Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church by Jared Wicks

Abstract

Reviewed by: Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church by Jared Wicks Mark Mattes Luther's Reform: Studies on Conversion and the Church. By Jared Wicks. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2019. ix + 351 pp. This book, a reprint, originally published by Verlag Philip von Zabern in 1992, is welcome. At one time there was a small but productive cohort of Roman Catholic Luther scholars. That number has, unfortunately, diminished. Wicks, who taught at both the Jesuit School of Theology in Chicago and the Gregorian in Rome, is clearly one of the best of these scholars. The introductory chapter and ten "studies" that compose the book are divided into three overarching themes: 1) Conversion, 2) Reform Teachings and Response, and 3) Early Lutheranism in Dialogue. These studies are intense encounters with specific texts and events and not primarily with overarching concepts. Wicks seeks to present how the early Luther understood "conversion," a concept pivotal for the early Luther. Likewise, Wicks' focus on Reformation teaching explores Luther's reinterpretation of the sacraments. He is markedly objective in his portrayal of both Luther and Catholic reactions. In contrast to many Catholic critics of Luther who saw him as infusing a "subjective" element in theology, since he rebelled against ecclesial authority, Wicks contends that Luther does just the opposite, offering instead a sacramental mediation of God's presence. Wicks is an important resource for those interested in the early Luther. He has little interest in Luther's later battles with other Protestants. In the first study, Wicks tackles the early Luther's view of conversion in which people come to a self-awareness of their sinfulness and are made righteous through God's hidden, transformative grace. Apparently independent of Tuomo Mannermaa, Wicks highlights [End Page 214] Luther's focus on union with Christ and its ethical ramifications (25). United with Christ, believers are the operative instruments through whom Christ who inhabits believers does good in the world (25). Far from nixing the importance of good works, Luther contends that faith "grows fat" through them (38). In the third study, Wicks outlines Luther's view of the heart as "clinging to the word," which Walter Cardinal Kasper most recently designated a "mysticism of the word." This chapter outlines the centrality that the concept "heart" plays in Luther's theology with the goal of showing an ultimate alliance between human hearts and God's own heart. It is surprising that more attention is not given to "heart" in Luther (of course, excepting the scholarship of Birgit Stolt and Bengt Hoffman) because it so frequently occurs in his writings. Wicks makes it clear that the monastic and devotional side of Luther's thinking, and not just the scholastic and academic, are crucial. Study five is an exegesis of Luther's Treatise on Indulgences (1517), supplementing the far better known "Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses." Again, Wicks highlights conversion in Luther as a lifelong task of purifying human intentions (108). Far from seeing Luther as offering innovations in theology, as Cajetan accused him, Luther echoes earlier thinkers such as Bernard of Clairvaux, for whom personal appropriation of Christ's benefits was important (145). Indeed, in study eight, Wicks makes the case that Luther's work is best seen as an expression of the "theology for piety" stemming from Jean Gerson which saw theology as primarily the pastoral work of inculcating piety among the laity and catechetically training them. It is for this reason that Luther "shows no interest in speculating on the myriad possibilities open to the absolute power of God, but instead gives himself passionately to treating the concrete means that Christ has historically instituted for the daily mediation of his grace of salvation" (195). The last two essays focus on the context of the Augsburg Confession and its aftermath, highlighting the mild and irenic tone and the colloquy held in August 1530 between Lutheran and Catholic theologians and the difference in approach where Protestants tended to focus on "the dictates of a conscience that was formed by [End Page 215] Scripture" while "Catholics … insist that regulations set down by church authorities do bind in conscience" (314). Wicks' scholarship is impeccable, fair, and exact, a...