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Christianity, Church History, Luther, Lutheranism, Medieval History, Reformation History, Ronald Rittgers, Soteriology, Suffering, Theology
Ronald Rittgers’ The Reformation of Suffering: Pastoral Theology and Lay Piety in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany is a thorough and masterful examination of how the church’s ministry to suffering laypeople changed under the Lutheran Reformation as a result of the teaching of salvation by faith alone. It combines many of the virtues we would hope to see in a historical text: insightful scholarship, diligence in documenting and analyzing sources, a demonstrated concern for re-discovering to the extent possible the religious experience of late medieval and early modern Christians, all combined in a very, very readable style.
Rittgers spends his first three chapters laying out groundwork, namely the understandings of suffering that existed in Germany in the late Middle Ages under the institution that we now refer to as Roman Catholicism. The first chapter examines common pastoral responses to suffering, particularly as they were influenced by the First Lateran Council of 1215 AD and the pastoralia literature that arose in response to it. These pastoralia were manuals to performing the sacraments, with little in the way of counseling or catechism, which, Rittgers teaches us, was very often what late medieval Christians wanted. To many, particularly those of the emerging merchant class, a version of Christianity still very much based on Carolingian royal and religious ideals and its do-ut-des (I give so that you give) was highly appealing. In this view, the role of suffering , if borne patiently, was that Christians might offer it to God to remit some portion of their sins, thus decreasing time to be spent in purgatory.
In the second chapter, Rittgers retraces suffering in Christian literature extending back to Pagan sources. He covers theological developments through the late Middle Ages. The third chapter is devoted to the always fascinating topics of passion piety and medieval mysticism, where suffering could frequently be a sign of the absence of the presence of Christ that the mystic craved, or more rarely of His presence. It also could play a role in preparing the mystic for such a union. Rittgers is keen here and throughout the book to examine exactly if and how ordinary Christians of the time were brought into contact with the material he covers. The chapter on literature, for example, discusses the state of priestly education and thus the likelihood that the ideas he presents would have been transmitted very frequently. The chapter on passion piety describes how it was transmitted beyond the cells of ascetics, namely through itinerant Franciscan monks.
The next two chapters cover Martin Luther’s theological development, particularly in the area of soteriology. Rittgers identifies how Luther’s notions of suffering change as his doctrine develops. At the time of his earliest published writings, Luther believed that Christians had to be put through suffering and submit to it as a preliminary step to salvation, that it might strip their self-confidence and give them the humility that would precede faith. As his monergism developed, any role of the believer’s suffering in salvation dropped away quickly. By the end of the fourth chapter, we arrive at Luther’s belief that already knowing God’s forgiveness is what allows the faithful to endure suffering and we have the core of his belief. The fifth chapter adds later details that emerge in Luther’s writing and catalogs in some detail his various departures from late medieval theology, including the complicated ways that Luther drew on much mysticism while stoutly rejecting some of its key aspects.
Rittgers is clear about his approach to Luther and the Reformation – he seeks a balance between the “great man” approach of old scholarship and the emphasis that more recent researchers have placed on the Wittenberg movement as a whole. Rittgers notes that Luther’s writings on suffering exceeded those of other reformers in quantity and depth and that he is quoted far more frequently that any of the others in the consolation writings of the generations that immediately followed. From Luther, Rittgers moves into a vast examination of the literature that followed him and takes time to touch on some of his non-Lutheran contemporaries.
The first of these chapters (the sixth of the book) examines a wide range of Lutheran pastoral writings, as well as that of two laypeople, Lazarus Spengler (an associate of Staupitz whose first attempt at writing on the subject fell short of Lutheran orthodoxy on salvation), and Katarina Schütz-Zell. Schütz-Zell drew on both Lutheran and Zwinglian writings in a work of consolation to women whose husbands were suffering Roman Catholic persecution for the Gospel. The Lutheran pastoral writings, of which a handful are examined in considerable depth, all rely on Luther’s theology of the cross. Other influences in this chapter are Zwingli and the Radical Anabaptists. The latter discounted any suffering that was not persecution for the gospel, which separated them from Lutherans who recognized any form of suffering as legitimate for the Christian.
