Part 2
What is a Theologian?
We have seen that Walther understands theology to mean the ability to lead sinners to salvation by means of the Word of God. Now how is this ability attained, or: how does someone become a theologian?
Walther repeatedly answered this question in his writings. He also dwelled on this question at length whenever he had to answer to theological students in the lecture hall.1
Theology is Walther’s wisdom from above. Not only in such a way that the theologian takes everything he teaches solely from divine revelation, but precisely in such a way that the ability to recognize and communicate divine revelation and thereby lead to salvation is soley an ability wrought by the Holy Spirit. Just as no man can discorver the material with which theology deals by speculation, so no human being can induce in himself the ability to treat and utilize this material correctly through human power and art, for example by following a certain “scientific method.”
The theological habitus, says Walther, “is a supernatural one, one that cannot be attained through human strength and human diligence.”2 “There are certain natural gifts that serve the ministry: Acumen, eloquence, etc. But these do not belong to the actual ministerial gifts which make a minister of the church. Paul mentions these in 1 Cor. 12 and Rom. 12: Wisdom, knowledge, faith, discerning of spirits, prophesying, teaching, exhorting, ruling, etc.” The Holy Spirit, who has revealed divine truth in Scripture, must also use this truth to create the aptitude that can recognize it and communicate and apply it to others for their salvation. “Only the Holy Spirit makes Doctors of Theology,” Walther remarks on Luther’s well-known words, as Doctors of the Holy Scriptures are formed in a distinct manner from “Doctors of Art, of Medicine, of Law, of the Sentences” ect.3
Walther therefore also explains that in Luther’s phrase “oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt Theologum,” “the only correct theological methodology” is given.4 In his “Pastoral Theology” he remarks on p. 6: “In order to arrive at the theological habitus … those three pieces are necessary which are summarized in Luther’s well-known axiom: Oratio, meditatio, tentatio faciunt theologum.”
Oratio is the humble and earnest prayer that God, through his Holy Spirit, may give us the right understanding of Scripture unburdened from our reason. For “although the grammatical sense of Scripture is clear, the Holy Spirit must nevertheless reveal the living and salutary understanding of Scripture.” Further, the “beginning” of all theology is to despair entirely of one’s own wisdom, to submit one’s own mind unconditionally to the Word of God, and to desire to obtain all knowledge of spiritual things from the Word of God. But no human being can do this in a natural way. Thus, it is necessary to end with the oratio. And the greater his scholarship and natural talent, the more this is true. “Proficient knowledge and rich gifts are wonderful things. But one must not forget: the greater the knowledge and gifts, the greater the danger that one rely upon himself for everything, even in theology.”
The Meditatio! This is the continuous study of Scripture, “the immersion in the divine word,” “dealing with God’s word in every kind of way,” according to Luther: “not only in the heart, but also outwardly, always driving and rubbing the oral speech and written words in the book,” as one rubs aromatic herbs so that they give off their pleasant fragrance, adds Walther.
That the Tentatio belongs to “theological methodology” is stated, for example, in 2 Cor. 1:3 ff. When Luther says: “As soon as God’s Word takes root in you, the devil will haunt you, make you a true doctor and teach you through his temptation to seek and love God’s Word.” Walther adds that this is of course “a strange doctorate.” But God observes this way; “therefore no student of theology should grieve about it when God sends him all kinds of temptations.” He wants to adhere to this “methodology,” although he is aware that it is now often ridiculed as inadequate for our time.
But the oratio, meditatio, tentatio, of which Luther speaks, is only found in a regenerated person. Thus Walther further insists that only those who have first become true Christians can become theologians. He writes:5 “No unbeliever, no natural man, no servant of sin, no non-christian, no hypocrite, but only a believer, a regenerated, a sanctified one, in short, only a true Christian can be a true theologian; as the Christian has the man, so the theologian has the Christian as a prerequisite, and as faith includes knowledge, so theology includes faith in itself.” “Holy Scripture” — he continues — “explains this clearly and distinctly.
