7/17/09

Are Lutherans trying to recapture an "experience"? A response to Issues Etc.

Energetic Procession offers a response to the Issues Etc. three-part series on Eastern Orthodoxy. In response to the 'Strengths & Weaknesses' segment, Perry C. Robinson states:

"Furthermore, he speaks of the purpose of worship to be slain by the law and resurrected by the gospel. And here seems to me to a case of the pot calling the kettle black. For all the disparagement of a therapeutic approach and a desire for “experience” the Lutheran approach is no less therapeutic and motivated by a recapturing of that “experience” of condemnation and liberation as fostered by their schema. Good Lutheran preaching should use the law to re-create the existential crisis of absolute condemnation by the law that demands all and gives nothing and then supplying the existential release with a gospel that gives all and demands nothing. The value of the gospel lies specifically in its cathartic nature. Here Reformation preaching is no different than what its advocates despise. It is there to create an experience and is evaluated on its ability to do so. It is no small wonder then that the kind of experientialism that we see in say the First Great Awakening with Whitfield and Edwards is manifested in the second, even though it decoupled itself from its theological skeleton."
I had never thought about "Law and Gospel" preaching in this way before. However, I think Perry is on to something here. I do "like" and "look forward" to the feeling when my pastor gives me the Gospel after the Law. There is a distinct emotional and psychological reaction. There is also a distinct reaction/experience when the pastor forgets to give the Gospel and the sermon is all Law.

It would seem that this is very similar to the Pentecostals looking for an emotional high during worship. Perhaps Perry is right that the "pot is calling the kettle black" when we criticize the Pentecostals.

4 comments:

Future Church said...

Hi Steven,

Thanks for commenting on my blog earlier. I am glad I was also able to find yours, and I wish you all the best in your exploration of Orthodoxy.

As a former LCMS Lutheran (converted to Orthodoxy a year ago), I can say that law/gospel preaching was very often a wonderful blessing to me, as well. I recall the first time I heard a sermon preached this way that it seemed as though I had heard Christ preached for the very first time. In a way I had. Having grown up Methodist and after spending some time in a "non-denominational" church, I had grown accustomed to sermons that were really little more than moralism. So, I actually maintain a certain affinity to law/gospel preaching, so long as that particular manner of preaching isn't held up as the only way to preach effectively. At some point during my journey I read several of Chrysostom's homilies and recall thinking he didn't sound very Waltherian at all. This guy was mixing law and gospel all over the place! :-)

What I eventually concluded was that the Lutheran law/gospel criticism against Orthodoxy just wasn't strong enough to keep me from Orthodoxy. When I read the fathers, I didn't see this issue as the central reason for breaking communion with one another. Indeed, I couldn't find this law/gospel dynamic practiced as a rule anywhere prior to Lutheran theology. If you messed with the Trinity, you were out. But so far as the way a priest approached his preaching...it seemed that there was quite a bit of latitude given.

Again, all the best to you. I look forward to reading more.

Blessings in Christ,
Adam

Fr. Gregory Hogg said...

I just found your blog. Looks interesting, and a great title! God give you wisdom as you seek him.

Steven said...

Adam:

Thanks for your reply. I too have not seen evidence of a strict Law and Gospel preaching format in the early church.

Steven said...

Fr. Hogg:

Thanks.