05-4 Theology of the..

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REFLECTIONS ON LUTHERAN WORSHIP, CLASSICS, AND THE TE DEUM 41 Te martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. The noble army of martyrs praise Thee; Die thewren Marterer allzumal,/Loben dich, Herr, mit grossem schal, Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur ecclesia, The holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee: Die gantze werde Christenheit / Rhumbt dich auff erden allezeit. Patrem immensae majestatis; The Father of an infinite majesty; Dich Gott Vater ym höchsten thron, / Venerandum tuum verum et unicum filium. Thine adorable true and only Son. Deinen rechten und einigen Son, Sanctum quoque paraclitum Spiritum. also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Den heiligen geyst und tröster werd, / Mit rechtem dienst sie lobt und ehrt. 2. Tu rex gloriae, Christe. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. Du könig der ehren, Jhesu Christ, / Tu Patris sempiternus es filius. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. Gott Vaters ewiger Son du bist, Tu, ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti virginis uterum. When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man, Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a virgin. Der Jungfraw leib nicht hast verschmecht, / Zurlösen das menschlich geschlecht. Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Du hast dem tod zerstört sein macht / Und all Christen zum hymel bracht. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria patris. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father. Du sitzt zur rechten Gottes gleich / Mit aller ehr yns Vaters reich, Judex crederis esse venturus. We believe that Thou shalt come to be our judge. Eyn richter du zukunfftig bist / Alles das tod und lebend ist. 3. Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. Nu hilff uns Herr, den dienern dein, / Die mit dem thewren blut erlöset seyn. Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. Lass uns yhm himel haben teil / Mit den heiligen ynn ewigem heil. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae. O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine heritage. Hilff deinem volck, Herr Jhesu Christ, / Und segen, das dein erbteil ist. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. Govern them and lift them up forever. Wart und pfleg yhr zu aller zeit / Unnd heb sie hoch ynn ewickeyt. Per singulos dies benedicimus te; Day by day we magnify Thee. Teglich Herr Gott wir loben dich / Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. And we worship Thy name ever, world without end. Unnd ehrn dein namen stetiglich. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin. Beht uns heut O trewer Gott / Für aller sund und missethat. Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us. Sey uns gnedig, O Herre Gott, / Sey uns gnedig ynn aller not. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. O Lord, let Thy mercy be upon us, as our trust is in Thee. Zeyg uns deine barmhertzigkeit, / Wye unser hoffen zu dir steht. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum. O Lord, in Thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded. Auff dich hoffen wir, lieber Herr, / Inn schanden las uns nimmer mehr. Amen. 1. J. P. Koehler, “Das Wunderbare in Luthers Poesie,” Theologische Quartalschrift 21 (1924): 1–22 and 81–104. See now the translation of Marcus Albrecht in Faith-Life 66 (1993): 2–23. For a brief overview of the historical roots of “alternative worship” see Frank C. Senn, “Worship Alive”: An Analysis and Critique of Alternative Worship Services,” Worship 69 (1995): 194–224. 2. Literature on the Church Growth Movement and the “pop-culture packaging” espoused by the new “mega-churches” abounds. For a recent, mostly positive assessment, see Charles Trueheart, “Welcome to the Next Church,” Atlantic Monthly, August 1996, 37–58. For a critical discussion of the “style” versus “substance” argument, see the author’s “On Church Growth, Lutheran Style, and Wittenberg Beer,” Faith-Life 66 (1991): 1–14. NOTES 3. The reader should be advised that here and elsewhere in this paper, I use the term “traditional” or “classic Lutheran liturgy” in a fairly broad sense to include not only the traditional forms of worship used in the medieval Latin mass tha were inherited by the Lutheran reformation, but also the chorales, written by Luther and others, many of which were designed to be sung as part of his German Mass, or which were to be sung at specific festivals or seasons of the church year. Still worth consulting on the development of the Lutheran liturgy and its various forms is Luther Reed’s The Lutheran Liturgy (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1947). For some more recent perspectives, see the articles in Lutheran Worship: History and Practice, ed. Fred. L. Precht (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1993).