The apostle, speaking of the ministry of the Word, exclaims in 2 Cor. 2:16: ‘Who is sufficient for these things?’ and answers: ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant,’ 2 Cor. 3:5, 6. Now as surely as the ability to exercise the ministry is bestowed by God alone, so surely is the theological habitus, which alone enables us to exercise the ministry, bestowed by God alone. The holy apostle further says: ‘But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God,’ (οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος = recognizes and does not accept what is of the Spirit of God, or the revealed mysteries of faith), ‘for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things’ (1 Cor. 2:14, 15).
As certainly as a natural man does not understand spiritual things, nor can he judge them rightly, so certainly a natural man (ψυχικὸς ἂνθρωπος) cannot be a true theologian, since he is concerned with judging spiritual things. Only one who is truly spiritual (πνευματικὸς) can also be a true theologian. Even an unconverted man can carry theology as a doctrine in his mind and memory as in a book, and also communicate it to others; but, although he can therefore convert others, he is as little a true theologian himself by virtue of his head knowledge and spoken confession, as is a book containing the doctrine of theology in letters; he is nothing but, as the apostle says of such, ‘a sounding brass and a tinkling bell,’ 1 Cor. 13:1. While he teaches others the pure truth for salvation, it is to himself a mystery not yet unlocked, not yet understood, yes, a folly.6 In preaching to others, he himself becomes reprobate, 2 Cor. 9:27. He does not bear the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience, 1 Tim. 3:9. He still belongs to the world, so he cannot receive the Spirit of truth.”
“Godliness” — Walther remarks elsewhere in relation to the same subject — “is not merely advantageous for the theologian, but a conditio sine qua non.” He refers to 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:5–9, where in the description of a true theologian “the gifts of ministry and sanctification are taken together.” The word “apt to teach” is in a single line with “sober, temperate, moral, hospitable.” In this Walther agrees with the Pietists against some later “Orthodox” that there is no enlightenment without conversion.
Walther then goes on to show that the individual activities incumbent on the servant of the Church can only be performed by a person of living faith. “It is, of course,” he says, “an extremely important teaching of our Church that the Word of God is alive and powerful in itself and does not only become alive and powerful through the piety of those who recite it. But it does not follow from this that it is indifferent whether someone who administers the preaching office is pious.” “Especially because of the right and very necessary separation of the law and the gospel in preaching and in private pastoral care, it is absolutely necessary that the preacher himself carries the faith of the heart and has himself had spiritual experience.”
In his pastoral theology he quotes the words of Luther:7 “I experience it myself, and see it daily in others, how difficult it is to separate the teaching of the Law and the Gospel. The Holy Spirit must be master and teacher here, or no man on earth will be able to understand or teach. Therefore, no pope, no false Christian, no fanatic can divide these two from each other.” In addition, he noted the words: “The doctrine de discrimine legia et evangelii can certainly be correctly understood in one’s mind without living faith, but in its application one then goes astray.”
Furthermore, the unconverted preacher, who at the bottom of his heart only seeks bread, honor, and a good livelihood, but not the salvation of the souls entrusted to him, will refrain from chastising sins properly because he fears making enemies and thus losing the good he seeks. “The unconverted preacher must also not draw too clear a picture of a true or false Christian from God’s Word, for he must fear that his listeners will say: ‘That’s not who you are’ or: ‘That’s exactly who you are!’ An unconverted preacher lacks faithfulness, zeal, daily care, and real enthusiasm in his preaching.
No ministry has such great temptations to unfaithfulness as the preaching ministry. The pastor can rest for six days if he wants to, and sometimes the congregation likes it that the preacher does not come too close. If he has good gifts, he can, despite his laziness, preach in such a way that people think they are hearing miracles. The unconverted preacher then chooses only subjects that he can deal with easily and avoids difficult ones, however necessary they may be.”
As a theological teacher, Walther therefore always endeavored not only to present Christian doctrine clearly, but also to reach the hearts and consciences of his students. Most of his students will testify that Walther’s theological teaching gave them rich encouragement in their spiritual lives. His teaching was both instructive and edifying. Some of his students only came to a living faith in Christ in his theological classroom.
