Luther is a threat to Romanism.
Zwingli is not.
Logia
Zwingli criticized Luther sharply for remaining stuck in popish sacramentalism. This is an accusation that is repeated to this day by Reformed theologians. However, after reading Dr. Wendebourg’s fine study, one can only wonder whether the understanding of the Lord’s Supper set forth by Zwingli and his associates, which excluded from it any present saving work of the Lord (sacrament) and thereby reduced it entirely to man’s or the church’s good work (sacrifice), is not paradoxically closer to Rome’s understanding of the Lord’s Supper than Luther’s teachings on the sacrament of the altar. What is denounced as “sacramentalism” and a deviation from the glory of the pure (purely spiritualistic, immediate) gospel may just be much more evangelical than Zwingli and his Evangelical and Reformed heirs can imagine.
Holger Sonntag
Hiram, OH
Hiram, OH
***
GJ - Others have made a similar point, but it bears repeating. Every form of Enthusiasm lands the victim in the same spot, because Enthusiasm divorces the Holy Spirit from the Word of God. Why do UOJ/Shrinkers hide the Sacraments? Answer - the Sacraments mean nothing to people who are already forgiven. Likewise, the Confessions are obsolete and boring, good for misquoting.
Many of the bright Lutherans today remind me of a meeting long ago at Paul Holmer's home when he was teaching at Yale. Gathered were the more conservative theology students in the doctoral program and divinity school. Each one seemed to be striving to offer a sparkling sound-byte that reflected several years of carefully reading the footnotes in scholarly books. That was the very thing Holmer made fun of, scholars coming up with something original every 50 years.
