Friday, April 20, 2012

LCMS Telling the Truth About Luther?

Over on the CARM boards this statement from the LCMS has come under scrutiny:
Resolved, That, in that light, we personally and individually adopt Luther's final attitude toward the Jewish people, as evidenced in his last sermon: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord" (Weimar edition, Vol. 51, p. 195).
I've commented on this before: LCMS: On Martin Luther's anti-Semitic statements. This statement comes from this LCMS pdf. In the CARM discussion, we first talked a bit about whether this bit of evidence was preached during Luther's last sermon. My take on this is here. He may have, according to LW 58. This comment by Luther being cited by the LCMS is from an appendix that's attached to Luther's last sermon. There is a discussion in LW 58, pp. 402-403, as to the ambiguity as to when exacly the Admontion was delivered. This Admonition, accord to LW 58, was originally printed at the end of the Four Sermons in Eisleben as an appendix, under the title "Admonition against the Jews" [Vier Predigten des Ehrwirdigen Herrn D. Martini Luthers, zu Eisleben vor seinem abscied aus diesem leben gethan (Wittenberg: Hans Luft, 1546), ff. S1r-S3r)].

That tedium aside, what the LCMS quoted from Luther is certainly Luther's opinion, and they certainly include disapproval for Luther's writings against the Jews in the same pdf. Where they err is giving the impression that the words cited from the Admonition represent the the totality and finality of Luther's opinion on the Jews. It does not, as the Admonition still has a harsh tone. Is this LCMS pdf misrepresenting Luther?  Their statement is certainly not completely truthful. I can understand that the LCMS does not approve of Luther's hostility towards the Jews (as they state), but whoever did the research on this statement wasn't careful.

Here's how the statement reads again:
Resolved, That, in that light, we personally and individually adopt Luther's final attitude toward the Jewish people, as evidenced in his last sermon: "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord" (Weimar edition, Vol. 51, p. 195).
I would suggest this get's reworded to something like, "we personally and individually adopt an aspect of Luther's final attitude" for to adopt Luther's final attitude would include driving the Jews out of the land.

Each year Concordia releases a new volume of Luther's Works in English. In 2010 they released volume 58, Sermons. These sermons cover the years from 1539-1546. Low and behold, they include as the final entry of the volume, An Admonition Against the Jews (pp. 458-459). Luther still is quite harsh against the Jews, requesting that if the Jews don't convert, it wouldn't be a bad idea for the Lords to "drive them away." It's an odd document. It's obvious he wasn't calling for the Jews to be killed, but he certainly would only tolerate them in society if they converted. Otherwise, they were to be banished. Here again, Luther was not against Jews as "people" but rather he was quite intolerant of their religion.

1 comment:

LPC said...

JS,

The Lutheran Confession has been a stable document for the last 500 years. It is quite amazing how the Synods of Lutheranism love to extend it to places and issues that are not necessary nor wise to speak of.

They are acting like mini-magisteriums. My synod is like that too though fortunately they do not do it as frequently as LC-MS does.

LPC