Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2007, Qupperneq 40

interplay of religion and public life. Like Andre Siegfried before him, he calls
for a nudge in the Lutheran direction.3 Noll then gives a few hints as to what
that voice might sound like. In the following I will elaborate more systematic
reflections on what this Lutheran vision might look like.
The Lutheran Contribution
Lutheranism, as noted by Noll, has a particular way of relating the church to
the public order. However, this “Lutheran attitude” does not lead in a specific
ideological direction, if that is taken to mean a rather detailed blueprint for
public policy. Rather, the Lutheran vision provides a framework for public
theology. It elaborates a set of theological assumptions that stipulate how or-
ganized religion and politics ought to be related, not so much for the sake of
politics and society but primarily for the sake of the church. What is legally
permitted — the direct and aggressive intervention of the church in political
affairs - may well not be good for the church and its mission. Undue entan-
glement in politics can be the ruination of the church.
Further, the Lutheran vision sets a general direction for public policy rath-
er than a specific set of policy injunctions. It tends toward what has been
called “Christian realism,” though that general tendency can be refracted into
a number of different policy directions. There are both left-wing and right-
wing Lutherans who share commitment to this framework.4
Four main themes constitute the Lutheran vision as it applies to public
life. They are: a sharp distinction between salvation offered by God in Christ
and all human efforts; a focused and austere doctrine of the church that fol-
lows from the first theme; the two-fold rule of God through Law and Gospel;
and a paradoxical view of human nature and history.5
3 America Comes of Age: A French Analysis, (New York: Knopf, 1927).
4 The social ethics of the Lutheran Church in America, as articulated in its social statements, tended in a left-of-
center political direction. William Lazareth and George Forell, whose theological counsel was formative in those
documents, were and are political liberals. ELCA social statements have continued the left-of center orientation.
Right-of-center social ethics are more difFicult to find in official Lutheran statements, but are well represented
in the writings of individual Lutherans such as Jean Elshtain, Richard Niebanck, and this writer. But in all these
examples, public engagement is framed by the Lutheran vision.
3 These themes are drawn from my reading of recent interpretations of the Lutheran vision, which is indebted
more to Scandinavian and American scholarship on Luther and Lutheranism than to German. These are, in my
opinion, more dynamic and open than the German, and are more influenced by the strengths of other Christian