacraments and the other actions that constitute the church’s life’?  Catholic polemicists supposed that it did, with abundant justification in the actual practice of and conclusions drawn by many supporters of the Reformation.”

For Luther and Calvin and Bucer, “faith along without works” certainly did not exclude sacraments since sacraments were not our works but God’s.  But Jenson is right.  For some Protestants, still today, the Catholic critique holds: “Faith without works” is translated as “baptism does nothing” and “the Supper is hardly worth doing, certainly not frequently.”