Martin Luther and the Flow of Faith

Abstract

Abstract:Martin Luther's radical and revolutionary understanding of God's love in Christ entails a new kind of theological language. For Luther, divine love is dynamic, powerful, and even dangerous. He therefore needs a language to express the disruptive and surprising character of God's active presence in human life. Sometimes overlooked is his use of a family of words linked together by the flow of water. This essay will explore Luther's use of word-pictures connected with the images of "fountain" and "flow" or "overflowing." It argues that Luther finds these metaphors particularly congenial to his new understanding of justification by faith and the respective roles played by God and humanity. It concludes with some systematic reflections on how the use of these "watery" words can help convey the dynamism of grace to listeners today.