Prolegomena to a Robust Lutheran Theology - - Internal Clarity of Scripture II

The question of the internal clarity of Scripture links to the question of a theology of nature. Just as the Book of Nature can be read with a providential divine being at its center really existing apart from human awareness, perception, conception and language, and causing the distribution of a least some natural properties, so too can the Book of Scripture be read with a salvific divine being at its center, externally acting to save human beings from sin, death, and the power of the devil. While the providential divine being has causal power within the order of creation, the salvific divine being is the Word which presents Himself in words, carrying the Spirit which knows the Word in these words.

Christian faith confesses the ontological reality of God's presence in nature, though God is unclear to the human gaze. Human beings see through a glass darkly when they dare at all to recognize the Being of the creator God in the divers, sundry, and disconnected events of history. Similarly, this faith confesses the ontological presence of God's Word in the divers, sundry, and apparently disconnectable events of the Biblical texts.

To say that God appears not to be at work in nature, is an honest statement of the natural man and woman., She cannot find God unambiguously present in nature, though faith catches glimpses here and there, and from time to time. Similarly, to say that the Bible does not in its entirety seem to be bespeaking, and speaking about the Christ is an honest confession of natural man and woman. She cannot find Christ unambigously present in the texts, through faith catches glimpses of that presence here and there, and from time to time.

The presence of the God in nature, like the presence of Christ in Scripture, is an ontological assertion. God is present in nature even if man and woman can not know him; Christ is present in Scripture even if man and woman do not recognize it. Human beings are epistemically limited with respect to their apprehension of the divine in nature; human beings are similarly limited with respect to their apprehension of God's Word (Christ) in Scripture. God's mighty acts in history, and Christ's presence at the center of Scripture are externally obscure for sinful man and woman. To say, then, that Scripture is internally clear is to say that it has this property in se, not in relationship to human apprehension of it. Similarly, to say that God's mightly acts in history are perspicuous is to say that these mighty acts clearly happened and continue to happen, even iv there are nu humans capable of recognizing this to be true.

Prolegomena to a Robust Lutheran Theology - - Introduction

Lutheran theology is in a sorry state. There are reasons why it is in a sorry state, and there are ways we might address the state.

It is my conviction that Lutheran theology shall survive only if it reclaims some of the original presuppositions upon which it grew. Specifically, I argue that Lutheran theology needs now to embrace the following five theses:

· Theological Realism
· Semantic Realism
· Theophysical Causation
· A Lutheran Theology of Nature
· The Internal Clarity of Scripture

In the following group of blogs entries, I shall point to what I believe the problem is, and show how each of these help to address that problem.

As always I welcome all comments. I believe that theology must be worked out in conversation and dialogue. Unfortunately, those that might be interested in this discussion are few and they are often separated by great geographical differences. Through the gift of new technologies, however, we can achieve real theological conversation