Finnish Luther

Tuomo Mannermaa, Christ Present in Faith: Luther’s View of Justification . Translated by Kirsi Stjerna. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005. 136 pp.

For the past twenty-five years, Luther scholars in Finland have been pursuing a revisionary account of Luther’s theology in conjunction with ecumenical dialogues with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Luther that emerges from their work is quite different from the Luther of Lutheranism. The Finnish Luther teaches that the righteousness of Christ is ours because the living Christ Himself dwells within the believer, and the Finnish Luther talks about theosis and shows a distinctly unLutheran interest in ontology.

Robert Jenson and Carl Braaten edited a volume of essays on the Finnish Luther in 1998, but otherwise little has appeared in English. Tuomo Mannermaa has been the main player in the Finnish efforts, and this Fortress Press release is the first English translation of one of Mannermaa’s seminal treatises, originally published in 1979. Mannermaa supports his interpretation of Luther with many lengthy quotations from Luther himself, and hence gives English readers a chance to meet the Luther they never knew.