Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method: From Martin Luther to the Formula of Concord

by Robert Kolb

Publisher:

Fortress Press

, 2017

Overview

Galvanized by Erasmus’ teaching on free will, Luther wrote De servo arbitrio, or The Bondage of the Will, insisting that the sinful human will could not turn itself to God. This groundbreaking study investigates the sixteenth-century reception of De servo. Robert Kolb unpacks Luther’s theology and recounts his followers’ ensuing disputes through their resolution in the Formula of Concord.

Contents

Top Highlights

“He could not have realized in 1521, however, that he was giving Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam the instrument by which three years later the great humanist would be able to separate himself from the reformer without rejecting his own call for reform.” (Page 12)

“Thus, the believer’s election can be apprehended only a posteriori, that is, through the hearing of God’s Word that produces faith.” (Page 86)

“Those who persist in evil living have no faith and therefore are not among the elect” (Page 69)

“In the early writings of both colleagues the term rarely refers specifically and explicitly to predestination to salvation; its normal usage refers generally to God’s determination of the course of all things.” (Page 78)

“He believed that trust in God, revealed in Jesus Christ, constitutes the core and foundation of true human living” (Page 3)

Product Details

• Title: Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method: From Martin Luther to the Formula of Concord
• Author: Robert Kolb
• Series: Lutheran Quarterly Books
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Print Publication Date: 2017
• Logos Release Date: 2015
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Luther, Martin, 1483-1546 › De servo arbitrio; Free will and determinism › History--16th century; Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536 › De libero arbitrio diatribe; Free will and determinism › Religious aspects--Lutheran Church--History of doctrines--16th century
• ISBNs: 0802829228, 9780802829221
• Resource ID: LLS:BNDCHCTHLGCMTHD
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:16:46Z

About Robert Kolb

Robert Kolb is professor of systematic theology emeritus at Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis. He is the coeditor of the translation of the Book of Concord (2000) and of the Oxford Handbook of Martin Luther’s Theology (2014). He has authored Luther’s Wittenberg World (2018), Martin Luther and the Enduring Word of God (2016), Luther and the Stories of God (2012), and Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith (2009).