Gesetz und Evangelium im Nachkriegsprotestantismus by David Scherf

Abstract

Reviewed by: Gesetz und Evangelium im Nachkriegsprotestantismus by David Scherf Matthew L. Becker Gesetz und Evangelium im Nachkriegsprotestantismus. Religion in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 5. By David Scherf. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019. 285 pp. This doctoral dissertation, accepted at the University of Osnabrück, examines the transformation of the distinction between law and gospel in the work of three post-WWII West German Protestant theologians: Ernst Wolf (1902-1971), Helmut Thielicke (1908–1986), and Carl Heinz Ratschow (1911–1999). The author, [End Page 245] a Lutheran pastor in Bavaria, provides brief biographical sketches, summarizes key works, surveys the secondary literature, and offers theological analysis and a concluding assessment. While the introduction describes the cultural crisis in German Protestantism after the First World War and gives an overview of three key theological movements in the Weimar era (dialectical theology, religious socialism, and neo-Lutheran confessional theology), the first chapter only offers an incomplete description of the contrasting views on law and gospel by Werner Elert, Karl Barth, and Paul Althaus. As important as that Auseinandersetzung was for later developments, it should have received fuller analysis. More context was needed, as well as better sources. Why Scherf used post-1945 writings from Althaus but not from Elert is unclear. A strength of the chapter is how it identifies important if subtle differences between Elert's and Althaus' positions on the revelation of law. The Barthian-Erlangen debate over law and gospel was partially continued by the three central figures in Scherf's study, but also transformed by them in the changed cultural and political situation of postwar West Germany. These three middle chapters provide insightful perspectives on figures lesser known today and whose ideas are worthy of further engagement. The starting point for Wolf's social ethics coincides with the first thesis of the Barmen Declaration, which focuses solely on the incarnate word. Wolf, who had been Barth's student, replaces the latter's notion of "law" (Gesetz) with "command" (Gebot). Wolf moves from "the new human being" in Christ to the content of the divine command that summons the disciple of Christ to faithful obedience in the world. Christ's command is the form of the gospel, and the gospel, which is all about the assurance of divine grace, is the content of the command (99). According to Wolf, the basic unity of command and gospel within the one word of God has consequences for the political existence of the Christian. Such a view begins and ends with the one lordship of Jesus Christ. It rejects Elert's and Althaus' understandings of "two kingdoms," "the orders [End Page 246] of creation," and "natural law," and it reframes the Creator's orderings and social structures along the lines of Bonhoeffer's "mandates" and the command/summons to exercise Christian love in society. In contrast to Wolf, Thielicke defended the sharp antithesis between law and gospel, whose impact on the Christian life abides unto death, but he took more seriously the problem of secularization in post-war West Germany than did his Doktorvater Althaus. Thielicke transformed the law-gospel dialectic to speak more clearly to the challenges of Christian faith and ethical behavior in that postwar liberal democracy. Nevertheless, like Elert and Althaus, Thielicke stressed that the word of God is not a singular, uniform message since it addresses us in this twofold form. While both the law and the gospel give knowledge of the self, the law discloses that the human being is alienated from God and under God's judgment (123). Every divine command always implies that I ought not to be what I am. Thus, the divine command cannot be the content of the gospel. Rather, over against the law and command of God, the gospel discloses that I am reconciled with God and it actually creates this new reality. Against Barthian-Wolfian social ethics, Thielicke insisted that the distinction between law and gospel and the related distinction between the two kingdoms are crucial since they each seek to maintain the gracious promise of solo-Christo and sola-fide, while also opening up important ethical implications for the Christian life. Ratschow, who studied under Friedrich Brunstädt and who edited...