Simul-Existenz: Spuren reformatorischer Anthropologie ed. by Christoph Barnbrock and Christian Neddens

Abstract

Reviewed by: Simul-Existenz: Spuren reformatorischer Anthropologie ed. by Christoph Barnbrock and Christian Neddens Jonathan Mumme Simul-Existenz: Spuren reformatorischer Anthropologie. Edited by Christoph Barnbrock and Christian Neddens. Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2019. 271 pp. This book explores the viability, utility, and possibilities of the Lutheran formula, simul iustus et peccator. From a symposium arranged by the Department of Protestant Theology of Saarland University and the Lutheran Theological College of Oberursel, the collection includes sixteen essays by both Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians. Articles by art historians and cultural scientists are also included. Notger Slenczka challenges the notion that the simul formula indicates persons who are sinners in reality (in re) are righteous only under some sort of judgment or promise (in spe). He draws on Martin Luther and John Locke. Oswald Bayer examines being and becoming in Luther’s two- dimensional understanding of baptism. He contends that Luther’s theology is characterized by becoming rooted in being. Similar to an embryo that develops as a person and not into a person (80), the baptized Christian stands as a righteous person before God, which enables and entails growth and development. Stefan Weyer- Menkhoff illustrates three false appropriations of the simul formula while advocating for a theology of the word that allows both sides of the formula to collide. [End Page 344] In “Luther and Paul on Sinfulness and Righteousness,” Volker Stolle criticizes how Luther came to his insight about the simul by way of Romans and Galatians. Stolle claims something closer to Pauline soteriology (described as Lebensrecht, 100) in Luther’s later thought. Taking up James 3:1–12, Andreas Pflock offers an overview of current literature articulating a “new perspective on James” (103). He demonstrates how existential brokenness and hamartiology are James’ chief anthropological contributions, which align with Paul. In “Through Sin Nature Has Lost its Confidence in God,” Sasja E. M. Stopa hypothesizes that Luther’s relational anthropology of humans as both righteous and sinful underwrites the paradox of hierarchy and equality of society. The first section presents a relational anthropology that stops short of a relational ontology and discusses faith as “obedient trust.” The second section fails to demonstrate that Luther’s hierarchical understanding of society is based on trust in one’s superiors. Michael Hüttenhoff clearly examines the simul formula in view of Luther’s assertion that every good work is a sin. Hüttenhoff characterizes Luther’s position as a “dogmatic construction” (161) that is untrue. Hans-Martin Gutmann appeals for homiletical confidence in the Bible’s narratives to be set in contact with parishioners’ life stories. Christoph Barnbrock offers a historical and liturgical examination of the Lutheran mass, asking where parishioners liturgically experience the reality of being saints and sinners. Luther’s reform of the sacrament of penance shaped a form of the mass that offered such experiences, while subsequent Lutheran tradition could either augment or hinder them. Today he commends liturgical enactments that express “the reality of sin” (184) in contemporary experience. Roman Catholic theologians Lucia Scherzberg and Andrea Nguyen ask whether different concepts of humanity support differences between Lutherans and Roman Catholics that remain in the 1999 Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ). They retrace the factual condemnation of the Lutheran simul by the Council of Trent and review the debate that still surrounds it. Katharina Peetz notes, “Understanding Christian existence as an existence between sin and justification is an important source of the interpersonal process of reconciliation in Rwanda,” (221). She [End Page 345] demonstrates how a no-nonsense theology of human sin and divine justification has supported and enabled reconciliation in post- genocide Rwanda. It is quite powerful to read direct articulations of the doctrine and import of justification coming from the lips of men and women who emerged from the utter darkness of human experience together. The volume’s most engaging article, “Sinful and Righteous in Consumer Culture,” is by Wolfgang Ullrich. He illustrates how consumption has been transformed into a new kind of work, wherein good consumers must assume responsibility for the making of right and complicated consumer decisions to attain dignity and status in their own and in others’ estimations. His historical, sociological, and economic...