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Martin Luther

The conflict between Catholics and Protestants leads Catholics, who are a small extremist minority in the US [less than 25%, compared to 93% who claim to be Christians, leaving 68% who are Protestants], to proclaim that Protestants are “mindless bigots”, “agnostics”, “racists”, “heretics”, and even “blasphemers” whose level of blasphemy rises to the level of blasphemy of the NAME of the Lord, requiring the death penalty:

And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:16

Of course Protestants make the counter-claim that Catholics are “goddess worshipers” [the “mother” Mary], “cannibals” [drinking the literal blood of Jesus],

 

 

 

Martin Luther

                              Disputation

                     On the Divinity and Humanity of Christ

                              February 27, 1540

 

                   conducted by Dr. Martin Luther, 1483-1546

                        translated from the Latin text

                               WA 39/2,.92-121

                          by Christopher B. Brown

 

 

 

                                  The Theses

                            Theological Disputation

 

 

         1.  This is the catholic faith, that we confess one Lord Jesus

Christ, true God and man.

         2.  From this truth of the double substance and the unity of the

person follows the communication of attributes [communicatio idiomatum], as

it is called.

         3.  So that those things which pertain to man are rightly said of

God, and, on the other hand, those things which pertain to God are said of

man.

         4.  It is true to say:  This man created the world, and this God

suffered, died, was buried, etc.

         5.  But these are not correct in the abstract (as it is said) of

human nature [in abstractis humanae naturae].

         6.  For it cannot be said,  Christ is thirsty, a servant, dead;

therefore he is thirst, servitude, death.

         7.  Wherefore this [statement] too is condemned:  Christ is

humanity, even though it is said:  Christ is divinity.

         8.  Even though man and humanity are otherwise synonyms, as are God

and divinity.

         9.  In the divine predicates or attributes there is not a difference

of this kind between the concrete and the abstract.

         10.  Even though both the scriptures and many fathers do not

distinguish between the concrete and the abstract in many predicates of human

nature.

         11.  The Symbol [the _Te Deum_ ] proclaims, "When thou tookest man

upon thee to deliver him" [Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem], and

Augustine often does the same.

         12.  Although the normal way of speaking (as it seems) would be:

"When thou tookest humanity, or human nature upon thee to deliver it."

         13.  Thus some are not afraid to say:  Christ is a creature, since a

errantly it is said that Christ was created.

         14.  And John 1 says:  "The Word was made flesh," when in our

judgment it would have been better said, "The Word was incarnate," or "made

fleshly."

         15.  It is rightly taught, that in this matter the manner of

speaking preserved in the scriptures and in the orthodox fathers should

prevail.

         16.  Or rather, many things are allowed even to the fathers who are

agreed to be orthodox, which we should not imitate.

         17.  Wherefore in this matter we should beware of etymology,

analogy, [logical] consequence, and examples.

         18.  Just as in grammar certain heteroclite nouns and irregular

verbs are not subject to etymology, analogy, or example.

         19.  And generally, in every sort of subject and art, practice often

dictates against the rule.

         20.  Nonetheless it is certain that with regard to Christ [in

Christo] all words receive a new signification, though the thing signified is

the same [in eadem re significata].

         21.  For "creature" in the old usage of language [veteris linguae

usu] and in other subjects signifies a thing separated from divinity by

infinite degrees [infinitis modis].

         22.  In the new use of language it signifies a thing inseparably

joined with divinity in the same person in an ineffable way [ineffabilibus

modis].

         23.  Thus it must be that the words man, humanity, suffered, etc.,

and everything that is said of Christ, are new words.

         24.  Not that it signifies a new or different thing, but that it

signifies in a new and different way [nove et aliter], unless you want to

call this too a new thing.

         25.  Schwenkfeld and his frog-and-mouse warriors [batarchomyomachis]

foolishly scoff [when we say] that Christ according to his humanity is called

a creature.

         26.  A man without learning [or] training, and moreover without

common sense, does not know how to distinguish between words with more than

one meaning [vocabula aequivoca].

         27.  For those who say that Christ is a creature according to the

old use of language, that is, by himself [separatam], were never Christians.

         28.  But rather everyone vehemently denies that Christ is a creature

in this way, which the Arians taught.

         29.  It is clear, therefore, that Schwenkfeld is barking into an

empty darkness [in vacuum chaos] against his own dreams of the creature in

Christ.

         30.  And forgetting himself, the man concedes that God was made

flesh, though he has not yet dared to deny that flesh is a creature.

         31.  But Eutyches dwells hidden in such heretics, ready someday to

deny that the Word was made flesh.

         32.  They make a show of conceding that the Word was made flesh,

ready someday to deny it, when the theater is darkened, after it is denied

that there is a creature in Christ.

         33.  In these ineffable matters, therefore, this [rule] must be

kept, that we interpret the teachings of the fathers (as is necessary) in a

suitable way [commode].

         34.  It is wicked, when you know that the sense of someone's

teaching is Christian [pium] and sound, to make up an error out of words

ineptly spoken.

         35.  For there were never any fathers or doctors who never spoke in

an improper way, if you want to scoff at their teachings.

         36.  [Coelius] Sedulius, the very Christian poet, writes:  "The

blessed author of the world / Put on a lowly servant's form" [Beatus auctor

seculi servile corpus induit], and so through the entire church.

         37.  Although nothing more heretical could be said than that human

nature is the clothing of divinity.

         38.  For clothing and a body do not constitute one person, as God

and man constitute one person.

