Susan, At 06:57 AM 5/10/2005, you wrote: >>Part of the confusion over what Luther believed about the eucharist is that >>many, if not most of his followers did not share his epistemology.<<
Calvin, to some extent, based his ideas on Luther's (and, indirectly, Biel's). However, Calvin, especially in his view of double election, strikes me as even more nominalist than Luther and his soteriology. In other words, if God wills some to go to heaven and others to hell, it is not for humans to question. God's Will defines that which is good and bad. It is not constrained by some preexistent essence or form of divine virtue. >>Philp Melancton, for instance, the chief author of the Augsburg Confession, >>was a humanist and humanists tended towards platonism, not nominalism.<< Yes, the Enlightenment reconstruction of humanism often focused on an imagined essence of humanity or on the view that humanity is governed by certain ideal forms. Therefore, the problems with rationalist and essentialist humanism became problems associated with many constructions of the Enlightenment project itself. Perhaps the ultimate caricature of the Enlightenment and natural theology was Auguste Comte's positivist Religion for Humanity. >>For that reason Luther's own nominalism has sometimes been overlooked. He >>himself did not consider it an essential part of his theology.<< Luther was more concerned with nominalism in the early part of his career. It had fallen more into the background by the time of his 95 theses. >>However, he felt it absolutely essential to believe in the Real Presence in >>the sacrament and refused to consider anyone a real Christian who took it >>symbolically.<< Right, to Luther, rejecting the presence would be a denial of God's sovereign Will. Via moderna, Mark A. Foster � Portal: http://markfoster.net "... since [a] word is said to be common, it can be called a universal" - William of Ockham, Summa Logicae, Part I __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
