Date of Award

1968

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Theology

Abstract

Any new thinker is doomed to be the victim of both his adversaries and his followers. Those who represent the past from which he emerges denounce his departures and deny his newness. Those who follow, if they are sufficiently removed from what preceded, distort the roots of his thought, press his insights out of context, and often do violence to his original goals and motives. In all this they deprive him of continuity with tradition.

This condition arises out of a fundamental dichotomy in history itself in which the new is always radically old and the old is constantly made new. Perhaps also the problem is rooted in our stop-motion and compartmentalized perception of movement and growth whereby we cast in static terms realities which are processes and movements.

Luther is no exception to this difficulty. He is at once a man of his age, a man of the past and a man of the future. This is evidenced by his own unruly development, by his inherent conservatism, and by his anticipation of developments, for example in biblical exegesis, which have only come to light in the present age.

Comments

An essay presented to the Department of Theology of Marquette University in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

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