The New Hermeneutics and the Early Luther *

Abstract

“The fundamental problem for him [Luther] is not a verbal description of God but the exposure of man's existence before God; that is to say, the proclamation of God's judgment over man. With this we are not brought into the horizon of metaphors. The linguistic use of metaphors has now quite another task with reference to the subject matter of theology, namely, to bring man into the real situation, where the subject-matter itself occurs, as is the case with Jesus' speech in parables.”