Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Puritan traditions together around conscience

31-10-2011

The first speaker of the session was Randall Zachman of the University of Notre Dame (USA). He highlighted from Calvin's commentary on the Psalms the views of the reformer on the conscience and God's providence. One of Calvin's points is that a Christian should not repay evil with evil, when wrongly accused, but continue with his work, be patient and hope for justice. The danger is to lose good conscience if one has to wait too long for justice, so endurance is needed, as well as prayer to overcome the pressure.



Unlike the Calvinist tradition, the Lutheran tradition has its own casuistry (resolution of cases of conscience), which can help in making the right decisions. Benjamin T. G. Mayes, pastor in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and editor at Concordia Publishing House (St. Louis), commented: "Casuistic categorizing of knowledge is especially appropriate to seventeenth-century Lutheran pastoral care, for it is here that the teaching of the gospel comes into contact with the many situations and struggles of life.”



“The Puritans,” says Joel Beeke of Puritan Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids, “aimed to understand the proper role of the conscience and to cultivate it through biblical instruction. They believed that a good conscience does not promote legalism nor carelessness about sin. Rather, peace of conscience strengthens a man’s moral backbone and makes him as bold as a lion.”



Prior to the presentations, the first book of the Refo500 Academic Studies was presented. This series is published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in Göttingen and focuses on various dimensions of the Reformation. The first book in the series is a dissertation by Benjamin T. G. Mayes, entitled Conscience and Counsel: Lutheran Casuistry and Moral Reasoning After the Reformation. In it, the author examines the advice Lutheran ministers gave to moral and doctrinal questions at the time of the Reformation and beyond.

Read here more about the Refo500 Academic Studies.

What does Benjamin Mayes say about his new book? Click on the photo below.