INTRODUCTION
L
uther’s passage was written during the Reformation against the Catholic church, which he began. Zinzendorf, though raised a Lutheran, disdained dogmatic Lutheran orthodoxy. Instead, he stresses importance on personal intimacy with God, which is central to Pietism. Indeed, dogmatism permeates the Lutheran passage, which is an eloquent and detailed testimony aimed for the literate. The style resonates with Augustine’s Confessions (Augustine influenced Luther), therefore explaining Luther’s descriptive and emotional account of his coming to faith, as typical of a confessional. Paradoxically, the passage is a dogmatic account of his own ‘Pietism’. God is constantly mentioned, and complements theological terms, including sin, law …show more content…
Luther's theology is, unsurprisingly, is centred on God compared with Zinzendorf’s theology by experiences. Luther's theology benefits from past sources of tradition, complementing his academic background. While, Zinzendorf’s passage is merely rhetorical.
FAITH INFLUENCED BY THEOLOGY SOURCES - HOLISTIC VS. EXPERIENCE For Luther, his coming to faith was holistically influenced by Scripture, tradition, reason and experience. Even with an academic background, his attempt to interpret Scripture was misguided. He interpreted Paul’s ‘righteous of God’ as a command for lawfulness. Luther faced a crisis, after he realised his experience as a monk living according to human rules, was futile. The guilt of ‘still being a sinner’, led him to question (reason) his idea of ‘righteousness’. Luther sought tradition, when his own inquiry failed him. His revelatory experience, was instantaneous and dramatic, that he converted from an intellectual, into a ‘born-again Christian’. Luther may have realised that Paul, as a Jew, was as lawful as he was as a monk, and found righteousness through law impossible. The Pauline passage stressing ‘justification by faith’, changed Luther’s understanding. This was reinforced by the influence of Augustine, whom also reads a Pauline letter (Romans) which also rebuked his lawfulness. Luther was also influenced by the tradition of reading and interpretation of Scriptures, theological training, philosophy. …show more content…
This new experience allows him to interpret previous and future ambiguous scriptures accurately using the model. It also inaugurates the central Protestant doctrine ‘justification by faith’. His needless search for the meaning of the Scriptures and his existence was changed. While not prescriptive on how to receive revelation, he alludes this by naming Augustine’s book about the Spirit, that faith is a continuing experience sustained by the Holy Spirit. This passage best encapsulates the basis of Protestant theology, which became a tradition in its own