The seventh chapter examines the kirchenordenungen, or church ordinances, that guided church discipline and instructed pastors on how to console. They gave a great deal more insight into this issue than their late medieval counterparts, the pastoralia. Here we see the emergence of a Lutheran trend that has roots in the late Middle Ages even as it seeks to turn laypeople from medieval practices – the use of suffering and consolation as a way of catechizing the masses. As the Lateran Council emphasized the sacraments as a way to dissuade people from turning to pagan practices like magic for relief from suffering, so the Lutherans turned to consolation in the knowledge of Christ’s redeeming grace alone as a bulwark against not only magic, but also recourse to relics and the intervention of the saints.
The next chapter picks up with a new generation of writers, who seek to expand what was written by their predecessors. The kirchenordenungen offered discussions of dealing with suffering in general, but few specific types of suffering. A generation later, practical manuals that pastors first wrote for their own, individual use began to appear in published form for the use of others in ministry. Suffering became increasingly tied to confessional Lutheran doctrine. A variety of additional subjects come into play now, including a re-examination of the role of suffering in salvation. Lutherans acknowledged that it was possible for a believer to fall from belief and lose salvation. Suffering, though it couldn’t contribute to attaining salvation, became a means to keep the believer on the narrow path once set upon it by God’s monergistic action alone. Lutherans occasionally asserted that New Testament-like miracles could still happen and sometimes identified them in their own history, such as in the translation of the Bible into German. Lutherans also added an emphasis on angels in order to replace the cult of the saints.
Chapter nine examines the return of mysticism to the Lutheran consolation literature, which had been present in Luther but absent from his immediate followers. The mystics were defended as pre-Reformation figures on account of their criticisms of the church back then. The return of their influence led to a greater sense of unity between Christ and the Christian. Also in this chapter, Rittgers examines how many church libraries had the literature he has been citing, and the answer is that it was very few. Most pastors learned through catechesis, kirchenordenungen, and being mentored. They were taught that they must look at their own suffering – God-forsakenness – to be able to understand that of their flocks and provide consolation.
Whereas Rittgers examines competing scholarly views in multiple places, it is in chapter 10 that he decides to stake his claim alone against a widespread contemporary trend. Over and against those today who analyze the Reformation on a pass/fail basis according to the widespread popularity its teachings did not gain, Rittgers insists that this is to judge it on terms other than its own. He delves into records left of Lutheran lay piety to show that, while the Reformation was limited in how far it penetrated, it did have demonstrable effects on some laypeople and communities. In a book packed with wonderful primary sources, many of which recommend themselves for further reading, it is worth pointing out that this chapter contains one of the absolute gems. Over and over, Rittgers unpacks Oelhafen’s Pious Meditations on the Most Sorrowful Bereavement, a journal kept after the loss of a beloved wife. Any modern Christian will find Oelhafen’s prayers and poetry deeply personal, sublime, and bittersweet.
Rittger’s conclusion is his final analysis, in which he examines the trends in Lutheran consolation literature and why it is rejected by so many schools of thought today, such as Feminism. One trend that he identified in his text is particularly on his mind here: that there is no room for lament, no permission to protest against God for suffering that one is encountering. This he attributes to the use of consolation: catechesis against paganism or idolatry rather than the intellectual battle for Christianity’s foundations against atheism with which we faithful are so familiar today. He seems to blame this lack of lament (finding scriptural support against it) for the decline of popularity of Christianity against these other world views. One has to wonder here if Rittgers hasn’t fallen into the trap that he himself identified back in chapter 10 – that of judging the Reformation on terms other than its own. To change the teaching of consolation in order to fight an intellectual battle for Christianity is hard to imagine in light of the role that Luther and the Wittenberg school though that reason could not have in bringing a person to saving faith.
Rittgers’ work would almost be difficult to praise too highly. Its combination of detailed, well-documented scholarship and relatively easy readability stands out. Perhaps most engaging is the way Rittgers takes pains to identify not just the content of his sources but their impact. He takes every opportunity to point out how many editions a work was printed in, how widespread it was, where it was referenced, and so forth. His analysis of pastoral education and the degree to which books would or would not have been transmitted to the laity is one of the features of this work that make it both fascinating and useful – it is a genuine attempt to re-create as much of the experience of late medieval and early modern Christians in Germany as possible as it was created and influenced by the teachings of the churches of the Middle Ages and the Reformation. To the greatest extent possible on the other side of so many centuries, Rittgers succeeds admirably.