Theology and soteriology : on the relation of theology and ethics

Abstract

Since the early sixties it has become fashionable in theology to juxtapose theology and soteriology, God'·s existence and his gracious benefits, metaphysics and ethics, science and pietistic individualism and theory and praxis. Critique of "personalism" , "privatization", "ethization" and "dehistorization" are since that time common also III philosophy and sociology. Specifically, the Helsinki accords of the Lutheran World Federation of 1963 argued that contrary to the Reformation's concern with God's grace, contemporary man is primarily concerned with his existence. No longer does man suffer under God's wrath and his own sin and anguishes over how to obtain a gracious God, as did Luther. Modern man is concerned, rather, with the question whether God exists at all. Modern man is not concerned about how his life can be justified, but rather about the absence of God and over the meaninglessness of his life. Whereas for Luther, God's existence was the unquestioned presupposition of the quest for his grace, for contemporary man that very existence has become the principal question.