LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Concordia Lutheran Seminary

42 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XII
unforeseen. Yet this specific way of articulating the universality of grace can
easily verge into universalism by dispensing completely with the Christian’s
own faith. The fact that several commentators, in the course of recognizing
this danger, minimize it, suggests that it should actually be explored with
more, not less, attention and precision. 73
6. A PROPOSAL FOR FURTHER INQUIRY
What is obviously still needed, then, is a thorough investigation of the
theological implications of reading pi,stij Cristou/ subjectively. Of
particular interest, as noted above, would be the doctrines of Christology and
soteriology. Some of the questions that could be considered in such an
inquiry would be these:
1. What would a Christology that paid full(er) attention to “Christ’s faith”
look like? In what specific ways might it resemble—or differ from—
classical Christologies both orthodox and heterodox? What kind of Jesus
would we have if faith were indeed (as Hays, for instance, suggests) His
defining characteristic?
2. For that matter, how has the traditionally-objective understanding of this
phrase affected the history of Christology? Soteriology? How important
was it, for example, to Martin Luther, that Paul should be speaking of
“faith in Christ” rather than “the faith of Christ” in these four key
clusters? Is there any evidence that Luther considered “the faith of
Christ” a viable option when he read these texts?
3. Conversely, it could be asked how unorthodox trends in contemporary
Christology and soteriology might also be affecting the interpretation of
pi,stij Cristou/. To what extent has the subjective interpretation
flourished as a means of undermining orthodox Christology and/or
soteriology?
4. What effect would it have on Lutheran theology to adopt a subjective
reading of pi,stij Cristou/? At what points—if any—would “the faith of
Christ” create conflict with historic Lutheran doctrine? Might the linkage
between grace and faith, attested already in Ephesians 2:8-9 and
reinforced in Luther’s great “solas” be strengthened through seeing Christ
as the single agent by and through whom both great principles are most
clearly revealed?
Obviously these are complicated questions. The phrase pi,stij Cristou/ is
itself so seldom and so ambiguously used that it might well be impossible to
draw out of such a small amount of textual raw material the large quantity of
73 Wallis 68-69; Hooker 322; Barth 368-69.