God from Eternity to Eternity: Luther's Trinitarian Understanding

Extract

A common uncritical criticism claims that dogma robs humans of the freedom to think and act. This dogmatic pronouncement reflects a sad misunderstanding con-cerning the function and meaning of dogma. When countering the negative effects of this attack, a systematic theology cannot be coerced into a defensive position. Rather, theology must clearly and creatively think of how a precise determination of dogma can remain principally open to a plurality of both experiences and inter-pretations of those experiences. Fixed by the dogma, the referent of a religion is the subject that is experienced in each successive generation of a living religion; the life of the religion is constituted by the varied experiences of its referent. If the religion is to have flexible permanence, then the referent must be presented anew to each new generation in a way grounding the diverse possibilities of experienc-ing that same referent. Dogma should be formulated not to repress and suppress, but to make possible both true activity as the “concretion of freedom,”This term is rephrased from the title of an article by Christof Landmesser, “Freiheit als Konkretion von Wahrheit: Eine exegetische Skizze zum Lebensbezug des Evangeliums in der paulinischen Theologie,” in Befreiende Wahrheit: Festschrift für Eilert Herms (ed. Wilfried Härle, Matthias Heesch, and Reiner Preul; MThSt 60; Marburg: N. G. Elwert, 2000) 39–56. and true thinking that can only take place in freedom.