Martin_Luther_and_Aristotle

A devout theologian, Martin Luther believed that reason and faith could not be reconciliated. Reason in its worst form was rooted in philosophy, most particularly that of Aristotle according to Luther. Aristotle argued that it was possible for man to obtain “true” knowledge of God through reason, whereas Luther argued that it was only faith which could allow man to possess such knowledge. Luther’s attitude towards reason and to what extent it can possess “true” knowledge of God is best understood when analysing his two kingdoms principle. For Luther, it is within the context of the first kingdom, referred to as the “earthly” kingdom in which reason could play a positive role. Moreover, reason within the earthly kingdom, allows only for a “general” understanding of God. Secondly, Luther asserts that the “heavenly” kingdom deals strictly with heavenly affairs. Therefore, reason has no place in it. Furthermore, it is only through faith and scripture which allows man to possess “true” knowledge of God within the heavenly kingdom. Finally, the third section involves contrasting Luther and Aristotle’s views on reconciling faith and reason in regards to obtaining “true” knowledge of God. The paper will begin first by arguing the role of reason within the earthly kingdom in which Luther views it affirmatively. In his last sermon at Wittenberg in 1546, Martin Luther argued, “Reason is the devil's greatest whore; by nature and manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe”, in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 123-34. 274). Although Luther at times can be harsh in his criticisms of reason, this does not mean that he rejects reason completely. As a matter of fact, Luther finds reason to be completely acceptable; insofar it understands its limitations. For Luther, God effects his will over the lives of men in two ways: through the earthly kingdom and through the heavenly kingdom. The earthly kingdom refers to that dimension of man's life whereby he lives in society, is ruled and governed by the state, and makes decisions and choices of everyday life. Luther ascribes the highest authority on earth to reason, calling it, “the most important and the highest rank among all things... Reason is the gift of God and stands above all of man’s earthly blessings. It has discovered all of the arts and sciences, law and medicine, and it rules over them” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe” in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 137. 285) There are no limitations that exist on the authority of reason, so long as it pertains to secular matters such as the law and state within the earthly kingdom. It becomes clear then that reason has a positive place within the earthly kingdom. Even from the fall from heaven, Luther concedes that man does not lose all notions of rational thought. With this rational thought, man possesses the capability to carry out important functions on the earthly world. Man is without any impediment, able to engage in household affairs, in politics, and engage in other earthly tasks to which God has given him authority. In earthly government, the affairs of state, reason is to be exercised in its best possible fashion for providing a stable government and promoting civil righteousness. Thus, reason also then has its place in the earthly world through its duty of bringing order to society. Luther adds, “law may prevail at all times and in all cases, and reason may be the highest law and the master of all administration of law” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “On Temporal Authority” translated by Hans Schwartz, p. 46. 73). Luther argues that reason along with natural law within the earthly kingdom allows God to keep society together and prevent conflicts. In addition, holy scripture along with the gospel are to be kept separate from the affairs conducted by government. In the areas of law and the arts within the earthly kingdom, reason dominates faith and faith must affirm that it is indeed a creation of God. “These things are a part of God’s divine image in man from creation, so that he may rule over the earth, reason is the majesty of this earthly life” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “On Temporal Authority” translated by Hans Schwartz, p. 48. 75). Natural man possesses the capability to be aware of God to a certain extent through self-reasoning without the employment of faith on the earthly world. Scripture, according to Luther, affirms this and his observation of the world’s religions confirmed this scriptural truth. The various pagan religions that he observed assumed that men possessed within themselves, a conceptual notion of God. To support this claim, Luther often would quote the religious views of Plato and Cicero, but with careful distinctions. He placed a sharp distinction between a “general” and “true” knowledge of God. Luther adds that, “by nature all men have the general knowledge that there is a God. Besides, the forms of worship and the religions that have been and remained on the earth are abundant evidence that at some time all men have had a general knowledge of God." (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe” in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 166. 