Table Talks of Martin Luther Key Points

Luther's Table Talks on the Lord's Supper is a very well organized but exhaustive work. Theological topics are arranged and categorized and sub-topics are clearly defined as well by Roman numeral. Luther has nearly 50 topics in his work making it like a catechism, and thus its size and style parallel the City of God by Saint Augustine.

A message that reoccurs all throughout Luther's work is the depth of God's meaning and the shallowness of man's understanding. Consider the following passage, "Dr. Jonas Justus remarked at Luther's table: There is in the Holy Scripture a wisdom so profound, that no man may thoroughly study it or comprehend it. "Ay," said Luther, "we must ever remain scholars here; we cannot sound the depth of one single verse in Scripture; we get hold but of the A, B, C, and that imperfectly. Who can so exalt himself as to comprehend this one line of St Peter: `Rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings.'" (Luther, VIII - Of God's Word) A person could thus see in Luther a sharp contrast to the contemporary commonly held belief that a person that reads God's word becomes so empowered by the truth as to became infallible.

Luther makes his point very clear that humans cannot even comprehend God. Luther writes the following, "No mortal creature can comprehend God in his majesty, and therefore did he come before us in the simplest manner, and was made man, ay, sin, death, and weakness." (Luther, LXIII - Of God's Works) Luther shows the problem of the limitation of human knowledge to understand God, but he gives Christ as the solution to this problem.

Even though Luther gives Christ as the solution to the problem of human frailty in understanding, he nevertheless acknowledges that the world will never accept God for God or the devil for the devil. Consider the following, "The world will neither hold God for God, nor the devil for the devil. And if a man were left to himself, to do after his own kind and nature, he would willingly throw our Lord God out at the window; for the world regards God nothing at all, as the Psalm says: The wicked man saith in his heart, there is no God." (Luther, CXXXVIII - The Nature of the World) Overall, Luther appears to hold a very strong position for the limitation of human knowledge.

Bibliography:

Luther, Martin. Table Talks. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The Nature of the World. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/tabletalk.v.iii.html, accessed February 17, 2011)

Luther, Martin. Table Talks. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Of God's Word. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/tabletalk.v.i.html, accessed February 17, 2011)

Luther, Martin. Table Talks. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Of God's Works. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/tabletalk.v.ii.html, accessed February 17, 2011)