Luther uses a different name to describe us as humans, as he focuses on our relationship in knowing God.

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (Registration required for the members area. It is a FREE membership.) for the continuation of this series.

Let me interrupt our philosophical study of Luther's Disputation Concerning Man with this philosophical and exegetical remark on the questions asked of Mary that first Easter, first by the angels and then by the risen Jesus, namely, Why are you weeping?

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (registration is required for the members area – but it is a FREE membership) for the continuation of this series.

We have been considering Luther's 1536 disputatio concerning the human being philosophically. Luther's way of thinking about human being is theologically bold, to be sure, but it is also philosophically reformational. This is to say that Luther's theology of man affects not only what we believe about ourselves but also how we think about the way we think of ourselves as human beings.

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (registration is required for the members area – but it is a FREE membership) for the continuation of this series.

What can philosophy do for Lutheran thinking? Let us turn to Luther's Die disputatio homine. The conceptual center of DisputationConcerning Man is the thirty-second proposition: Paul in Romans 3:28,  We hold that a man is justified by faith apart from works, briefly sums up the definition of man, saying, Man is justified by faith.

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (registration is required for the members area – but it is a FREE membership) for the continuation of this series.

First, a word about the value of philosophy for Lutheran thinking. I am a Lutheran pastor and a philosophy professor who regularly teaches immortal souls courses on philosophy of human nature. This has led me to think philosophically about Luther's 1536 Disputation Regarding Man.

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (registration is required for the members area – but it is a FREE membership) for the continuation of this series.

Last week, I mentioned that my guiding question for our discussion of Lutheran philosophy is whether philosophy can contribute to confessional Lutheran thinking and vice versa. My thesis, you recall, is that without Luther’s reformational thinking we would not have (at least certain aspects of thought in certain areas of) contemporary philosophy, while without the disciplined critical inquiry that we confessional Lutherans acquire from philosophy, we run the risk of becoming Lutheran fundamentalists. I concluded by proposing that we begin our conversation with a phenomenological meditatio on Luther’s 1536 Disputation Concerning Man. Why is this worthwhile?

For the complete document, please see the members area in instituteforlutheranphiliosophy.com site (registration is required for the members area – but it is a FREE membership) for the continuation of this series.