Faith, The Yes of the Heart, and: A Graceful Life: Lutheran Spirituality
for Today (review)
Frank C. SennSpiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 2001, pp. 119-121 (Review)
Published by Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1353/scs.2001.0017
Foradditionalinformationaboutthisarticle
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/30805
Faith, The Yes of the Heart. By Grace Adolphsen Brame. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1999. 192 pp. $14.99.
A Graceful Life: Lutheran Spirituality for Today. By Bradley Hanson. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2000. 200 pp. $14.99.
These two books on spirituality from Augsburg explore the theological rather than the practical side of spirituality. That is, they deal with how the relationship with God is understood rather than with how it is cultivated through particular methods. Both books present a Lutheran spirituality, though in different ways. Brame’s work is rooted in Martin Luther’s spiritual theology, although it also draws on the insights of other spiritual thinkers. Hanson’s work is not based only on Luther but on the whole Lutheran tradition. Both Brame and Hanson are college religion professors. Their books are written on a popular level, perhaps with undergraduates in mind, but certainly in a style that makes them accessible to “the average person” (Hanson). Brame’s book, moreover, is written as though she were actually speaking to a lay audience. Hanson’s book is explicitly intended for use as a text in adult education, providing questions at the end of each chapter for further reflection and discussion. Although these books can be used as study texts, it is disappointing that neither provides a bibliography of suggested works for further reading. Nor does Hanson provide an index of names and topics. A perusal of the endnotes indicates that neither author has made reference to contemporary secondary literature in the field of spirituality, although both authors cite spiritual classics such as the writings of Evelyn Underhill and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Although Brame’s book is based on the spiritual insights of Luther, the author has developed her own spirituality and does not shy away from autobiographical examples. Her book’s title is actually a quote from Luther. She has opened up the nonpolemical dimension of Luther’s theology for the contemporary reader. I would argue, however, that faith defined as “the yes of the heart” was not as buried in Luther’s writings as Brame suggests. One of the most familiar passages in Luther’s Large Catechism is in his explanation to the First Commandment: “ . . . to have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe in that one with your whole heart. As I have often said, it is the trust and faith of the heart alone that make both God and an idol” (The Book of Concord, Kolb/Wengert edition, 2000). The Catechisms are really a distillation of Luther’s spiritual theology, but they play a minimal role in Brame’s discussions. She compensates for this lacuna with copious use of biblical examples and hymnic citations (she is a professional singer as well as a professor and pastoral leader).
The first four chapters are given over to a discussion of the role of faith as an affair of the heart. She moves from the love born in the heart of God, and Christ born in the human heart to “loving with both head and heart.” We say yes to God because God first said yes to us in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit prompts this affirmative response, which is an act both of the head and the heart; it is both belief and trust. From this foundation, Brame proceeds to discuss such topics as the divine call (the heart called), human decision (choices of the heart), the life of prayer (abiding in God’s heart), the reality of suffering (the suffering heart), growth in grace both as individuals and as a church (the growing heart), salvation (the life-giving heart), and commitment to God (the committed heart). The beauty of Brame’s presentation is that she takes a basic image of the heart as the center of our being and uses it to refract the whole of the divine-human relationship in its various aspects.
Chapter four, “Loving with Both Head and Heart,” is the conceptual heart of this book. In discussing the differences between the two kinds of faith, Brame draws on James Fowler’s stages in faith formation as well as the spiritual theology of Luther. She wishes to integrate believing and trust and suggests that Eastern Orthodox theology points in this way, although she does not provide examples from Orthodoxy’s spiritual writers. She does discuss the lectio divina (prayerful reading of Scripture) as a balance to the Western critical reading of the Bible and spiritual theology as an alternative to systematic theology. For Brame, spirituality is “the experience and the expression of the Holy Spirit in, among, and through individuals and groups” (63–64). A balanced spirituality is personal and corporate, incarnational and world-affirming.
