The Significance of the Sola Fide and the Sola Gratia in the Theologies of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Professor, Dr. Else
Marie Wiberg Pedersen, Aarhus University, Denmark
presented at the 45th International Medieval
Congress, May 15, 2010
Abstract
In this paper, I want to demonstrate that Luther's reform, grounded on careful bible studies, had a parallel in the Cistercian reform of the 12th century. Like Martin Luther in the 16th century, so 400 years earlier Bernard of Clairvaux endeavoured to revitalize an "evangelical" reading of the bible, in which the Pauline letters and Matthew 5 played a key role. In many ways, the whole pattern in Bernard's reformation theology can be found in his 86 sermons on The Song of Songs, to which Luther quite early was attracted and from which the most elaborate of his 500 citations from Bernard's writings stem.
I will here concentrate on the two central principles of the Lutheran reformation, the sola fide and the sola gratia based on the sola scriptura, in order to outline similarities or a structural continuity between Bernard and Luther. Actually, Bernard and Luther both seem to use these principles as a matrix for reading the bible. Thus, when Bernard calls upon his professional monks to side scripture with experience, he like Luther speaks about faith as a daily struggle. Luther praised Bernard's emphasis on personal faith in Christ as essential for justification, for example in his Lectures on Romans, and, indeed, Bernard points to the structure of faith as donum Dei in tandem with grace as favour Dei.
The paper will conclude by problematizing the modern term "mysticism" and its use, not least some Lutheran scholars' interpretation of the so-called bridal mysticism of Bernard and Luther.
Full text
The Significance of the Sola Fide and the Sola Gratia in the Theology of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Martin Luther (1486-1546). [pdf - 196 Kb] or [.docx - 72 Kb]
