Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

The Wauwatosa men, Koehler in particular, made it a point to stop using the term
“analogy of faith.” There is a discussion of the historic usage of the analogy of faith, but
simpler terminology has been developed to teach the same truth without the confusing
exegetical and doctrinal baggage that has attached itself to the term. In contrast, the ELS,
while quick to recognize the criticisms of the Wauwatosa men and, for the most part,
accept their judgments as sound warnings, continue to teach and employ the term in its
classical Lutheran form. Zimmerman, for instance, while disagreeing with Koehler’s
assertion that “faith” is always used in a subjective sense in the New Testament, goes on
to quote Koehler at length regarding the pitfalls of the term as well as its proper sense. 116
Similarly, Juul Madson, while also expressing reservations about the use of the analogy
of faith as a hermeneutical principle, even going so far as defending Koehler’s
assessment of the problems that developed with the application of this term still sees a
dogmatic value in its classical Lutheran usage. 117
This continued use of the “analogy of faith” as a hermeneutical principle in the
ELS underscores the Norwegian desire to maintain a living connection to the faithful
confessors of the past. They are wary of “new” expressions and loath to discard anything
“old” until it has been shown to be a danger to the church. The Norwegian Hermeneutic
therefore, is attuned to “different” or “new” language and insists on testing it before
adoption, whereas the Wauwatosa method is less concerned with the historical expression
as it is with the substance of what is being expressed.
In the estimation of this writer, it has been the jarring sound of an unfamiliar
accent that has been the cause of most, if not all, misunderstandings between the two
116 Zimmerman, Biblical Hermeneutics, 59.
117 Madson, The Analogy of Faith, 17.
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