309). When Luther spoke of possessing “general” knowledge it meant having an awareness of God, knowing that God created heaven and earth, and knowing that God rewards those who are virtuous and punishes those who are evil. Man within the earthly kingdom is aware of a God, but is unable by reason to know how God is minded towards him. Reason, for Luther, was also able to arrive at a "legal” knowledge of God, meaning reason can not only perceive that there is a God; it can also perceive God's law and will for man’s general conduct within the earthly kingdom. On this basis, Luther is boldly able to assert the notion that reason by itself is capable of governing the state, indeed the entire earthly kingdom. In this regard, Luther says, "Reason can arrive at a 'legal knowledge' of God. It is conversant with God's commandments and can distinguish between right and wrong. The philosophers, too, had this knowledge of God." (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe” in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 178. 316). This “general” and “legal” knowledge of God is referred to by Luther as “left-handed” knowledge of God. This “left-handed” knowledge allows man to be, “aware of what God demands in terms of what is right and wrong; but does not know that man is lost to sin, under the judgment of God. It does not know the depths of God's mercy and kindness in the Gospel. At the same time, it is impossible for reason to acknowledge the extent of sin” (Althaus, p. 85). As a result, Luther places a sharp distinction between knowledge of God and his law (left-handed knowledge) within the earthly kingdom and knowledge of the gospel. Knowledge of the gospel represents “right-handed” knowledge of God and is confined strictly within the heavenly kingdom. For Luther, reason can know the former but not the latter. In conclusion, reason can play a positive role within the earthly kingdom; insofar it understands its limitations. This limitation being that it can only obtain a “general” or “left-handed” knowledge of God within the earthly kingdom. While the earthly kingdom deals with the affairs of civil righteousness, conversely, the heavenly kingdom deals with heavenly affairs and the matter of righteousness before God (Bornkamm, p. 154). In the knowledge that deals with God and the affairs of the heavenly kingdom, reason has no place. Reason when placed within the heavenly kingdom begins to garner worship according to Luther. Reason begins to establish who its own God is and that God takes the form of the devil, which whom reason worships instead of the true God. This happens because reason is incapable of possessing a “true” understanding of God. Thus, reason’s conception of God is distorted as it, “plays blind man's bluff with God and always makes mistakes, and misses even time, calling that God which is not God and again not calling Him God who really is God... reason gives God's name an honour to whatever it considers is God, but never finds him who is really God, but always the devil or its own vanity which is ruled by the devil” (Lazareth, p. 63). It becomes clear through this quote that reason cannot possess “true” understanding of God when placed within the heavenly kingdom. Instead, reason is useful only within the earthly kingdom where it allows for only a “general” understanding of God. Luther argues that, “man’s reasoning faculties, unenlightened by the Holy Spirit, are of the flesh and because of this, consigned to death with respect to justification” (Lazareth, p. 62). Also, for Luther, no philosophy or doctrine exists that seeks to guide man toward the path of righteousness. He argues that, “Earthly wisdom can lead to good habits, but leaves [man] in bondage to the Old Adam” (Lazareth, p. 67). Just as Adam gave into his temptation and disobeyed God, reason cannot prevent man from disobeying God either. Through reason, man possesses the capability to delight God, but only for a certain amount of time before man gives into his appetitive desires (acting against the accordance of God’s will). It is impossible for reason then, to comprehend righteousness of faith or Christian righteousness, according to Luther. The heavenly kingdom should be ruled strictly through scripture and the gospel, meaning reason has no place in it. Scripture according to Luther represents an extension of the gospel of Christ, the lord. In addition, the gospel is justification by faith alone through Christ. The heavenly kingdom for Luther is, “a world that is outside reason, here we are in divine theology where we hear the Gospel that Christ died for us” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe” in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 137. 