The Promise of Nicene Lutheranism

Abstract

What does it mean for the church still to go on in the same way as Nicaea? Recent patristic scholarship has complicated this question by emphasizing the embedded character of Nicaea's surface-level dogmatic judgments, thus suggesting (whether explicitly or by implication) that genuine continuity with the Nicene tradition calls for an alignment with Nicaea far more robust and expansive than the maintenance of simple assent to its creed. The aim of this article is to consider apparent challenges which arise from this thick delineation of Nicaea for the modern Lutheran theological tradition, suggesting in the final analysis that in order to ‘go on in the same way as Nicaea’ in accordance with this thick delineation, it will be necessary for some strands of modern Lutheran theology to adjust the manner in which they understand and assert the criteriological primacy of the Gospel.