42 LOGIA 4. The theology of the cross does not accord well with the assumptions and aspirations of “the American dream,” which someone has aptly described as the desire to be born again without suffering.” 5. For some sensible and timely observations on teaching the Kyrie, see Dale Meyer’s recent article in LOGIA 5 (Epiphany 1996): 80–84. 6. This “success” is frequently measured exclusively in numerical terms. One indication of how crassly (or blissfully) ignorant some advocates of Church Growth really are of such biblical concepts as the remnant or the doctrine of election is their disparaging use of the term “maintenance ministry” to describe those congregations that are not growing numerically. Do they really mean to suggest that a country parish pastor, faithfully preaching the word and administering the sacraments to a dwindling group of white-haired saints on the last leg of their earthly pilgrimage, is not performing a great service in God’s eyes 7. Just because we say that all men are created equal does not, of course, make it so. In all social arrangements the world has ever known, including the most aggressively egalitarian, some people have always turned out to be “more equal” than others. Indeed, our founding fathers themselves, steeped in the classics as they were, were far “above average.” It is significant that they didn’t ask just anybody (an illiterate farmer, for instance) to write the Declaration of Independence. It was Thomas Jefferson, one of the best educated men of his day, who penned this “popular” manifesto. Our nation’s constitution was the creation in large part of James Madison, another member of the leading, elite, well-educated class. Even though it starts out “We, the People,” the constitution was not written by the people. Today, too, after two hundred years of American plutocratic equality, there is a decided gap (which seems to be increasing) between the stated ideal and the actual reality. 8. For a good overview of these developments, see Meyer Reinhold, Classica Americana: The Greek and Roman Heritage in the United States (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1984). 9. There used to be a popular game show in this country called “Family Feud.” The challenge was not to guess anything that is actually true (as in “Jeopardy,” where contestants must know specific information, such as the capital of Ireland), but what Americans thought was true. Why should our uninformed public opinion matter so much Why would anyone be even remotely interested in surveying what most Americans consider their favorite vegetable The answer, of course, is that American popular taste (however degraded or uninformed) is of great interest, not only to politicians, but also to merchants, educators, and church leaders, who are increasingly competing with each other in trying to shape and satisfy the public’s “felt needs.” 10. See Leonard Payton, “The Pride of Simplicity,” Modern Reformation, July–August 1995, 30–31. 11. From the preface to Luther’s Deutsche Messe und Ordnung Gottes Dienst. AE 53: 62. 12. “Liturgical correctness”—often adopted in reaction to the excessive casualness of church growth emphases—can be a form of slavery, too. One Lutheran church recently added a clause to its constitution stipulating that the Lord’s Supper be celebrated every Sunday. While frequent celebration of the Eucharist is desirable and certainly in accordance with what we know of the practice of the earliest church, we must be careful not to turn the gospel into a new law. “Where the Spirit is, there is freedom.” The truth does not ever enslave us. It sets us free. If our desire to preserve a tradition such as the liturgy does not have everything to do with making it live again for yet another generation of believers, then this desire is not God-pleasing. The treasure does not exist for its own sake or to satisfy the curiosity of antiquarians. And the householder does not just hoard the treasure or catalogue it, but he brings things forth from it. The gospel has a purpose. It is “for you.” 13. Heiko Oberman makes this point particularly well in his Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), passim. 14. “It is not now nor ever has been our intention to abolish the liturgical service of God completely, but rather to purify the one that is now in use from the wretched accretions which corrupt it, and to point out an evangelical use” (AE 53: 20). 15. Although I use the word “hymn” loosely to describe the Te Deum, it has neither the stanzaic structure of Ambrose’s compositions nor the more classicizing features of Prudentius’s Cathemerinon hymns. It might be more accurate to use the term “rhythmical prose” to describe the accentual cadences of this composition. 16. Albert Gerhards, “Te Deum laudamus—Die Marseillaise der Kirche” Liturgisches Jahrbuch 49 (1990), 65ff. 17. The former has been attributed to Bonaventura (see the discussion in John Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology, 1135). 18. See the authoritative discussion in WA 35: 249–254. 19. AE 53: 171–173. 20. The Antiphonary of Bangor (c. 690) and Vat. Reg. Lat. 11 (Queen Christina’s psalter; first half of the eighth century). 21. He remarks: “Das drit Symbolon sol Sancti Augustini und Ambrosi sein und nach S. Augustini Tauffe gesungen sein. Das sey also oder nicht, so ists on schaden, ob mans gleube oder nicht.” As cited in Ernst Kähler, Studien zum Te Deum und zur Geschichte des 24. Psalms in der alten Kirche (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1958), 137 (referred to hereafter as Kähler). 