277). Within the heavenly kingdom man is able to possess “true” knowledge concerning deus revelatus, the revealed God who manifests himself in Christ and scripture. Conversely, philosophy rooted in reason, philosophizes about deus absconditus (the hidden God). Gerhard Ebeling in his book, Word And Faith offers an interesting critique on Luther’s notion of a revealed God. Ebeling places Luther into German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s phenomenal-noumenal dualistic framework which Kant discusses in his, Critique of Pure Reason. For Kant, the noumenon refers to an object of human inquiry, whereas the phenomenon refers to appearances, or object of the senses. Thus, “All insights of man's perceptive faculties "operate in what would later be called the phenomenal realm; they do not penetrate the noumenal” (Ebeling, p. 33). Ebeling equates Luther’s heavenly kingdom to that of Kant’s noumenal real and also equates Luther’s revealed God in Christ with the deus absconditis, or hidden God in which, “he deus absconditis becomes the deus revelatus. At the same time, the deus revelatus never loses its character as deus absconditis” (Ebeling, p. 35). This argument offered by Ebeling, would seem to depict Luther as being a fidiest, or steadfast believer of faith. Faith is independent of reason for Luther and religious beliefs could not be justified through rational means. Thus, reason is not superior to faith when concerning the heavenly kingdom. Moreover, reason can play a positive role strictly within the earthly realm and leads only to a “general” knowledge of God, whereas, scripture and faith leads to “true” knowledge of God and eternal salvation. In his "Disputation Against Scholastic Theology," Luther strongly condemns the Roman Government’s utilization of reason as it attempts to use Aristotle to reach the hidden God (God in his essence of being). He adds that, “A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil that wisdom which sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded and hardened. Those who truly desire to know the true God must look to the apostolic testimony in Scripture. Those who are unwilling to begin with this testimony of the revealed God in Christ will only find the devil” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Kritische Gesamtausgabe” in, American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51, p. 151. 293). Aristotle argued that reason was the highest virtue man could hope to attain and brought out the best in men. Luther confirms the validity of this claim made by Aristotle by placing reason strictly within the earthly kingdom. “Reason always pleads for the best in a mundane sense, that is, in things about which reason can judge... in respect to the body of the flesh” (Bornkamm, p. 179). In theology however, Luther argues that, “reason does not plead for the best because it is hostile to God and opposed to his will” (Bornkamm, p. 179). From this quote by Luther, it becomes obvious that he was opposed to the notion of reason dominating any aspects of faith or scripture within the heavenly kingdom. For Luther, reason left to itself is unable to discover that God wants to save us from sin and in fact, has sent His Son to accomplish this for Him. The Roman Catholic Church’s appropriation of Aristotle amounted not only to works righteousness but also to the notion that reason and logic could figure out the mysteries of God. Much of scholastic thought endeavoured to deal with a hidden God using reason in apart from faith and scripture. Aristotle attempted to reconcile faith and reason by arguing that through reason and not just revelation, man could discover the moral standards that God required of man. Faith and reason represented two roads to a single truth for Aristotle. What reason failed to uncover, faith would. Truth was the knowledge of God and God's will. Aristotle helped to fashion a world view for high medieval Europe. This was a world view which expressed the divinity and truth of Christianity and was supported by rigorous logical argument. Luther vehemently disapproved of this and argued that the deus revalatus (revealed God in Christ) provided the proper starting point for a “true” knowledge of God as opposed to “general” knowledge of the deus absconditus (hidden God) that the scholastics such as Aristotle sought to seek using reason. Thus, it becomes obvious then that for Luther, there is no hope for reconciliation between faith and reason. When it came to obtaining a “true” knowledge of God, it could only be achieved through faith and scripture. Moreover, reason could only play a positive role within the earthly realm where it could also only possess a “general” understanding of God. So how exactly does man go on to obtain “true” knowledge of God' According to Luther, man had to first do away with reason and first understand Christ as a human being. Christ’s humanity represents a ladder, in a sense that knowledge of the “true” God begins with the man, Jesus at the bottom of the ladder. If man begins with trying to understand Christ as a divine being at the top of the ladder with a theology of glory however, God will be forever hidden. For Luther such a procedure amounts to, “beginning on top and building the roof before you have laid the foundation. Therefore, letting God do whatever He is doing, you must begin at the bottom [of the ladder] and say: "I do not want to know God until I have first known this Man” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Epistle to the Hebrews” translated by James Atkinson, p. 31-32. 