This book is about spirituality today. It therefore brings the classic witness of Martin Luther into the practical world of the twenty-first century. Grace and Gratitude presents two texts that represent the spirituality of Martin Luther who spearheaded the Reformation. Because Luther wrote so much in so many different genres, the choice of two texts provides only a single and limited taste of his spirituality. But these two texts open up a specific, central, and distinctive mark of his conception of the structure of Christian life. The name of the theme, justification by grace through faith, often spontaneously correlates with Luther's name and his theology. The phrase points to an explicit theological doctrine that centered his thinking; it lay so deeply ingrained in his outlook that it sometimes explicitly but always tacitly shaped all his early theological views and bestowed a distinctive character to his ethics and spirituality. The two texts are chosen to illustrate how the conviction represented by the phrase draws its authority from scripture, especially Paul, and was discursively analyzed in an early foundational work on Christian life, The Freedom of a Christian. These texts do not represent all there is to say about spirituality in Luther's thought by any means, and this part should not be taken for the whole. But the coupling of these texts penetrates deeply into what may be called Luther's Christian spirituality of gratitude.

Book Information
ISBN 9781531502225
Author Roger Haight
Format Paperback
Page Count 120
Imprint Fordham University Press
Publisher Fordham University Press
Weight(grams) 140g