22. G. Morin, “Nouvelles recherches sur l’auteur du Te Deum,” Revue Bndictine 11 (1894): 59–60. 23. On Nicetas’s attitude toward music and chant, see V. Messana, “Quelques remarques sur la liturgie du chant selon Nictas de Remesiana,” Ephemerides Liturgicae 102 (1988): 138–144. 24. For example, Burn suggests that Nicetas’s De symbolo 7: “sedes, dominationes, universae caelorum virtutes” is parallel with the Te Deum’s “Tibi omnes angeli tibi celi et universae potestates.” In fact, the passage in De symbolo looks just as close to Colossians 1:16: “sive throni sive dominationes sive principatus sive potestates”; and it is this New Testament verse (or another text, perhaps liturgical, based on this verse) that probably served as the common source for both passages here cited. W.A. Patin, Niceta von Remesiana als Schriftsteller und Theologe (Munich: J. Lindaursche Buchhandlung, 1909) does point to a reference in De symbolo 10: “Angeli virtutes, potestates supernae,” which is somewhat more apropos for Burn’s argument. The passage has at least two words in common with the phrase in the Te Deum! 25. Kähler does recognize that his arguments would be strengthened if he could offer an explanation for how the name entered the manuscript tradition in the first place: “Natrlich wre die These von der Verfasserschaft des Nicetas am Te Deum noch eindeutiger als unhaltbar erwiesen, wenn man nun eine Erklrung dafr geben knnte, wie es zu den Angaben der Handschriften, auf die sie sich grndet, gekommen ist. Ich sehe zunchst keine Mglichkeit, hier etwas Wahrscheinliches zu sagen” (130). 26. Hilary of Poitiers, too, whose name appears in at least two manuscripts, was renowned as the first of the Latin hymn writers and would be a logical candidate. 27. Dedications in the dative case, of course, were not at all uncommon in ancient literature. Pindar’s Odes, for example, are prefaced by dedications to the victors, by name, whose athletic accomplishments they celebrate. There are even closer precedents in the poetry of the Bible. A number of psalms, forty-four to be precise, begin in Latin translation with the dedication Victori. In Jerome’s translation of the Hebrew as well as some Spanish versions of the Vetus Latina this is the dubious rendering of the Hebrew jæXen"m]l" . I have developed this idea at greater length in an article that is forthcoming in Studia Patristica. 28. Klaus Gamber, “Das Te Deum und sein Autor,” Revue Bndictine 74 (1964): 320: “Falls das Te Deum, was nicht ausgeschlossen ist, auf einen griechischen Text aufbaut—und dafr spricht besonders die textliche Verwandschaft mit dem Gloria ....” 29. There is now a journal, The Classicist, published by the Institute of Classical Architecture, whose refreshing credo it is that “a familiarity with traditional form is an objective which transcends stylistic debate, and that modern practitioners can only enhance the quality of their work—regardless of the idiom in which it is expressed—for having learned about architecture from the classical perspective.” 30. AE 54: 235–236. 31. See now Luke Timothy Johnson, The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels (San Francisco: Harper, 1996).
Page 1 and 2: Logia a journal of lutheran theolog
Page 3 and 4: logia a journal of lutheran theolog
Page 5 and 6: NOT ONLY REFLECTIVE, LEARNED SCHOLA
Page 7 and 8: THE TWO-FACED GOD 7 vated and drive
Page 9 and 10: THE TWO-FACED GOD 9 wrath and judgm
Page 11 and 12: Luther’s Augustinian Understandin
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Page 15 and 16: LUTHER’S AUGUSTINIAN UNDERSTANDIN
Page 17 and 18: The Doctrine of Justification and I
Page 19 and 20: JUSTIFICATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR EVA
Page 25 and 26: THE DEBATE OVER THE USE OR NON-USE
Page 27 and 28: DIVINE SERVICE: DELIVERING FORGIVEN
Page 29 and 30: DIVINE SERVICE: DELIVERING FORGIVEN
Page 31 and 32: 32 LOGIA fied with Christ. 4 We fai
Page 33 and 34: 34 LOGIA makes it great: its abilit
Page 35 and 36: 36 LOGIA them; that they may be one
Page 37 and 38: 38 LOGIA vidual, written in the plu
Page 39: 40 LOGIA place in a vacuum; it is i
Page 43 and 44: Patrick Hamilton (1503-1528) A Scot
Page 45 and 46: REVIEWS “It is not many books tha
Page 47 and 48: REVIEWS 49 liturgy as an enactment
Page 49 and 50: REVIEWS 51 should be timeless, and
Page 51 and 52: REVIEWS 53 What does Mead mean by
Page 53 and 54: REVIEWS 55 dent revolution in Hambu
Page 55 and 56: REVIEWS 57 above-mentioned sort wer
Page 57 and 58: LOGIA Forum SHORT STUDIES AND COMME
Page 59 and 60: LOGIA FORUM 61 tempting God. For in
Page 61 and 62: LOGIA FORUM 63 ME GAVTE LA NATA A r
Page 63 and 64: LOGIA FORUM 65 basis of church fell
Page 65 and 66: LOGIA FORUM 67 language is used to
Page 67 and 68: LOGIA FORUM 69 10. Our worship says
Page 69 and 70: LOGIA FORUM 71 make a few blunders,
Page 71 and 72: The Angels Are Aware . . . and We A
Page 73 and 74: Index of Articles by Author Volumes
Page 75 and 76: Index of Book Reviews by Title Afte
Page 77 and 78: Index of Book Reviews by Author Alt
Page 79 and 80: Index of LOGIA Forum Volumes I thro
Page 81: CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ulrich Asendor

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