However, as much as Walther emphasized on the one hand and repeatedly reminded students of theology that “only someone standing in grace, only someone born again” could become a theologian, on the other he also warned against the abuse that sects and enthusiasts were making of this truth. He said: “The doctrine that theology is a habitat practicus θεόσδοτος can also be abused,” namely to disdain thorough theological study, or at least to laxity and laziness in study. “The Methodists think that as soon as they are converted, they can now also be preachers.”
Every theologian is a Christian, but not every Christian is a theologian. The theological habitus is bestowed by God alone, yet through diligent study. Walther quotes, “Pastoral Theology” p. 6, the words of L. Hartmann: “What Tertullian once rightly said of Christians, Christians are not born,8 but made, is also true with regard to faithful servants and teachers of the church, who need a long preparation and a great deal of study if they are to enter skillfully into such an exalted office. For here mere personal reputation or seriousness and holiness of life are not enough; rather, theological knowledge is also required.” Walther comments: “Only those who are born again can become theologians, but theology, like the spiritual life, is not bestowed on someone in an instant.”
Just as Walther therefore strove for the most thorough theological training, precisely because of the peculiar circumstances in which the Church of the Reformation here finds itself,9 he also sought to spur students on to the utmost diligence in their studies. He used to reproach them with the fact that men like Chemnitz, Gerhard, Calov, and even Luther, had become great theologians “not through their great gifts, but through the iron diligence they applied.”
Among the notes available to the writer of this book is the following, which we have reproduced here unchanged in its aphoristic form, as it clearly reveals the thoughts that Walther expressed to the students: “Be economical with time — read with pen in hand — make excerpts — study according to a plan — divide up the day and the week — read the best works — do not read at a surface level — repeat everything from time to time — Index verum [index things] — first necessaria [the necessary], then utilissima [the most useful], then utilia [the useful] — theological attention — do not study for the exam — do not study inutilia [the useless] at all.” Walther warned the aspiring theologians about being modest in their goals. No one should be tempted by the thought that they were only mediocrely gifted to be content with mediocre achievements from the outset. “To be modest in one’s aim is a sinful modesty.”
This is how Walther understood it when he said: “Theology is the habitus wrought by the Holy Spirit, drawn from the Word of God through prayer, study, and suffering.” We cannot abandon this definition. It is the Lutheran one, the one taken from God’s Word. The danger that we should go down the path of enthusiasm and think that every Christian is able and called to teach publicly without further ado, now lies further from us. Even the sects have in recent years at least partially returned from this delusion and are pressing for theological training. But by God’s grace it must also remain present with us that mere training does not itself produce theologians, but rather that all theological knowledge and ability is based on and begins with living faith in Christ and geniune conversion. Only young men who are grounded in a spiritual life are capable of studying theology; only pastors who are living believers are capable of administering their ministry.
The orthodox Lutheran Church in this country still has a great shortage of pastors. This shortage is not expected to decrease in the near future, but rather to increase. But the need can never become so great that, contrary to the biblical and Lutheran principle that only converted Christians should be preachers and can be true preachers, unconverted people can now presumably be called to the preaching ministry. The fact that the orthodox Lutheran synods of this country can look back on such blessed effectiveness is itself due to the fact that God has given them a living, believing ministry along with the pure doctrine. If God preserves and grants them this gift in the future, their blessed community will remain and flourish. If we were to lose this gift through our ingratitude and carelessness, if we were to receive a ministry that is for the most part spiritually dead, the fresh, joyful activity in our community would soon cease and the outward apostasy from the right doctrine would soon follow.
1 If no explicit printed sources are given for the following quotations, then unprinted notes in Walther’s hand have been used.
2 Pastoral theology p. 3.
3 Baier, ed. Walther, Proleg. Cap. I, P. 69.
4 Lehre und Wehre XIV, p. 149.
5 Lehre und Wehre XIV, 265.
6 "Perhaps without their realizing it, the gospel is an offense and an annoyance to all servants of sin."
7 E. A. 19, 238.
8 Namely “through natural birth.”
9 “Nowhere is such thorough knowledge needed as here in America, because of the sects.”