Brame asserts that “The whole idea of spirituality for everyone, although attempted a number of times in history, is primarily a late-twentieth century development” (64). Spirituality before the Reformation, she says, was primarily for religious professionals, while lay spirituality groups were distrusted and persecuted. A more comprehensive understanding of spirituality in its various forms and models as well as a history of spiritual practices would require a reassessment of such an opinion. Forms of asceticism and prayer were available to (and, in fact, required of) all Christians. The whole of Christian life was construed, especially in the pre-Reformation church, as conformity to the cross of Christ. The efforts of the devotio moderna in the 15th century to inculcate practices of self-examination, promote the use of the confessional, provide forms of lay prayer and popular devotions, and encourage more frequent communion fed directly into the Reformation. Rather than look to lay movements that were, in fact, misguided if not plain heretical, one might look to the ordinary spiritual practices of the late Middle Ages as worthy of reconsideration today. The major deficiency of Brame’s otherwise edifying book is the lack of recommended methods of cultivating “the religion of the heart,” as was done in Lutheran pietism of the late 17th century. While she does encourage moral activism as an expression of the response of faith, she does not develop the use of the means of grace (word and sacrament) as generative of faith. Yet this has been at the heart of Lutheran spiritual life.
Hanson’s book is more systematic than Brame’s in the theological sense. A Graceful Life begins with the context of the contemporary interest in spirituality and views ecclesiastical families as traditions of spirituality. Hanson recognizes that people today are more interested in spirituality than in religion. Given the religious pluralism and individualism of our Western culture, ties to religious institutions tend to be elective. The composition of contemporary congregations runs the gamut from loyal members and loving critics whose commitment to a community or tradition is selective, to spiritual shoppers who move from one religious community to another depending on how it meets their needs at any given moment, to independent seekers whose commitment is only to their own faith development. Given this situation, presenting a particular Christian tradition as a spirituality, and spirituality as “a lived faith plus a path” (11), commends itself.
The book shows in successive chapters how the Lutheran tradition of spirituality has a particular understanding of the human condition (generally negative) and cultivates trust in God’s merciful grace, reliance on the word of God, apprehension of God’s presence in physical symbols, a connection with the church as a community of faith, an appreciation of churchly traditions, and an emphasis on service in daily life. A concluding chapter not only summarizes the preceding ones but also compares Lutheran spirituality with other types (e.g. Baptist, Roman Catholic) and assesses both
the shortcomings of the Lutheran tradition (male, Eurocentric, uneven in its evangelism) and its strengths (doctrinal heritage, realistic reading of the human situation, the message of justification by grace through faith, great musical tradition, dialectical approach to social ethics, and sense of freedom in the use of Christian traditions).
Like Brame, Hanson wants to hold in balance faith as belief and trust. Thus, the “heartfelt” appropriation of the doctrine of justification by grace through faith is the blessed assurance that one can trust in God’s merciful love. More than Brame, Hanson gives a prominent role to the means of grace, the word and the sacraments, precisely because of the communal dimension of his spirituality. Even so, he often backs off from full confidence in the liturgical use of these means. For example, after quoting Luther that “when God’s word is not preached, one had better neither sing nor read, or even come together,” Hanson states in the very next paragraph: “Formal preaching is not the only, or even the most important, way in which the word of God is orally declared” (73). Or again, in a discussion of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist Hanson states, “In some way or other, Christ’s body and blood are truly present. The Lutheran confessions do not claim to know how they are present, but their presence is real” (93). If, by this, Hanson means that the Lutheran confessions reject an explanation of the real presence that relies on philosophical metaphysics (e.g. transubstantiation), he is correct. But the Lutheran confessions are clear that Christ’s body and blood are present by virtue of the proclamation of the words of Christ. It is the word, not only the use of it, which makes the sacrament. Thus, not every Lutheran believes, as Hanson states, that “this presence lasts only for the duration of the lord’s supper” (94). Our liturgical books do provide orders for the extended distribution of the consecrated elements to the absent. There should be a reliance not only on the promise of justification by grace but also on the means of grace provided by our gracious God.
Despite my disagreement about the way Hanson interprets the Lutheran position on these matters, A Graceful Life can be recommended as a study book for inquirers’ classes. It highlights those things that are important in the Lutheran tradition and presents the Lutheran way of life as a communal spirituality. Faith, the Yes of the Heart can be recommended as a devotional book. It takes the reader through the various aspects of Christian life in a way that encourages personal reflection on one’s life of faith.
Frank C. Senn Immanuel Lutheran Church, Evanston, Illinois