         39.  And yet Sedulius' thought was very Christian [piissime], as his

other hymns abundantly prove.

         40.  For the same reason that common saying would be heretical:  The

whole Trinity worked the incarnation of the Son, as two girls dress a third,

while she at the same time dresses herself.

         41.  Thus certain scholastics, who think that the union

[habitudinem] of divinity and humanity is like the union [unioni] of form

with matter, could not be defended.

         42.  Others on the other hand [who think that] the union

[habitudinem] is similar to [the union of] matter to form, speak much more

ineptly, if they are strictly judged.

         43.  Nor could that [image] be maintained, in which the divinity is

compared to fire and the humanity to iron, even though it is a very beautiful

image.

         44.  Nor could that [image] be tolerated which Athanasius puts

forward:  "As the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one

Christ."

         45.  For all deny that Christ is "composed" [of two natures] though

they affirm that he is "constituted."

         46.  But none have spoken more awkwardly [insulsius] than the

Nominalists [Moderni], as they are called, who of all men wish to seem to

speak most subtly and properly.

         47.  These say that the human nature was sustained or "supposited"

by the divine nature, or by a divine supposite.

         48.  This is said monstrously and nearly forces God as it were to

carry or bear the humanity.

         49.  But all of them think [sapiunt] in a correct and catholic way,

so that they are to be pardoned their inept way of speaking.

         50.  For they wished to utter something ineffable, and then every

image limps and never (as they say) runs on all four feet.

         51.  If [anyone] is not pleased by this or does not understand it,

that Christ according as he is a man is a creature [Christus secundum quod

homo est  creatura], the grammarian consoles him.

         52.  Let him who has learned to discuss the same matter in various

ways be commanded to speak as simply as possible.

         53.  As the Ethiopian is white according to [secundum] his teeth,

the grammarian could speak otherwise thus:  The Ethiopian is white with

respect to his teeth [albus dentibus], or "white of tooth" [alborum dentium].

         54.  But if this is unpleasing, let him say:  The Ethiopian has

white teeth, or the teeth in the Ethiopian are white, or, most simply, the

Ethiopian's teeth are white.

         55.  Since in all these forms of speech the author wishes to signify

the same thing, it is useless to seek an argument over words.

         56.  Thus since these forms of speech--Christ according as he is a

man [secundum quod homo], or according to his humanity [secundum

humanitatem], or with respect to his humanity [humanitate], or by his

humanity [per humanitatem], or in his humanity [in humanitate]--mean nothing

else than that he has a creature or has assumed a human creature, or, what is

simplest, the humanity of Christ is a creature, the false logicians

[pravilogicales] are to be condemned, who give different meanings to

different grammatical forms of expression of the same matter.

         57.  Therefore heresy lies in meaning [sensu], and not in words, as

St. Jerome rightly said when he was provoked by his calumniators.

         58.  Otherwise Moses would be the greatest of heretics, for he

recounts the Decalogue itself in different forms in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy

5.

         59.  On the other hand, anyone with a wicked meaning, even if he

shall speak aptly and brandish the Scripture itself, is not to be tolerated.

         60.  For Christ did not permit the demons to speak when they

testified that he was the Son of God, as if they were transfiguring

themselves into angels of light.

         61.  Such is the simplicity and the goodness of the Holy Spirit,

that his agents [homines sui], when they speak falsely according to grammar,

speak the truth according to the sense.

         62.  Such is the craftiness and the wickedness of Satan, that his

agents [homines sui], while they speak truly according to grammar, that is,

as to the words, speak lies according to theology, that is, according to the

sense.

         63.  Here it may be said:  If you are lying, even in what you say

truly, you lie; on the other hand, if you are speaking the truth, even in

what you say falsely, you speak the truth.

         64.  This is what it means to be a heretic:  one who understands the

Scriptures otherwise than the Holy Spirit demands.

 

 

                              The Disputation

 

Disputation of the Reverend Father Herr Doctor Martin Luther concerning the

divinity and humanity of Christ.  In the year 1540, the 28th day of February.

 

                                  Preface

 

The reason for this disputation is this, that I desired you should be

supplied and fortified against the future snares of the devil, for a certain

man has put forth a mockery against the Church.  I am not so much troubled

that an unlearned, unskilled, and altogether ignorant man seeks praise and a

name for himself, as that the men of Lower Germany are troubled by his inept,

foolish, ignorant, unlearned, and ridiculous mocking.  May you preserve this

article in its simplicity, that in Christ there is a divine and a human

nature, and these two natures in one person, so that they are joined together

like no other thing, and yet so that the humanity is not divinity, nor the

divinity humanity, because that distinction in no way hinders but rather

confirms the union!  That article of faith shall remain, that Christ is true

God and true man, and thus you shall be safe from all heretics, and even from

Schwenkfeld, who says that Christ is [not] a creature, and that others teach

falsely, though he does not name those who teach wrongly.  This is the malice

of the  devil:  he implicates us as well as the papists, but he names no one.

If he were to say such things to me, I would answer:  You are lying, [when

you imply that] we say that Christ is not the Lord God.  For our writings cry

out in answer [to your charge].  That wicked man perceives that he cannot

survive if he comes into the light, therefore he works secretly among women

under secret names [tectis nominibus].  But I am not troubled that he thus

seeks to make a name for himself and works secretly, but more by the fact

that better theologians are not moved by these frivolous calumnies to say to

him:  "You, wicked man, are a liar!  We do not say that Christ is merely a

creature, but that he is God and man in one person.  The natures are joined