A Lutheran Interpretation of Communicatio Idiomatum : A Response to Richard Cross

Abstract

This response to Richard Cross offers a different interpretation of Luther's employment of the communicatio idiomatum. Whereas Cross wants to place Luther's understanding of the communicatio idiomatum within a strictly philosophical framework of abstractions in order to make it fit a scholastic understanding, Luther firmly objects to such a modus operandi. Luther clearly differentiates between philosophy and theology, finding the former insufficient when dealing with Christology and soteriology. Counter to the scholastics but in continuity with Bernard of Clairvaux, Luther's Christology is incarnational and bound to humanity. To Luther it is fundamental that God can and will be known only as a human being (homo), yet Christ's real presence is presented three-dimensionally. Luther's complex understanding of Christ as really human and the Word incarnate is reflected in his intense work with semantics and the art of translation. Hence Christ is precisely human, not male; ministry is reconfigured as a human function (ministerium verbi), not a substitute for divine sacredness that is assigned to the Catholic vicarious Christi.