Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics by Craig L. Nessan

Abstract

Reviewed by: Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics by Craig L. Nessan Ned Wisnefske Free in Deed: The Heart of Lutheran Ethics. By Craig L. Nessan. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022. 165 pp. This book is an introduction to Lutheran ethics written for theology students, pastors, and thoughtful lay readers. It succeeds in that, leaving readers with a coherent vision of the way a Lutheran approach to Christian ethics analyzes issues, illuminates them, and inspires us to act on them. Nessan claims that love of neighbor is the overriding concern of Lutheran ethics. "Neighbor" is interpreted expansively to include all people, especially those who are in danger of being disregarded as neighbors, even encompassing all living things. Nessan owes his formation, he writes, to Bonhoeffer's Christocentric theology and to the Christopraxis of liberation theologians. Eight short, readable chapters lay out key Lutheran insights concerning biblical authority, the authority of tradition, reason and experience, the two kingdoms, justification and sanctification, the priesthood of all believers, the theology of the cross, and Christian freedom. Nessan's exposition of these traditional Lutheran themes is [End Page 244] clear and on-the-mark. Often, he distinguishes a Lutheran point of view from other Christian perspectives, or distinguishes among various Lutheran viewpoints. This helps orient the readers' understanding. For example, he contrasts a Lutheran view on biblical authority with literalism and deconstruction; a Lutheran from an American understanding of freedom; contemporary Lutheran views on sanctification in Lazereth and Mannermaa. He presents how the theology of the cross is misunderstood by both triumphalism and trivialization, and how a privatized view of charitable assistance as well as religious identity politics misconceive political advocacy. By the author's own assessment, his chapter "Luther's Two Strategies and Political Advocacy" offers an original interpretation of how Luther's concept of the two kingdoms contributes to our understanding of Christianity and politics. Wanting to avoid past misinterpretations that led to the subservience of the church to political order, or to the rigid separation of church and state, he proposes that God rules one kingdom with two strategies. What emerges is "neighbor politics." Christians participate in God's left-hand strategy by speaking out and engaging in the political process as citizens who advocate for the well-being of the neighbor, using reasonable arguments that appeal to the consciences and common sense of others, building coalitions wherever possible with those who share a common vision, and avoiding special pleading based on a "Christian" agenda narrowly understood (124). A long-standing problem, the "Achilles' heel" for Lutheran ethics (81), is the move from justification to sanctification. Other ways of stating the "unfulfilled promise" (91) of Luther's Reformation is to see that "freedom from" sin, death, and the devil turns to "freedom for" love of the neighbor, or whether we need a "third-use" of the law in Lutheran ethics to motivate Christian living. In Nessan's view, "Only the retrieval of Luther's robust understanding of vocation and the universal priesthood can give expression to the social holiness that is the final goal of the Christian life" (80). Among his suggestions [End Page 245] in this regard is to reimagine the "priesthood of all believers" as the "neighborliness" of all believers (87), and to utilize worship practices to imprint on us "both a way of being and a way of serving neighbors" (89). Nessan's contribution to this long-standing problem is important and energetically pursued. From this reviewer's perspective, the solution to this ethical problem is finally theological. As he notes, what sets up Luther's thinking on the two kingdoms is his view that the world is a battleground between God and Satan. What sets up Luther's freedom from/freedom for dialectic is the acknowledgement that I am convicted by the law as a condemned sinner. This theological confession likely challenges our contemporaries more than does Lutheran ethics. Ned Wisnefske Roanoke College Salem, Virginia Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.