Theology Today - Vol 18, No. 1 - January 1962 - BOOK REVIEW - Luther's Works, Companion Volume: Luther the Expositor, Introduction to the Reformer's Exegetical Writings

529 - Luther's Works, Companion Volume: Luther the Expositor, Introduction to the Reformer's Exegetical Writings

Luther's Works, Companion Volume: Luther the Expositor, Introduction to the Reformer's Exegetical Writings
By Jaroslav Pelikan
286 pp. St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House, 1959. $4.00.

This volume, as the title indicates, is an introduction to the thirty volumes of Luther's exegetical works which will be represented in this series.

530 - Luther's Works, Companion Volume: Luther the Expositor, Introduction to the Reformer's Exegetical Writings

It is a study of Luther's hermeneutical principles and practice. The first half is an analysis of Luther's principles of exegesis, and the second half, a case study of his actual exegesis with reference to crucial passages of Scripture concerning the Lord's Supper.

The range of the author's knowledge of Luther and of the literature on Luther research is apparent on every page, and is utilized, not for display, but for the illumination of the issues at hand. The general orientation is in line with that of other major interpreters of Luther on Scripture, such as Loewenich and Ebeling. Hence, this is a documented and interpretative volume which does what is intended, to introduce the reader to Luther's exegetical writings.

But it would be difficult to summarize the contents of this volume. While certain basic matters of orientation can be set forth, Pelikan's point in part is to show that Luther's simplicity of approach is combined with a manifoldness of interpretation, and at times even an inconsistency determined by theological and polemical situations. Moreover, the author has shown that a well-rounded account of Luther's exegesis demands seeing his work as a whole, balancing those aspects borne in study and frequently ignored with the more polemical and oft quoted parts. Pelikan does not say that the first is to be preferred over the latter; he is concerned rather to set forth what he sees. This Pelikan cogently does in his analysis of Luther's use of John 6. The context and reasons for Luther's denial that this section has to do with the Lord's Supper are set forth, and at the same time Luther's occasional use of a passage from the same section with reference to the Lord's Supper is noted and delineated.

There are many aspects of this book worthy of note. The opening chapter is a convincing case that the history of dogma will be transformed when the full significance of the history of exegesis is recognized. The relation between the Word of God and Scripture, tradition and Scripture, are developed with a full consciousness of the alternatives before Luther. Moreover, it is precisely the awareness of the alternatives which becomes instructive with reference to the Lord's Supper. Then Luther's intense insistence on certain crucial points is seen, not as an attempt at speculative analysis, but as a way through and around what for him were unacceptable alternatives. Then too can one see Luther's polemical statements, not as considered points to be quoted out of context, but as part of the concrete way in which Luther met opponents from the right and from the left. Seen in context, Luther's exegetical remarks become instructive both for his essential creative direction and for certain derived inconsistencies and mistakes.

Two minor points may be noted. First, Pelikan, in a concreteness similar to Luther, apparently combined lectures and papers on the gen-

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eral theme, and cemented them into this volume, This is not to be lamented. It has been most fruitful. But it does mean that those who want the point of a book laid out in summarized paragraphs will rightly have to work this time. Second, would the matter of Luther's exegesis look somewhat different if another case study were utilized, for example, justification? Pelikan apparently believes that the Lord's Supper is the key to understanding Luther's exegesis. That he apparently believes this-not that he utilized these passages-raises a haunting question. Is this Luther or the Lutheran Pelikan? But then, I have always preferred the unLutheran Luther. Hence, the question cannot be raised without putting it also to oneself.

John Dillenberger
Drew University
Madison, New Jersey