A Handful of Notes about, “Letters of Spiritual Counsel”
Talk Reformation Era: History and Literature
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1geoffreymeadows
The great thing about “Letters of Spiritual Counsel” is that they emphasize Luther’s compassionate side. There’s also some good history here embedded in the letters.
1) In an earlier post I said Luther didn’t allow for Biblical helps. According to this letter (pp. 111-113), Luther admits he has not concluded on what authors or helps he could recommend, but that he wasn’t opposed to all helps. Of the Church Fathers, he does value Augustine and Ambrose. And he prefers those two authors to Jerome, who Erasmus prefers. Luther just doesn’t put much stock in the Church Fathers as a whole, as Erasmus does. So, Luther does not support using the Church Fathers extensively to interpret scripture. He’s just undecided about what helps to use in interpreting the Bible. One wonders what he would think about the plethora of commentaries and Bible helps we now have available to us. My guess is that he’d probably think they’re useful.
2) Luther shows his pastoral side (pp. 131-136) even when it comes to dealing with difficult doctrinal issues. So, while Luther does believe in predestination, he does not think that believers should be overly concerned about it. They should not be inquiring into it, or into if they are or are not predestined, and why. He clearly teaches that these are part of God’s hidden will (yes, he does believe in a hidden will of God) and that delving into this and doubting this may actually be sin. In answer to people who are struggling with feelings that they are not predestined, he recommends focusing more on God and God’s good character, and in God’s universal desire to save everyone.
3) This series of letters (pp. 140-159), between Luther and Philip Melanchthon (and others) were written during the Diet of Augsburg (1530) while negotiations were taking place between the Lutherans and the Catholics. Luther was at the castle in Coberg, it not being safe for him to attend the Diet. In Lyndal Roper’s biography of Luther, she pays quite a bit of attention to the Diet but only says Luther’s influence on it was probably disruptive. It’s good to see here his letters and see another side to that comment. To me, it appears that Melanchthon could have been a tougher negotiator.
4) Luther writes a nice letter to Lambert Thorn (pp. 192-194 & 197-199) who was a former monk who was in prison for advocating Protestant doctrines (in Brussels). Two other monks who were with him, Henry Vos and John van den Esschen, were already executed for heresy on July 1, 1523. Thorn died (presumably of natural causes) a few years later in prison. He never recanted. Shortly after Thorn’s imprisonment and the executions of the other two monks, others were executed or exiled in other places in Europe. According to the notes here, Vos and Esschen were the first evangelicals to be executed in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. During the course of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, hundreds, on both sides, would be martyred for their beliefs.
5) In this letter (pp. 325-327), Luther encourages a local duke to set up universities and primary schools in his domain. “If studying is to be encouraged, you must have, not empty cloisters and deserted monasteries and endowed churches, but a city in which many people come together, work together, and incite and stimulate one another.” The solitary studies of the monks, Luther says, did not produce this effect, but studies in towns and cities do — some social engineering here from Luther and coincidentally a good notion for any modern architect or city planner. I would note that at this time the Jesuits also created, as perhaps their most prevalent activity, many schools and colleges, which were directed, like Luther’s schools, at commoners as well as elites.
Responses to any of these notes are welcome. I’m doing them mainly because writing helps me to engage more with the material. But I’m also open to comments. Obviously, discussion also helps one to engage with the material.
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P.S. - Luther’s virtues are evident here in the pastoral letters. It will be good to keep that in mind as we venture into his anti-semitism in On the Jews and Their Lies. He did a lot of good, though he contributed to Germany’s cardinal sin.
1) In an earlier post I said Luther didn’t allow for Biblical helps. According to this letter (pp. 111-113), Luther admits he has not concluded on what authors or helps he could recommend, but that he wasn’t opposed to all helps. Of the Church Fathers, he does value Augustine and Ambrose. And he prefers those two authors to Jerome, who Erasmus prefers. Luther just doesn’t put much stock in the Church Fathers as a whole, as Erasmus does. So, Luther does not support using the Church Fathers extensively to interpret scripture. He’s just undecided about what helps to use in interpreting the Bible. One wonders what he would think about the plethora of commentaries and Bible helps we now have available to us. My guess is that he’d probably think they’re useful.
2) Luther shows his pastoral side (pp. 131-136) even when it comes to dealing with difficult doctrinal issues. So, while Luther does believe in predestination, he does not think that believers should be overly concerned about it. They should not be inquiring into it, or into if they are or are not predestined, and why. He clearly teaches that these are part of God’s hidden will (yes, he does believe in a hidden will of God) and that delving into this and doubting this may actually be sin. In answer to people who are struggling with feelings that they are not predestined, he recommends focusing more on God and God’s good character, and in God’s universal desire to save everyone.
3) This series of letters (pp. 140-159), between Luther and Philip Melanchthon (and others) were written during the Diet of Augsburg (1530) while negotiations were taking place between the Lutherans and the Catholics. Luther was at the castle in Coberg, it not being safe for him to attend the Diet. In Lyndal Roper’s biography of Luther, she pays quite a bit of attention to the Diet but only says Luther’s influence on it was probably disruptive. It’s good to see here his letters and see another side to that comment. To me, it appears that Melanchthon could have been a tougher negotiator.
4) Luther writes a nice letter to Lambert Thorn (pp. 192-194 & 197-199) who was a former monk who was in prison for advocating Protestant doctrines (in Brussels). Two other monks who were with him, Henry Vos and John van den Esschen, were already executed for heresy on July 1, 1523. Thorn died (presumably of natural causes) a few years later in prison. He never recanted. Shortly after Thorn’s imprisonment and the executions of the other two monks, others were executed or exiled in other places in Europe. According to the notes here, Vos and Esschen were the first evangelicals to be executed in the conflict between Protestants and Catholics. During the course of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, hundreds, on both sides, would be martyred for their beliefs.
5) In this letter (pp. 325-327), Luther encourages a local duke to set up universities and primary schools in his domain. “If studying is to be encouraged, you must have, not empty cloisters and deserted monasteries and endowed churches, but a city in which many people come together, work together, and incite and stimulate one another.” The solitary studies of the monks, Luther says, did not produce this effect, but studies in towns and cities do — some social engineering here from Luther and coincidentally a good notion for any modern architect or city planner. I would note that at this time the Jesuits also created, as perhaps their most prevalent activity, many schools and colleges, which were directed, like Luther’s schools, at commoners as well as elites.
Responses to any of these notes are welcome. I’m doing them mainly because writing helps me to engage more with the material. But I’m also open to comments. Obviously, discussion also helps one to engage with the material.
********************
P.S. - Luther’s virtues are evident here in the pastoral letters. It will be good to keep that in mind as we venture into his anti-semitism in On the Jews and Their Lies. He did a lot of good, though he contributed to Germany’s cardinal sin.
