LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University
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LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

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82 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW IX never became a part of the Barth/ecumenical world as a result of his Lutheran convictions about the Sacrament of the Altar. He remained the odd man out. He understood that apart from the Sacrament, the Church would be simply swallowed up by the world. In the Sacrament of the Altar the Church is uniquely manifested as what she is divinely intended to be. During the war years and in post-World War II Germany, Sasse continued to call the Lutheran Church to a eucharistic practice that once had been and might once again be. He stated, “The proclamation of this ‘eternal Gospel’ is always to be accompanied by the celebration of the Sacrament that our Lord instituted by which His death is proclaimed until he comes.” It was Sasse’s insight, paraphrasing Luther, that there was no Gospel without the Real Presence. It is the Blessed Sacrament that prevents Jesus being locked up in the past and His atonement from turning into abstract theory. Sasse was convinced that the restoration of the Blessed Sacrament to its proper place in the Divine Service dare not be an interest only of liturgical reform. It is a matter of life and death for the Lutheran Church, in his view. As Dr Stephenson comments on Sasse’s teaching on the Sacrament, “Can we do without the rite once instituted in the upper room, which bridges the gap between the yesterday of the earthly Jesus and the tomorrow of our Lord’s glorious return” The answer seems obvious. Consubstantiation is the non-Lutheran word taken up by Dr Norman Nagel in the final major chapter (240-59). Professor Nagel indicates that the word never existed until the 16 th century, and although ascribed to Lutherans as their teaching on the Sacrament of Altar, it is disavowed. What Lutherans confess is that the Sacrament is the “true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself for us Christians to eat and to drink.” The term “consubstantiation” is traced to the Reformed theologian Hospinian in 1598. From that point Professor Nagel proceeds to trace the use of the word to the Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism of 1995. However, Dr Nagel’s purpose is to do more than simply trace the use of the term. It is rather to expound the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar from Sasse’s understanding and writings. Nagel proceeds through the Scriptural evidence, the Confessional writings, and the writings of the fathers to the orthodox Lutheran teachers. Nagel calls us to adoration. “Before His body and blood, before Him whose body and blood they are, we kneel, we worship, we worship ‘with one adoration’.” The concluding chapter is an appreciation of Hermann Sasse, the man and the theologian, by Dr Edwin Lehman, President of Lutheran Church– Canada at the time of the symposium (260-68). He suggests that part of Sasse’s legacy is that we are called to think theologically, to have a sense of history and the whole church, be ready to confess, and have a pastoral heart. Dr Lehman concludes by quoting Sasse, “When does the church exert its

PITTELKO: HERMANN SASSE REVIEW 83 greatest influence in the world When it is church, wholly church and nothing else!” Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary has done the Church a great service in sponsoring the Sasse symposium on the 100 th anniversary of his birth. Drs Stephenson and Winger along with the other authors have opened to us the riches of Hermann Sasse’s thought. For this we ought to be grateful. Roger D. Pittelko is Bishop Emeritus of the English District (LC–MS), Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN, and Fourth Vice-President of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

PITTELKO: HERMANN SASSE <strong>REVIEW</strong> 83<br />

greatest influence in the world When it is church, wholly church and<br />

nothing else!”<br />

Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary has done the Church a great<br />

service in sponsoring the Sasse symposium on the 100 th anniversary of his<br />

birth. Drs Stephenson and Winger along with the other authors have opened<br />

to us the riches of Hermann Sasse’s thought. For this we ought to be<br />

grateful.<br />

Roger D. Pittelko is Bishop Emeritus of the English District (LC–MS),<br />

Adjunct Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions at Concordia<br />

Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN, and Fourth Vice-President of the<br />

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

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