Theological Origins of Modernity

the contradictions of premodernity 157
To the extent, therefore, that God hides himself and wills to be unknown to
us, it is no business of ours. . . . God must therefore be left to himself in his
own majesty, for in this regard we have nothing to do with him, nor has he
willed that we should have anything to do with him. But we have something
to do with him insofar as he is clothed and set forth in his Word, through
which he off ers himself to us. . . . For it is this that God as he is preached is
concerned with, namely that sin and death should be taken away and we
should be saved. . . . But God hidden in his majesty neither deplores nor
takes away death, but works life, death, and all in all. For there he has not
bound himself by his word, but has kept himself free over all things. . . .
It is our business, however, to pay attention to the word and leave that inscrutable
will alone, for we must be guided by the word and not by that
inscrutable will. 90
For Luther it is crucial that we take Scripture not to be speeches or accounts
written by men but the living word of God, the method by which
God grasps us, possesses us, and enslaves us, folding us into his being,
making us one with him. It is this word that saves all Christians and it is by
this word that they must be directed. Th is is not the logos of the world in a
strict sense since that narrative would have to include all of God’s actions
in the world. Th at larger narrative and its author must remain concealed,
in Luther’s view. What we need to heed is our narrative, the lines that
are written for us, so that we can play our part in this cosmo-theological
drama.
But how can this satisfy human beings? Th e Stoic identifi cation with the
divine logos brings with it true knowledge free from all opinion and error.
It submerges us in the truth. For Luther our identifi cation with God’s word
is only possible if we avert our eyes from the truth, if we accept and live
the scriptural story, even though we know that there is a deeper and more
all-encompassing story that calls into question the story we live by. Th ere
is thus good reason to doubt that this path can satisfy human beings, for it
cannot eliminate the uncertainty and anxiety evoked by the monstrously
incomprehensible God who stands behind the stage and is responsible for
everything that occurs on it. Th e nominalist God in all of his power and
incomprehensibility thus lurks just beneath the surface of Luther’s gracious
redeemer. Refl ecting on this hidden God, Wilhelm Dantine thus
rightly points to the “vibrating undertone of terror” that runs throughout
Th e Bondage of the Will. 91
Th e doctrine of the hidden God presents Luther with a problem
that is deeply disquieting, for if the concealed God is the real God and
the revealed God merely the mask he presents to humans in Scripture,
how can Luther know that he will keep his promises, particularly about