Chapter 29 concludes this study on the development of the doctrine of justification by considering how the doctrine has been explored and expressed since the end of the First World War. The chapter opens by considering Karl Barth and Dialectical Theology, a movement of theological reconstruction and retrieval, and notes the place of the doctrine of justification within this movement, especially in the writings of Barth and Emil Brunner. The analysis then shifts to the growing interest in retrieving the existential and affective aspects of justification, particularly in response to Martin Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit (‘Being and Time’, 1927). This is followed by a discussion of the retrieval of justification as a viable theological concept in recent theological writings. Writers such as Robert Jenson, Robert Kolb, Thomas F. Torrance, Michael S. Horton and Kathryn Tanner have shown how justification remains a significant theme in modern theological reflection, despite earlier suggestions that the concept was trapped in the theological past. Finally, the work reflects on discussions of justification in recent Pauline scholarship, particularly the ‘New Perspective on Paul’, and its role in the major ecumenical dialogues of the late twentieth century. The work concludes by expressing cautious optimism for the future of justification as a viable theological category.

Chapter 12 considers the critically important question of the origins and development of Martin Luther’s distinctive and highly influential views on justification ‘by faith alone (sola fide)’. The chapter presents an analysis of Luther’s reflections on the nature of justification and the question of the meaning of the Pauline term ‘righteousness of God’, identifying the turning points in Luther’s thinking on justification, and its implications for the nascent Protestant movement. It is emphasised that Luther’s changing views on justification were developed in interaction with biblical texts, particularly Paul’s letter to the Romans. Luther initially saw justification as a transformative process, and adopted a generally Augustinian understanding of its dynamics – as seen, for example, in his illustration of a patient being cared for by a physician, who is gradually being restored to health. Luther came to the view that the medieval church had lost sight of the graciousness of justification, and gave an increasingly significant place to the doctrine of justification by faith in his theology – a process which is completed in his assertion that the doctrine was the ‘article by which the church stands or falls’.