Luther and Aristotle, Aquinas - The Radical Leftists in Lutherdom Today

 Eric Metaxas was Greek Orthodox and is now Episcopalian; he graduated from Yale,
His book on Wilberforce made quite a splash. He is a prolific conservative writer.

Someone sent me an Eric Metaxas book - Martin Luther, The Man Who Discovered God and Changed the World. I have started to read this excellent book and recommend it to those who want a good biography of Luther.

Metaxas reminds me of Roland Bainton, also of Yale, who was a phenomenal story teller.

One early point in the book was Luther's objection to Aristotle being considered harmonious with the Church. The future Reformer could not see how that could be. Staupitz, his superior, valued Luther appreciation for the Scriptures as the very Word of God.

The Medieval scholastics had their Aristotle, Aquinas, and Lombard's Sentences. Those were heavy duty filters that allowed almost any interpretation of Rome in the Middle Ages.

 We often saw Jaroslav Pelikan at church on Sunday.

That necessarily reminded me of Walter being the Lombard, the Aquinas, the Aristotle of Lutherdom.
Q - Is this true?
A - Let's see what Walther said about it. Then we will know.

If readers will keep an open mind, they will see how the current leadership of Lutherdom in America is completely radical Left-wing. That began with the Calvinistic influence in Pietism, which distilled into increasing powerful drafts of rationalism. This is how Pietism degenerates in stages:

1. Pietism wants to be Biblical but not argumentative or credal.
2. Pietists work together on good works, promote do-it-yourself cell groups, and reject creeds.
3. Bible colleges and universities are started to promote the study of the Bible, most famously at Halle University.
4. Rationalism takes over in stages, as it did at Halle, until the Biblical professors reject anything divine about the Bible. Rationalistic Pietism gave us UOJ and the historical-critical method (HCM) of studying the Bible as a mere book. Modern Biblical "scholarship" began at Halle.

In America:

• The General Synod began as an anti-credal Pietistic Lutheran group. This Muhlenberg tradition morphed into the ELCA, which is utterly rationalistic. The good works of Pietism have turned into redeeming society through a series of rainbow reforms.
• The Swedes and Norwegians were drawn into this Pietistic revolution because they were Pietists too. They became part of ELCA.
• The LCMS and WELS came over as Pietists, Missouri having their cell groups, WELS with their Reformed-Lutheran union churches.
• All of these synods repudiate Justification by Faith, the Chief Article, and teach against it, substituting their beloved UOJ for the Gospel. Evolution is popping up all over, already canonical in ELCA. Pan-sexuality is just as rad and promoted outside of ELCA as it is within ELCA.

That means -

1. ELCA is radical Leftist.
2. LCMS is radical Leftist.
3. WELS is radical Leftist.
4. Christian News is radical Leftist.
5. Herman Otten is a radical Leftist.
6. LutherQuest (sic) is radical Leftist.
7. Dead Last Lutherans is radical Leftist.

Roland Bainton was still lecturing at Yale when Mrs. Ichabod and LI joined the Big I for a chance to hear the great historian speak about Luther. LI let out a squeak when Bainton mentioned the birth of Martin Luther Junior. Everyone laughed, because they knew baby Martin was acknowledging his own name.