Dennis D Bielfeldt | Institute of Lutheran Theology (original) (raw)

Published Papers by Dennis D Bielfeldt

Verba Vitae, 2024

What is it that makes a person who she is? Traditional accounts of personhood rely on intrinsic c... more What is it that makes a person who she is? Traditional accounts of personhood rely on intrinsic criteria: A person is his body or his mind, or perhaps his soul. Yet, these accounts are problematic because one could have a different body or a different set of psychological experiences. Moreover, appeal to an immaterial soul to individuate persons is unhelpful because each soul seems to have the same set of properties. This problem of personal identity is linked, of course, to a host of deep questions, e.g., Is a fetus a person? Does one in the throes of dementia still have personal identity?

After reviewing the standard objections to understanding personal identity intrinsically, I suggest an extrinsic account of individuation, e.g., Bob is Bob, not because of Bob's body or mental experience, but because of God's intentionality. Just as God's love individuates the Persons of the Trinity, so does His love individuate extra-Trinitarian persons. Bob is Bob because God eternally regards Bob to be Bob and eternally loves and sustains Bob in being.

If the problem of personal identity finally demands such an extrinsic account of individuation, then personhood itself is a matter of God's grace. Divine love brings persons ex nihilo into being. Accordingly, the question of whether it is justifiable to choose to terminate the life of the fetus is profoundly altered, for viability is grounded in divine intent, not in biological and/or psychological development and achievement.

Verba Vitae, 2024

There is a fundamental distinction between the essence of a thing and its existence, a metaphysic... more There is a fundamental distinction between the essence of a thing and its existence, a metaphysical distance that grounds the irreducibility (or even incommensurability) of the latter to the former. In modern logic this is the distinction between specification of polyadic predicates and their instantiation. The irreducibility of existence to essence problematizes easy consequentialist arguments arguing to the existence or nonexistence of a baby/fetus on the basis of the likely effects that the existence of this being shall have on the overall utility of a group. I argue that arguments from the utility of a group to the existence of an individual while prima facie problematic, can proceed cautiously when structured as defeaters if and only certain conditions are met to the overall inferential isolation of existence from essence.

Verba Vitae, 2024

Since from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, life -- particularly life like ours -- i... more Since from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, life -- particularly life like ours -- is exceedingly rare in the universe, it has a prima facie preciousness. Ontology of life questions cannot be pursued in isolation from the immediacy of this preciousness.

Dialog, 2022

Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Rece... more Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Recently Duane Armitage has claimed that since Heidegger is the “root to all continental philosophy of religion and postmodern theology,” and since his “disdain for onto-theology is rooted in Luther, . . . essentially all postmodern theological thinking is fundamentally Lutheran.” Clearly, both Martins deemphasize theology’s penchant for abstract metaphysics and look instead to recover the facticity of concrete lived Christian existence. But surface similarities should not occlude what profoundly differentiates the two, for the Martins depart radically in what they thought thinking did and what the truth-conditions of their respective discourses were. Luther who assumed theological realism, was concerned with how human beings really stand in relation to God, while Heidegger brackets such questions in favor of a description of the phenomenological shape of the Christian life. I employ elementary model theory in order to provide greater precision and accuracy in evaluating the stark semantics differences of their respective approaches.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther , Jun 2017

While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the ques... more While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the question of being, careful scrutiny of his texts show otherwise. Trained at Erfurt to read Aristotle in the via moderna tradition, Luther did have ontological and semantic convictions that are displayed throughout his work, but especially in his disputations dealing with Trinitarian, Christological and soteriological issues. While rejecting as idolatrous the human attempt to grasp the summum bonum through natural reason, Luther nonetheless assumed that God’s revelation in Christ has ontological implications.

The Finnish School of Luther interpretation, founded by Tuomo Mannermaa, has done a great service for Luther research by highlighting the motifs in Luther of Christ’s real presence in the justified believer and the presence of God’s love in faith. Although the Aristotelian categories available to Luther were inadequate for conceiving the paradoxical presence of the infinite in the finite, Luther did not thereby adopt a relational ontology more characteristic of the late nineteenth century than his own time. Instead he simply regarded as true what his philosophical categories could not fully conceive: Just as God became a human being while remaining God, so too do humans become God while remaining human. While the Finnish scholarship highlights Luther’s use of participatio in speaking of the presence of the divine in the justified believer, Luther did not mean thereby that human beings are essentially transformed into God, but rather they are in faith profoundly interpenetrated by the divine.

Luther’s discussion of the nova lingua of theology connects to the “real-ontic” presence of Christ in the believer. As a good nominalist, Luther understood that sentential truth presupposes ontology. While everyday language, the language of philosophy generally, has truth conditions that can be articulated in terms of the existence of particular substances and their particular qualities, things are not so clear for the language of theology that speaks of the Trinity, incarnation, and the presence of God in the world and particularly in the life of the believer. How is this language constituted so that the real presence of the divine can be spoken with meaning and truth? While Luther assumes the extensionalism of nominalism when speaking philosophically, it is not clear that this is the case when he speaks theologically. Luther understands that language itself must be profoundly changed in order to grasp and state the reality of the infinite in the finite. Whether this change can be understood on the horizon of an extensionalist semantics is an open question.

Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions, Aug 2017

Habits in Mind, eds., Gregory Peterson, James van Slyke, Michael Spezio, & Kevin Reimer, 77-99, Jun 2017

Hilary Putnam famously argued that meaning is not in the head, i.e., the meaning of a term is not... more Hilary Putnam famously argued that meaning is not in the head, i.e., the meaning of a term is not determined wholly intrinsically by our psychology, but in part extrinsically by the actual reference of a term. This entails inter alia that two people with molecule-by-molecule replica brains can mean different things and that the supervenience of meaning upon brain states fails. Meaning is not a non-relational, intrinsic property of agents, but is extrinsically related to the world beyond the agent. This view is standardly called semantic externalism. Much of the philosophical tradition has tacitly assumed that virtue is a non-relational, intrinsic psychological or behavioral property of agents and that it thus supervenes upon appropriate behavioral and/or neurophysical realizers. Accordingly, two people with molecule-by-molecule replica brains must possess common virtues. But within the context of late medieval scholasticism, virtue came to be increasingly understood as relational and extrinsic to the agent. Later within Lutheran theology, there was an "Exodus from virtue to grace," a paridigmatic upheaval in understanding the nature of virtue. Just as the external world determines what terms mean, so an external agent determines what acts are virtuous. We might call this virtue externalism. This paper surveys the late medieval notion of virtue as it develops in the pactum theology of the via moderna and attains classic form within Lutheran theology where the following holds: S is virtuous in doing P if and only if God regards S as being virtuous in doing P. The goal is to show that virtue externalism was, and still remains, a vibrant alternative to traditional virtue internalist accounts. The paper concludes by pointing out that the possibility of virtue externalism has deep implications for any attempt to locate physical realizers for ethics. As it turns out, it is possible for two people to be behaviorally and neuro-physically indiscernible and yet display discernibly different ethical properties, and, as I suggest in conclusion, this is true not only if we posit the notion of divine agency, but any external agency whatsoever.

Word at Work , 2015

A firm understanding of the truth-conditions of theological language can help us greatly in doin... more A firm understanding of the truth-conditions of theological language can help us greatly in doing theology. This article takes truth conditions seriously.

The Word at Work , May 2015

The Annotated Luther Series, Vol I: The Roots of Reform (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), ed. Timothy Wengert, 66-121, 2015

The philosophical theses of Luther's Heidelberg Disputation follow the theological theses in clai... more The philosophical theses of Luther's Heidelberg Disputation follow the theological theses in claiming that Aristotle is improperly used as a theology of glory. In the epistemic realm, as in the moral order, human beings cannot build a bridge to God on the basis of their own deontological or epistemic merits. Luther criticizes in the disputation the penchant of the late medieval tradition to interpret Aristotle in ways showing consonance with Christian theology.

Word at Work 2:4, Dec 2013

Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religion, 2013

A great many things possess meaning, e.g., thoughts, actions, gestures, natural objects, cultural... more A great many things possess meaning, e.g., thoughts, actions, gestures, natural objects, cultural artifacts, and linguistic expressions. Although all have meaning, some bear logical relationships and some do not. Clearly, while relations of synonymy (sameness of meaning), antonymy (oppositeness of meaning), hyponymy (meaning inclusion), homonymy (same words/different meanings), analyticity (truth by virtue of meaning alone), entailment (whenever A is true, B is also true), logical truth (B follows necessarily from A), and equivalency (B follows necessarily from A and vice versa) obtain among linguistic expressions, they are not present in religious rites, hadrons, paintings, or storm clouds. Although both kinds of objects have meaning, they do not have it in the same sense. Theories of semantics arise principally in response to questions about meaning of the second variety: How do linguistic expressions gain and bear meaning?

The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition, ed. Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), 61-68, 2011

In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosop... more In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosophy of language, what was happening in the late medieval context that is similar to what philosophers of language do today, and what Luther was saying about language (and doing with language) within that context. By situating Luther's work in this way, we can make some suggestions about key features about what could be called "Luther's Philosophy of Language."

Lutheran Forum , Oct 2011

Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Nov 2011

Verba Vitae, 2024

What is it that makes a person who she is? Traditional accounts of personhood rely on intrinsic c... more What is it that makes a person who she is? Traditional accounts of personhood rely on intrinsic criteria: A person is his body or his mind, or perhaps his soul. Yet, these accounts are problematic because one could have a different body or a different set of psychological experiences. Moreover, appeal to an immaterial soul to individuate persons is unhelpful because each soul seems to have the same set of properties. This problem of personal identity is linked, of course, to a host of deep questions, e.g., Is a fetus a person? Does one in the throes of dementia still have personal identity?

After reviewing the standard objections to understanding personal identity intrinsically, I suggest an extrinsic account of individuation, e.g., Bob is Bob, not because of Bob's body or mental experience, but because of God's intentionality. Just as God's love individuates the Persons of the Trinity, so does His love individuate extra-Trinitarian persons. Bob is Bob because God eternally regards Bob to be Bob and eternally loves and sustains Bob in being.

If the problem of personal identity finally demands such an extrinsic account of individuation, then personhood itself is a matter of God's grace. Divine love brings persons ex nihilo into being. Accordingly, the question of whether it is justifiable to choose to terminate the life of the fetus is profoundly altered, for viability is grounded in divine intent, not in biological and/or psychological development and achievement.

Verba Vitae, 2024

There is a fundamental distinction between the essence of a thing and its existence, a metaphysic... more There is a fundamental distinction between the essence of a thing and its existence, a metaphysical distance that grounds the irreducibility (or even incommensurability) of the latter to the former. In modern logic this is the distinction between specification of polyadic predicates and their instantiation. The irreducibility of existence to essence problematizes easy consequentialist arguments arguing to the existence or nonexistence of a baby/fetus on the basis of the likely effects that the existence of this being shall have on the overall utility of a group. I argue that arguments from the utility of a group to the existence of an individual while prima facie problematic, can proceed cautiously when structured as defeaters if and only certain conditions are met to the overall inferential isolation of existence from essence.

Verba Vitae, 2024

Since from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, life -- particularly life like ours -- i... more Since from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, life -- particularly life like ours -- is exceedingly rare in the universe, it has a prima facie preciousness. Ontology of life questions cannot be pursued in isolation from the immediacy of this preciousness.

Dialog, 2022

Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Rece... more Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Recently Duane Armitage has claimed that since Heidegger is the “root to all continental philosophy of religion and postmodern theology,” and since his “disdain for onto-theology is rooted in Luther, . . . essentially all postmodern theological thinking is fundamentally Lutheran.” Clearly, both Martins deemphasize theology’s penchant for abstract metaphysics and look instead to recover the facticity of concrete lived Christian existence. But surface similarities should not occlude what profoundly differentiates the two, for the Martins depart radically in what they thought thinking did and what the truth-conditions of their respective discourses were. Luther who assumed theological realism, was concerned with how human beings really stand in relation to God, while Heidegger brackets such questions in favor of a description of the phenomenological shape of the Christian life. I employ elementary model theory in order to provide greater precision and accuracy in evaluating the stark semantics differences of their respective approaches.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther , Jun 2017

While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the ques... more While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the question of being, careful scrutiny of his texts show otherwise. Trained at Erfurt to read Aristotle in the via moderna tradition, Luther did have ontological and semantic convictions that are displayed throughout his work, but especially in his disputations dealing with Trinitarian, Christological and soteriological issues. While rejecting as idolatrous the human attempt to grasp the summum bonum through natural reason, Luther nonetheless assumed that God’s revelation in Christ has ontological implications.

The Finnish School of Luther interpretation, founded by Tuomo Mannermaa, has done a great service for Luther research by highlighting the motifs in Luther of Christ’s real presence in the justified believer and the presence of God’s love in faith. Although the Aristotelian categories available to Luther were inadequate for conceiving the paradoxical presence of the infinite in the finite, Luther did not thereby adopt a relational ontology more characteristic of the late nineteenth century than his own time. Instead he simply regarded as true what his philosophical categories could not fully conceive: Just as God became a human being while remaining God, so too do humans become God while remaining human. While the Finnish scholarship highlights Luther’s use of participatio in speaking of the presence of the divine in the justified believer, Luther did not mean thereby that human beings are essentially transformed into God, but rather they are in faith profoundly interpenetrated by the divine.

Luther’s discussion of the nova lingua of theology connects to the “real-ontic” presence of Christ in the believer. As a good nominalist, Luther understood that sentential truth presupposes ontology. While everyday language, the language of philosophy generally, has truth conditions that can be articulated in terms of the existence of particular substances and their particular qualities, things are not so clear for the language of theology that speaks of the Trinity, incarnation, and the presence of God in the world and particularly in the life of the believer. How is this language constituted so that the real presence of the divine can be spoken with meaning and truth? While Luther assumes the extensionalism of nominalism when speaking philosophically, it is not clear that this is the case when he speaks theologically. Luther understands that language itself must be profoundly changed in order to grasp and state the reality of the infinite in the finite. Whether this change can be understood on the horizon of an extensionalist semantics is an open question.

Dictionary of Luther and the Lutheran Traditions, Aug 2017

Habits in Mind, eds., Gregory Peterson, James van Slyke, Michael Spezio, & Kevin Reimer, 77-99, Jun 2017

Hilary Putnam famously argued that meaning is not in the head, i.e., the meaning of a term is not... more Hilary Putnam famously argued that meaning is not in the head, i.e., the meaning of a term is not determined wholly intrinsically by our psychology, but in part extrinsically by the actual reference of a term. This entails inter alia that two people with molecule-by-molecule replica brains can mean different things and that the supervenience of meaning upon brain states fails. Meaning is not a non-relational, intrinsic property of agents, but is extrinsically related to the world beyond the agent. This view is standardly called semantic externalism. Much of the philosophical tradition has tacitly assumed that virtue is a non-relational, intrinsic psychological or behavioral property of agents and that it thus supervenes upon appropriate behavioral and/or neurophysical realizers. Accordingly, two people with molecule-by-molecule replica brains must possess common virtues. But within the context of late medieval scholasticism, virtue came to be increasingly understood as relational and extrinsic to the agent. Later within Lutheran theology, there was an "Exodus from virtue to grace," a paridigmatic upheaval in understanding the nature of virtue. Just as the external world determines what terms mean, so an external agent determines what acts are virtuous. We might call this virtue externalism. This paper surveys the late medieval notion of virtue as it develops in the pactum theology of the via moderna and attains classic form within Lutheran theology where the following holds: S is virtuous in doing P if and only if God regards S as being virtuous in doing P. The goal is to show that virtue externalism was, and still remains, a vibrant alternative to traditional virtue internalist accounts. The paper concludes by pointing out that the possibility of virtue externalism has deep implications for any attempt to locate physical realizers for ethics. As it turns out, it is possible for two people to be behaviorally and neuro-physically indiscernible and yet display discernibly different ethical properties, and, as I suggest in conclusion, this is true not only if we posit the notion of divine agency, but any external agency whatsoever.

Word at Work , 2015

A firm understanding of the truth-conditions of theological language can help us greatly in doin... more A firm understanding of the truth-conditions of theological language can help us greatly in doing theology. This article takes truth conditions seriously.

The Word at Work , May 2015

The Annotated Luther Series, Vol I: The Roots of Reform (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), ed. Timothy Wengert, 66-121, 2015

The philosophical theses of Luther's Heidelberg Disputation follow the theological theses in clai... more The philosophical theses of Luther's Heidelberg Disputation follow the theological theses in claiming that Aristotle is improperly used as a theology of glory. In the epistemic realm, as in the moral order, human beings cannot build a bridge to God on the basis of their own deontological or epistemic merits. Luther criticizes in the disputation the penchant of the late medieval tradition to interpret Aristotle in ways showing consonance with Christian theology.

Word at Work 2:4, Dec 2013

Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religion, 2013

A great many things possess meaning, e.g., thoughts, actions, gestures, natural objects, cultural... more A great many things possess meaning, e.g., thoughts, actions, gestures, natural objects, cultural artifacts, and linguistic expressions. Although all have meaning, some bear logical relationships and some do not. Clearly, while relations of synonymy (sameness of meaning), antonymy (oppositeness of meaning), hyponymy (meaning inclusion), homonymy (same words/different meanings), analyticity (truth by virtue of meaning alone), entailment (whenever A is true, B is also true), logical truth (B follows necessarily from A), and equivalency (B follows necessarily from A and vice versa) obtain among linguistic expressions, they are not present in religious rites, hadrons, paintings, or storm clouds. Although both kinds of objects have meaning, they do not have it in the same sense. Theories of semantics arise principally in response to questions about meaning of the second variety: How do linguistic expressions gain and bear meaning?

The Devil's Whore: Reason and Philosophy in the Lutheran Tradition, ed. Jennifer Hockenbery Dragseth, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press), 61-68, 2011

In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosop... more In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosophy of language, what was happening in the late medieval context that is similar to what philosophers of language do today, and what Luther was saying about language (and doing with language) within that context. By situating Luther's work in this way, we can make some suggestions about key features about what could be called "Luther's Philosophy of Language."

Lutheran Forum , Oct 2011

Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Nov 2011

Disputationes, 2023

A reflection about how AI changes the purpose of writing.

Artificial intelligence composition is to the future of writing what mathematical calculators was... more Artificial intelligence composition is to the future of writing what mathematical calculators was to the future of mathematics. In the future actually constructing arguments and reasoning will become less important to writing, just as mechanical calculation has been for mathematics. What will remain important is simply a defense of a direction.

Institute of Lutheran Theology Faculty Retreat, 2023

The theological realist must be able to provide an account of reference to the divine if his/her ... more The theological realist must be able to provide an account of reference to the divine if his/her theological semantics is to be plausible. Unfortunately, the theological realist is a species of metaphysical realist or external realist, and the model-theoretic arguments damaging to external realism apply to his/her position as well. In this paper, I introduce the model-theoretic argument that is, I think, destructive for realist theological semantics, and briefly defend Putnam's "one more theory" argument. Unable to secure reference to the divine from a "moderate realist perspective" (Putnam), I discuss options for non-natural reference to God offered by phenomenology, pointing to the many obstacles that must be overcome in providing a cogent and plausible account of reference. The structure of my argument is this: If theological realism, then either moderate realism or non-natural intentionality. Moreover, if moderate realism, then the model-theoretic argument must be overcome. But the model theoretic-argument has not been overcome, and non-natural intentionality to the divine is problematic. Therefore, theological realism is problematic. Moreover, since theological realism is likely the only game in town in our non-idealistic age, the failure of theological realism makes problematic the semantics of theological discourse generally.

Disputationes, 2023

There are some who believe that Putnam's model-theoretic argument refutes external realism/metaph... more There are some who believe that Putnam's model-theoretic argument refutes external realism/metaphysical realism. In this brief paper, I apply his model-theoretic argument to theological realism, arguing that the nature of theology with its finite attempt to think the infinite does not allow for the requisite intentionality within theology to escape the damaging results the argument has for theological realism.

Disputationes, 2023

Davidson's distinction between causal relations and causal explanation is applied to the theologi... more Davidson's distinction between causal relations and causal explanation is applied to the theological problem of the Holy Spirit causing behavior within the context of a complicated beliefs/desires account explaining that behavior.

Disputationes , 2023

The philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine schooled us on the indeterminacy of translation using the... more The philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine schooled us on the indeterminacy of translation using the example of a tribesman speaking the unknown language Arunka employing the locution 'gavagai' whenever he saw what we might think is a rabbit. But while we might think that 'gavagai' refers to the object rabbit, we can never know for sure what the tribesman is actually referring to when employing 'gavagai'. There is, after all, an inscrutability of reference. This short piece explores implications for Christology of the inscrutability of rabbit reference.

Disputationes, 2023

Once upon a time in the west we believed that there was a world that existed apart from us. There... more Once upon a time in the west we believed that there was a world that existed apart from us. There were many versions of how this was so, but the paradigm was clear: Entities and the properties that they instance are what they are apart from human awareness, perception, conception and language. With Kant and followers a screen descended between the self and the world. No longer was there unmediated access to the world. However, the Cartesian move from Cogito to Sum guaranteed that at least one had immediate access to the self, even as the world faded from view. But now a screen has descended between the self and the self. The world-less world is now matched by a self-less self, for we can know neither immediately and completely. These great movements in intellectual History have had deep repercussions for theology. What is it to live the Christian faith in an Age without the objectivities of world and self?

Christian Academy Magazine, 2022

EACLLC Blog, 2022

EAGLLC is engaged in providing consultation to institutions and businesses for the writing of Eth... more EAGLLC is engaged in providing consultation to institutions and businesses for the writing of Ethical Vision and Mission Statements. This article suggests grounding this in Levinas' Other.

ChristianAcademia , Jul 1, 2022

Can a dialogue in the Platonic style awaken Ashley to critical questions about choosing a gender?... more Can a dialogue in the Platonic style awaken Ashley to critical questions about choosing a gender? Sometimes self-discovery does not work out as hoped.

The young Martin Heidegger read intensely the young (and then old) Martin Luther. His early inter... more The young Martin Heidegger read intensely the young (and then old) Martin Luther. His early interest was in the phenomenology of the factical life of the Christian believer. But what did he really appropriate from Luther? This paper uses some elementary model theory to understand how different were the semantic fields in which both authors wrote. It suggests that some paradoxes of Lutheran theology survive in Heidegger's ontological analysis in Being and Time.

Disputationes, 2022

Transcendental Reflection has been a cottage industry for philosophers for more than two centurie... more Transcendental Reflection has been a cottage industry for philosophers for more than two centuries. Such reflection has had a significant affect on the trajectory of theology as well. In this blog post, I ask the question of how we might think the divine Other on the other side of transcendental reflection.

Disputationes, 2021

Kant distinguished a determining judgment from a reflecting judgment. In the former, the universa... more Kant distinguished a determining judgment from a reflecting judgment. In the former, the universal is given and the power of judgment is exercised in thinking the particular underneath it. In the latter, the particular is given and the power of judgment operates to find universals under which the particular might be subsumed. I argue that reflecting judgments provide opportunities for hermeneutically-sensitive metaphysics.

Disputationes, 2021

Written for my graduate students studying Kant's Critique of Judgment, I explain Pluhar's attempt... more Written for my graduate students studying Kant's Critique of Judgment, I explain Pluhar's attempt to find a unity between the first two cliques in the third critique, and point to some of the difficulties Pluhar (and Kant) encounter.

Disputationes , 2021

In this very short paper, I reflect on the modal nature of Kant's transcendental argument, relati... more In this very short paper, I reflect on the modal nature of Kant's transcendental argument, relating the modality therein presupposed (S5) to the ontological argument and the medieval distinction between the necessity of the consequence and the necessity of the thing consequent.

Disputationes, 2020

This brief paper reflects on the nature of a reflecting judgment in Kant, pointing out that the t... more This brief paper reflects on the nature of a reflecting judgment in Kant, pointing out that the thesis and antithesis of such reflecting judgments do not form antinomies as they would were they determining judgments. Kant suggests that "coincidence of their opposites" is taken up into the Supersensible.

Vorwort, by Tuomo Mannermaa. Freiheit als Liebe: Einführung in das Thema, by T Mannermaa. Freedom... more Vorwort, by Tuomo Mannermaa. Freiheit als Liebe: Einführung in das Thema, by T Mannermaa. Freedom, love, and righteousness in Luther's Sermo de duplici iustitia, by D Bielfeldt. Martin Luther zum Thema Freiheit: Ein Beitrag anhand der Operationes in Psalmos (1519-1521), by H Blaumeiser. The role of law in how a Christian becomes what he/she is, by B Erling. Freedom as love: Luther's treatise on good works, by G Forell. The foundation of creative freedom in Martin Luther's "Von den Guten Werken" (1520), by E Grislis. Martin Luther's commentary on Gal 5,2-24, 1519 (WA 2,574-597) and sermon on Gal 4,1-7, 1522 (WA 10 I 1,325-378), by E Gritsch. An ontology of freedom in the De servo arbitrio of Luther, by R Jenson. Libertas et oboedientia: Zum Problem von Freiheit und Gehorsam bei Luther, by A Radler. Verantwortung des Glaubens: Freiheit und Liebe nach der Dekalogauslegung Martin Luthers, by K Schwarzwäller. Luthers invocavit sermons, by J Strohl. "... aber die Liebe ist die grösste unter ihnen": Zu Luthers Auslegung von 1 Korinther 13, by R Vinke

The Encyclopedia of Martin Luther, 2017

While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the ques... more While many have interpreted Luther as “anti-metaphysical” and therefore unconcerned with the question of being, careful scrutiny of his texts show otherwise. Trained at Erfurt to read Aristotle in the via moderna tradition, Luther did have ontological and semantic convictions that are displayed throughout his work, but especially in his disputations dealing with Trinitarian, Christological and soteriological issues. While rejecting as idolatrous the human attempt to grasp the summum bonum through natural reason, Luther nonetheless assumed that God’s revelation in Christ has ontological implications.

The Finnish School of Luther interpretation, founded by Tuomo Mannermaa, has done a great service for Luther research by highlighting the motifs in Luther of Christ’s real presence in the justified believer and the presence of God’s love in faith. Although the Aristotelian categories available to Luther were inadequate for conceiving the paradoxical presence of the infinite in the finite, Luther did not thereby adopt a relational ontology more characteristic of the late nineteenth century than his own time. Instead he simply regarded as true what his philosophical categories could not fully conceive: Just as God became a human being while remaining God, so too do humans become God while remaining human. While the Finnish scholarship highlights Luther’s use of participatio in speaking of the presence of the divine in the justified believer, Luther did not mean thereby that human beings are essentially transformed into God, but rather they are in faith profoundly interpenetrated by the divine.

Luther’s discussion of the nova lingua of theology connects to the “real-ontic” presence of Christ in the believer. As a good nominalist, Luther understood that sentential truth presupposes ontology. While everyday language, the language of philosophy generally, has truth conditions that can be articulated in terms of the existence of particular substances and their particular qualities, things are not so clear for the language of theology that speaks of the Trinity, incarnation, and the presence of God in the world and particularly in the life of the believer. How is this language constituted so that the real presence of the divine can be spoken with meaning and truth? While Luther assumes the extensionalism of nominalism when speaking philosophically, it is not clear that this is the case when he speaks theologically. Luther understands that language itself must be profoundly changed in order to grasp and state the reality of the infinite in the finite. Whether this change can be understood on the horizon of an extensionalist semantics is an open question.

Encyclopedia of Protestantism (New York: Routledge) , 2004

Encyclopedia of Protestantism (New York: Routledge), 2004

Encyclopedia of Protestantism (New York: Routledge), 2004

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, 2003

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion , 2003

Enclyclopedia of Science and Religion, 2003

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion (New York: Macmillan), 714-717, 2003

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, 2003

Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Nov 2011

Trinity Seminary Review 31:2, 132-134, Jul 2010

Trinity Seminary Review , Sep 2006

Trinity Seminary Review , Sep 2006

Trinity Seminary Review , Apr 2006

Lutheran Quarterly , Jul 2002

Journal of Lutheran Ethics, Mar 2002

Lutheran Quarterly , Sep 2000

Sixteenth Century Journal, 31:1, 223-24, 2000

The Sixteenth Century Journal , Jan 2000

Church History 68:4, 1001, Dec 1999

Sixteenth Century Journal , Dec 1999

Lutheran Quarterly , Jul 2000

Currents in Theology and Mission, 2000

This little piece was written for my graduate students in the Kant class I was teaching. Does Pl... more This little piece was written for my graduate students in the Kant class I was teaching. Does Pluhar's solution work? Check it out.

It appeared in 2018. , 2015

Although Martin Luther was wary of philosophy's unwarranted incursion into theology, his work is ... more Although Martin Luther was wary of philosophy's unwarranted incursion into theology, his work is nonetheless philosophically informed and committed. Luther knew his Aristotle, praised Plato, and was at home in the philosophical world of his nominalist teachers at Erfurt, Trutvetter and Usingen. While there has been some exploration of Luther’s metaphysical, epistemological, and ontological assumptions, until quite recently there has been little explicitly, philosophical work examining Luther's views on topics that became quite important in twentieth-century theology: What do theological words, phrases, or sentences mean, and what are the conditions grounding the possibility of that meaning? What does the word ‘God’ signify? How should one interpret phrases like, ‘this bread is Christ’s body’, or, 'the creator of the universe was born of woman,' or ‘God was in Jesus Christ reconciling the world to Himself’?

Teaching Philosophy, 1992

Modern Theology, 1990

1 A paradigm is a framework of interpretation possessing criteria by which to adjudicate legitima... more 1 A paradigm is a framework of interpretation possessing criteria by which to adjudicate legitimate and illegitimate inquiry and method. In Luther studies the dominant paradigm has been that of post-Kantianismndashwhether it be Ritschl's emphasis on Luther's inner freedom and ...

In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosop... more In the essay, I shall say a couple of things about how philosophers today understand the philosophy of language, what was happening in the late medieval context that is similar to what philosophers of language do today, and what Luther was saying about language (and doing with language) within that context. By situating Luther's work in this way, we can make some suggestions about key features about what could be called "Luther's Philosophy of Language."

P. Lang eBooks, 1995

Contents: G.W. Forell: Luther's Treatise on Good Works - E. Gritsch: A Critical Dialogue on L... more Contents: G.W. Forell: Luther's Treatise on Good Works - E. Gritsch: A Critical Dialogue on Luther's Understanding of Freedom - T. Mannermaa: Freiheit als Liebe - R. Vinke: Zu Luthers Auslegung von 1. Kor. 13.

The Sixteenth century journal, 2000

The Sixteenth century journal, 1997

Church History, Dec 1, 1997

The Sixteenth century journal, 1995

Church History, Dec 1, 1999

This is a remarkable study of the Christology of Cajetan (1469-1534), who is known to Protestants... more This is a remarkable study of the Christology of Cajetan (1469-1534), who is known to Protestants as the representative of Rome in his momentous encounter with Martin Luther in 1518. Nieden has chosen to exclude Cajetan's understanding of the Atonement in order to ...

Teaching Philosophy, 1989

Dialog-a Journal of Theology, Sep 1, 2022

Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Rece... more Much has been written about Heidegger’s indebtedness to Luther in developing Being and Time. Recently Duane Armitage has claimed that since Heidegger is the “root to all continental philosophy of religion and postmodern theology,” and since his “disdain for onto-theology is rooted in Luther, . . . essentially all postmodern theological thinking is fundamentally Lutheran.” Clearly, both Martins deemphasize theology’s penchant for abstract metaphysics and look instead to recover the facticity of concrete lived Christian existence. But surface similarities should not occlude what profoundly differentiates the two, for the Martins depart radically in what they thought thinking did and what the truth-conditions of their respective discourses were. Luther who assumed theological realism, was concerned with how human beings really stand in relation to God, while Heidegger brackets such questions in favor of a description of the phenomenological shape of the Christian life. I employ elementary model theory in order to provide greater precision and accuracy in evaluating the stark semantics differences of their respective approaches.

Church History, Mar 1, 1997

Using a research sample of twenty-two CEBs situated in geographically distinct areas within the a... more Using a research sample of twenty-two CEBs situated in geographically distinct areas within the archdiocese, and divided among urban middle-class and lower-class districts, Hewitt conducted his study through the years 1984 to 1988. His helpful CEB typology distinguishes six "ideal types": simple devotional groups; devotional miniparishes; elementary devotional and political CEBs; politically oriented miniparishes; politically oriented missionary CEBs; and classical, or ideal-typical, CEBs. He discovered that while the preponderance of participation in the communities is from among the poor, the socioeconomic characteristics of participants range across the spectrum of wealth and status. Indeed, he discovered that the organizational behavior and function of the communities, in whatever socioeconomic context, was remarkably consistent. To the extent that the CEBs are productive of fundamental change in Brazil, it is the activity of Type VI groups, problematic and controversial as it may be, that is likely to produce it. Still, as Hewitt notes, the very existence of the CEBs, of whatever type, already signals change in ecclesial life and the potential for change in life beyond the church. A major factor in the success of the organizations is the direct involvement of activist clergy. Therein lies a significant difficulty, for as Hewitt notes, "The same institution that has nurtured the CEBs seems well positioned to orchestrate their downfall, and capable of doing so, should this be the desire." Whether or not the CEBs succeed or fail ultimately as agents of enduring change in Brazilian society, they remain an important phenomenon, not only in the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil but in the ecumenical church throughout Latin America and elsewhere, and will be the subject of continued study and reflection for those who wish to understand the dynamics of ecclesial life and social engagement in the history of post-Vatican II Christianity. While one could wish that his analysis might have included CEBs in other areas of Brazil, especially the northeast, Hewitt's work is a significant contribution to understanding the phenomenon.

Disputationes, 2022

There is a certain class of consequentialist arguments in the abortion debate that rely upon a li... more There is a certain class of consequentialist arguments in the abortion debate that rely upon a link between the "what" of agents' happiness and the "that" of the existence of the fetus/baby. I argue here that denial of the ontological argument has repercussions for this class of arguments.

In this brief post I distinguish types of act and rule utilitarianism, and using the example of G... more In this brief post I distinguish types of act and rule utilitarianism, and using the example of Germany, argue that act utility must take preference over rule utility.

Disputationes, 2022

How do generalization arguments connect to climate policy? This brief paper explores its applica... more How do generalization arguments connect to climate policy? This brief paper explores its application in the case of Germany. Clearly, clarity on these issues should drive climate policy.

This is a somewhat technical discussion of the "paradox of the woke." If the thought and value of... more This is a somewhat technical discussion of the "paradox of the woke." If the thought and value of people are themselves wholly determined by class consciousness or class inclusion, how is it possible for the woke to achieve the requisite epistemic standpoint to achieve wokeness? How is wokeness possible, if wokeness itself is determined by underlying economic and social conditions?

Disputationes, 2022

What can one say about a discourse that prescribes rules for other kinds of speaking that it itse... more What can one say about a discourse that prescribes rules for other kinds of speaking that it itself does not follow? In this piece I reflect upon transcendental reflection generally, claiming that this penchant to promulgate rules for thinking that it does itself not follow is the distinguishing criterion of transcendental reflection generally.

April , 2022

We have much clarity on the distinction between a theology of glory and a theology of grace when ... more We have much clarity on the distinction between a theology of glory and a theology of grace when thinking in traditional (pre-critical) theological ways. But what becomes of the distinction after one has moved from thinking the world to thinking our thinking of the world? What becomes of the distinction when we enter into transcendental reflection? Can the Other of such reflection still function in ways salvifically continuous with the tradition?

Disputationes, 2021

Kant's Critique of Judgment argues for a distinction between determining and reflecting judgments... more Kant's Critique of Judgment argues for a distinction between determining and reflecting judgments. As it turns out, the latter kind characterizes the fields of aesthetics and teleology respectively. In this article, I assert that reflecting judgments could even today provide resources for a new kind of metaphysics.

February, 2021

Transcendental arguments for the possibility of experience are famous in the history of philosoph... more Transcendental arguments for the possibility of experience are famous in the history of philosophy. In this short article, I deal with the most famous proponent of transcendental arguments, Immanuel Kant, and I attempt to sketch an informal proof for his position using S5.

November, 2021

The deepest paradox of human life is that the standpoint we must employ in the grasping of our li... more The deepest paradox of human life is that the standpoint we must employ in the grasping of our lives is always underdetermined by the life we grasp. In this position, there could never be hope that human beings might relate to God. But as the theological tradition has always taught, it is God's Spirit that constitutes the conditions for human beings to relate to God. This post deals with the paradox of self-reference and its relation to talk of the Spirit.

Disputationes, 2020

Everybody should know more about Walter Benjamin. If you have not already read Benjamin deeply, ... more Everybody should know more about Walter Benjamin. If you have not already read Benjamin deeply, you might find this article helpful, especially if you are interested in Benjamin's early views on language.

Disputationes, 2020

This article reviews some of the basics of German social theory, particularly the Frankfurt Schoo... more This article reviews some of the basics of German social theory, particularly the Frankfurt School. It can be helpful to those finding their way inside the literature.

Disputationes, 2017

What are the presuppositions that divide Lutherans into different theological camps? In this blog... more What are the presuppositions that divide Lutherans into different theological camps? In this blog article/post (with well over 2,000 views) I list seven: 1) The relationship between the meaningful content of Scripture and the historical conditions from which it arose, 2) The question of proper authority in theological adjudication and communal practice, 3) The ontology of the divine, 4) The ontology of justification, and 5) The ontology of the church.

Disputationes, 2013

Theology makes use of what Austin once called "performative utterances." Accordingly, some langu... more Theology makes use of what Austin once called "performative utterances." Accordingly, some language is donational; it speaks the reality it donates. But is this an identity of the signum and the res? This article looks critically at preaching understood as performance, and points out that the presuppositions for performative utterance are themselves not performative.

Disputationes, 2024

Congregational life is cross-pressured. While much of the practices of earlier generations contin... more Congregational life is cross-pressured. While much of the practices of earlier generations continue, there has been a profound shift in what is now considered epistemically and morally justified. Along with traditional Christian practice there is the assumption of metaphysical naturalism which is disconsonant with that practice.

Disputationes, 2024

While I reject the thesis that religion and science are in conflict, I do think that, for many, t... more While I reject the thesis that religion and science are in conflict, I do think that, for many, the assumption methodologically that we only employ naturalistic explanations in natural science entail there is no room for God. I pursue this question from the congregational standpoint.

Disputationes, 2024

What do people in Lutheran pews presuppose about God and the world before they seriously reflect ... more What do people in Lutheran pews presuppose about God and the world before they seriously reflect upon it? I begin to unpack this here.

Disputationes, 2024

This is the second post of a series of blogs pertaining to congregational revitalization from a L... more This is the second post of a series of blogs pertaining to congregational revitalization from a Lutheran perspective.

Disputationes, 2024

The Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) has embarked on a new venture called the Center for Cong... more The Institute of Lutheran Theology (ILT) has embarked on a new venture called the Center for Congregational Revitalization (C CR). In this first installment, I point out we must focus again on the task of reinvigorating congregational life, or there will someday be very little of it left in North America.