57). Beginning at the bottom of the ladder (discarding all rational thought and philosophy), Luther wants us to examine Christ first as a human being, then his teachings and works during his public ministry, and then his death, resurrection and ascension. It is through this that “true” knowledge of God can be attained by man for Luther. Far from being a Kantian dualist as Ebeling suggests, Luther instead, argued that Christ's divinity was fully evidenced in his miracles which were seen by many. Luther may have been sceptical of human reason, but he was not so sceptical about Christ, the Lord’s divine prowess through his works. Luther makes himself clear on this point. Christ says, “If my preaching does not make you willing to believe that God dwells and is in Me and that I dwell and am in Him, then believe this because of the works you see before your eyes. These works, as no one can deny, are not human; they are divine. They prove and attest powerfully enough that He speaks and works in Me and through Me. These are the works and miracles which He performed publicly before all the world-giving sight to the blind and bearing to the deaf-solely by the Word. These are not only divine works, but they are also witnesses of God the Father” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Epistle to the Hebrews” translated by James Atkinson, p. 33. 59). For Luther, Christ’s miracles affirmed his divinity and also affirmed his claim of the power to absolve people of their sins. In addition, the fact that Christ endured so much pain and died on the cross affirmed his humanity. In the very same fashion, without any phenomenal/ nominal or hidden/revealed dualism's, Luther can assert that Christ's resurrection affirms his divinity. Thus, when Christ says: “In three days I will raise it up," He proclaims that the death of His body lies within His power, that He can lay down his life and take it again at will” (John 10 : 18). Therefore He cannot be only man but must also be God. The fact that He is to be destroyed and die is proof of His humanity. But that He will rise again, that He will raise Himself from death, bears witness to His divinity...” (D. Martin Luther Werke, “Epistle to the Hebrews” translated by James Atkinson, p. 35. 61). Luther places a sharp distinction between Christ’s proof of divinity through his resurrection and man being able to comprehend such a phenomenon through means of rational thought. “Just as reason cannot bring man into the heavenly kingdom so cannot a mere fide historica (history of faith)... Man must acknowledge that Christ is “his” God and died for “his” sins, this represents true faith which only the Holy Spirit can work in the hearts of men” (Ebeling, p. 188). Thus, all those who enter the heavenly kingdom enter strictly through Christ alone and not through reason. Faith and scripture allows man to ascertain Christ as a human and as a divine being. This is what essentially leads to a “true” understanding of God, according to Luther. Reason cannot ascertain this and that is why it can only play a positive role within the earthly realm and possess a “general” understanding of a hidden God. Furthermore, reason has no place within the heavenly kingdom, a place where only faith and scripture can allow for a “true” understanding of God. Luther’s revolt against Aristotle and reason in general was most likely due to the Roman Catholic Church’s favouring of philosophical works as opposed to righteousness of faith. Another argument can be made that Luther was simply not capable of philosophical study and therefore he was dissatisfied with it. There is no doubt that philosophical study in the Middle Ages was meticulous and boring. Regardless, this does not necessarily mean that this was the root cause of Luther's dissatisfaction. Recognizing that it was during this period that Luther was searching for a way of fellowship with God and salvation from sin, one may see the explanation of his dissatisfaction with the old Aristotelian idea of reason. Luther had not found in philosophy that for which he was searching. Theology was closer to providing that and he desired to pursue that study further. This desire for the way of seeking a “true” understanding of God was no doubt the motivation for his two kingdoms principle. As he came closer to discovering the way of fellowship with God and salvation from sin, he recognized more the danger of Aristotle, which increased his dislike of the great scholastic. In contrary to Aristotle, Luther argued that reason was incapable of possessing “true” knowledge of God. Instead, reason could only possess a “general” understanding of God when placed strictly within the earthly kingdom. Conversely, faith and scripture within the context of the heavenly kingdom allowed for a “true” understanding of God and his will according to Luther. It is these exact ideas which led Luther to take apart the old Aristotelian idea of reason and then put them back together in a different way through his two kingdoms principle consisting of the earthly kingdom where reason could play a positive role, and the heavenly kingdom where reason had no place. WORKS CITED PRIMARY SOURCE(S) D. Martin Luther Werke, Vol. 5 1. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar, 1883- ), pp. 123 34, in; American Edition of Luther's Works, Vol. 51 (Philadelphia and St. Louis, 1955- ), p. 374. D. Martin Luther Werke, “Epistle to the Hebrews” translated by James Atkinson. D. Martin Luther Werke “On Temporal Authority” translated by Hans Schwartz. SCHOLARLY SOURCE(S) Sikes, Norman. Crisis of the Reformation. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1950. Lazareth, William. Luther’s ‘Two Kingdoms’ Ethic Reconsidered. New York: Association, 1966. Paul Althaus. The Theology of Martin Luther. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966. Heinrich Bornkamm. Luther’s Doctrine of the Two Kingdom States. Fortress Press, 1966. Ebeling, Gerhard. Word and Faith. Chicago: Springer Press, 1963.