David C. Steinmetz

The Superiority of Pre-Critical Exegesis

“The medieval theory of levels of meaning in the biblical text, with all its undoubted defects, flourished because it is true, while the modern theory of a single meaning, with all its demonstrable virtues, is false. Until the historical-critical method becomes critical of its own theoretical foundations and develops a hermeneutical theory adequate to the nature of the text which it is interpreting, it will remain restricted—as it deserves to be—to the guild and the academy, where the question of truth can endlessly be deferred.”

The Council of Trent

The general councils of the medieval Catholic Church were instruments for crisis management. This was particularly true in the early fifteenth century, when the church was divided by two, and then three, rival claimants to the papal throne. Unlike chapter meetings and episcopal visitations, councils were not a routine part of the church’s self-governance. When the Council of Trent finally convened in 1545, it was only the nineteenth general council in the long history of the Catholic Church. The crises that provoked councils might be internal to the Catholic Church, such as the rise of the Joachite heresy, or stimulated by external pressures such as the Turkish invasion of Europe. They might touch on matters of the church’s doctrine or of its practice. Early councils articulated the dogmas of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. Later councils decided on the place of icons in Christian worship, defined the doctrine of transubstantiation, and ended the scandal of a divided church. Popes were often reluctant to take the risks inherent in the convocation of a general council. They were painfully aware that the Council of Constance had deposed three competing popes and installed a fourth. By the time of Luther, however, it was generally conceded, even by theologians who were jealous defenders of papal power, that under certain circumstances the convocation of a general council might be the church’s only recourse to resolve a crisis that had proved impossible to resolve in any other way.

John Calvin on Isaiah 6 a Problem in the History of Exegesis

Careful attention to precritical exegesis provides a constant stimulus to modern interpreters by offering suggestions they would never think of and by allowing them to hear, with ears not their own, voices too soft for their own ears to detect.

Reformation and Conversion

“These four themes from early Protestant thought–the denial of the possibility of preparation for the reception of grace, the insistence on the church as the context in which genuine repentance takes place, the description of conversion as a continuous and lifelong process, and the warning that there is no conversion which does not exact a price from the penitent–are certainly not the only themes which need to be considered by the church in the present as it ponders its own evangelistic mission… But they are insights which cannot be lightly set aside. As Calvin observed, when we deal with repentance and the forgiveness of sins, we are dealing with ‘the sum of the gospel.’“

The Catholic Luther A Critical Reappraisal

The article traces the changing conceptions of Martin Luther in Protestant and Catholic circles, from the sixteenth century to the present. Catholic theologians first saw Luther as morally flawed, a stubborn heretic whose teaching was in no sense compatible with ancient and medieval Catholic tradition. Though Protestants defended Luthers catholicity, their defense rested in part on a redefinition of what constitutes true catholicity. For modern Catholic theologians, Luther remains both a profound and a problematic figure, but a genuinely Christian voice whose views can edify his Catholic readers, even if his teaching is not fully compatible with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Intellectual Appeal of the Reformation

t is important to remember that the Reformation began as an intraCatholic debate. All of the first generation of Protestant reformers and I most of the second had been baptized and educated as Catholics. Their criticisms of the Catholic Church and its theology were based, not on what they had read in Protestant manuals of theology, but on what they had experienced as children raised in traditionally Catholic homes and educated in traditionally Catholic schools. When, in 1518 in Heidelberg at a disputation sponsored by Luther’s own order, the Hermits of St. Augustine, the Alsatian Dominican, Martin Bucer, was persuaded to accept Luther’s critique of late scholastic theology, neither he nor Luther had any reason to suspect that the new theology they espoused would eventually force them outside the medieval church. In 1518, the hope was for renewal “in head and members,” not schism. Even Catholics who rejected the early Reformation as a movement that threatened to go too far felt the force of many Protestant criticisms of Catholic faith and practice and attempted to accommodate some of those criticisms within the framework of medieval Catholic orthodoxy. The support of the doctrine of double justice at Regensburg and Trent by such prominent churchmen as Gasparo Cardinal Contarini, Reginald Cardinal Pole, and Girolamo Cardinal Seripando is one example of a serious attempt by Catholic theologians to accommodate Protestant teaching concerning certitude of salvation within a more traditional Catholic doctrine of grace.’

The Reformation and the Ten Commandments

Disagreement in the sixteenth century on the meaning of the First Commandment prompted dissension over such related issues as the nature of the Lords Supper, the authority of the Old Testament for the church and the pace of ecclesiastical reform—issues that are still in dispute.

The Catholic Luther

The article traces the changing conceptions of Martin Luther in Protestant and Catholic circles, from the sixteenth century to the present. Catholic theologians first saw Luther as morally flawed, a stubborn heretic whose teaching was in no sense compatible with ancient and medieval Catholic tradition. Though Protestants defended Luthers catholicity, their defense rested in part on a redefinition of what constitutes true catholicity. For modern Catholic theologians, Luther remains both a profound and a problematic figure, but a genuinely Christian voice whose views can edify his Catholic readers, even if his teaching is not fully compatible with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

Scripture and the Lord's Supper in Luther's Theology

The debate about the Eucharist between Luther and his Protestant opponents was in fact a struggle over the way to understand and appropriate Scripture.

Things Old and New: Tradition and Innovation in Constructing Reformation Theology

ABSTRACT In respect of the Reformation this study considers the interaction between the retrieval of ancient Christian texts, humanist methods and scholasticism in their various forms, citing illustrative examples. It argues that Reformation interpreters have traditionally tended to privilege the impact of the first two on the new religious developments. As a corrective to this common perception, the essay recalls and highlights the continuing and increasing positive influence of modified scholastic methodological norms and forms on evolving Reformation theology in order to meet both pedagogical and apologetical requirements. It is also pointed out that the specific humanist programme for the revamping of biblical study along linguistic and literary lines and facilitating access to the Church Fathers, accompanied with notions of tackling abuses in the Church, predated the Reformation.