Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
“Beyond Anything I’ve Seen Before from Modern Lutheran Writers”: A Review of Our New Book

“Beyond Anything I’ve Seen Before from Modern Lutheran Writers”: A Review of Our New Book

Last updated on: April 12, 2018 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

“Beyond Anything I’ve Seen Before from Modern Lutheran Writers”: A Review of Our New Book 2018-04-11T17:14:17-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I hate promoting myself, but I have to share with you this review of my new book with Trevor Sutton, Authentic Christianity: How Lutheran Theology Speaks to the Postmodern World.

It’s by a former student of mine at Patrick Henry College, John Ehrett. He’s utterly brilliant, a graduate of Yale Law, with a Master’s from Princeton, currently clerking for an appeals court. At the time, I had no idea that he had been raised Lutheran–in the LCMS, no less. He never “identified” as such, being apparently in the Reformed, nondenominational phase that he refers to on the biography page of the online journal he is writing for. So John would have been one of those young people the church failed to retain in that study we blogged about. But, as this review shows, he has come back to Lutheranism, though via a circuitous path, with a vengeance!

So it’s especially gratifying to read such an enthusiastic and perceptive response from him. There are few greater satisfactions for me as a (retired) college professor than watching students exceed me. John here wonders why we don’t interact with authors whom I have never heard of and brings in his sophisticated, PHC-cultivated knowledge of political theory that goes far beyond my own. And I find myself learning from him, another great feeling for a teacher, as he proposes a libertarian application of the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, something I want to think more about. (I know that describes some of you long-time readers. We’ll have to discuss that on this blog at some point.) John also praises us for points that I wasn’t aware that we made. And some that I don’t think we wanted to make. (Thomism? It seems to me that Aquinas, with his Aristotelian view of God, contributes to the “deistic” notion of the deity that we criticize.)

Anyway, read his review, which appears in Conciliar Post, an online magazine in which young Christians from various traditions discuss theology and its implications. I plan to start following it. I will give you a sample. From John Ehrett:

Peter Leithart’s slim 2016 volume The End of Protestantism outlined a bold vision for a post-denominational Christianity, but was skimpy on theological specifics. Now, Lutheran academic Gene Edward Veith and Lutheran pastor A. Trevor Sutton have answered Leithart’s call. Their new book Authentic Christianity: How Lutheran Theology Speaks to a Postmodern World is an ambitious, audacious case for confessional Lutheranism as a universal Christian denomination (or, in their words, a “metachurch”). Veith and Sutton go beyond anything I’ve seen before from modern Lutheran writers: they don’t just argue for the enduring vitality of Lutheranism or explain its theological distinctives, but contend outright that Christians of other stripes ought to be Lutherans. . . .

They come out swinging from the start: right away, Veith and Sutton articulate a Lutheran metaphysics of God that hews far closer to Thomism than to the vague deism of contemporary Protestantism. As they explain (with plenty of references to Lutheran theologians old and new), this theology dictates that human attempts to make meaningful affirmative statements about God, apart from His self-revelation in Jesus, will ultimately prove deficient. God in Himself is “Wholly Other.”

Though Veith and Sutton don’t drive their point home too hard, it’s clear that they see this (classical) doctrine of God as largely incompatible with the Reformed varieties of Protestantism. Because God as God is not merely an anthropomorphic projection of ourselves, it makes little sense to debate issues like “the order of God’s decrees.” And as Veith and Sutton stress, this view of God also bears upon the “problem of evil”: since the transcendent and immanent God is sacramentally present in His creation, He is necessarily present with humans in the immediacy of their suffering, not somehow separate, aloof, and unwilling to intervene. . . .

From there, Authentic Christianity moves on to canvass a broad range of theological topics, from the Incarnation, to the Bible, and to the sacraments. Veith and Sutton’s arguments remain powerful and incisive throughout. I’ve been a Lutheran for over a quarter-century, but there was material in here that was entirely new to me. For instance, I’ve always had trouble with the Lutheran embrace of monergism—the idea that faith itself is a gift of God, not an operation of the intellect or will. It appears I’ve had difficulty because I accepted a certain Calvinist presupposition—the idea that “faith” is a mystical sense of inner awakening and inclination of the heart toward God, kindled by some mysterious process. But as Veith and Sutton explain, the Holy Spirit’s call to Christian faith comes through the Bible itself, not through some mystical sense of inner awakening (an “awakening,” I realize now, that would elide the unique importance of Scripture and elevate individual experience to something theologically authoritative). If we take the doctrine of biblical inspiration seriously, the Bible is given to us as a product of the Spirit’s work; thus, all faith founded on the Bible is necessarily a pure gift of God.

[Keep reading. . .]

HT: Trevor Sutton

Authentic Christianity

Gene Veith's books

Lutheranism

vocation of professor

Previous Post

April 12, 2018

How You Are Being Psychologically Profiled by Your "Likes"

Next Post

April 13, 2018 Churches' Contempt for Men

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"While she worked for Trump she was a tool's tool!"

reg

Luther on Tools

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian principle is in "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Golden Rule Keep to yourself Always judge Never forgive

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »