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Ritschl on Justification HT206W: Historical Theology III (The Doctrine of Justification) John Schumacher Ritschls understanding of justification begins

with an assumption that God is love and wishes to help human beings. Sin separates us from God, or rather, Gods presence withdraws from our sin, justification is the divine operation by which the sinner is restored to fellowship with God.1 Reconciliation is distinguished from justification as the ethical complement to justification, and is seen in secondary position. For Ritschl, justification is inseparably linked to individual lifestyle, where the restoration of [humanitys] fellowship with God necessarily finds its concrete expression 2 In short, the notions of sin and justification are for Ritschl radically different than their usual usage in Protestant theology. According to Ritschl, forgiveness of sin is not expiation for sin, but removal of the consciousness of guilt which is the result of humanitys failure to realize its moral destiny.3 Ritschl rejected out of hand the Anselmian notion of objective or juridicial atonement; Christ did not die to pay a penalty for our sin in the sense of sacrifice or payment of debt, but rather, as Gonzlez notes, Ritschls theory of atonement is an exaggerated version of Luthers imputed justice, which has become one-sided because Ritschl believes that any talk of the justice or wrath of God would contradict the central divine attribute, which is love.4 We recognize Gods eternity, Ritschl contended, not in the fact that [Gods] existence reached out beyond that of the world without beginning or end but in the fact that amid all the changes of things . . . [God] remains the same and maintains the same purpose and plan by which [God] creates and directs the world.5 Ritschl thus finds in Gods eternal nature a link to Gods wisdom, omniscience and disposition to meet the needs of [humans].6 However, the first perception to arise out of the thought of the omnipotence of God is the insignificance of man.7 Insofar as this forms our first impression of Gods constant readiness to help, it is called righteousness, or the consistency of Gods providence.8 As regards the old covenant, it is validated in the existence of pious and upright adherents; as regards the new covenant it is undertaken for the community whose salvation would bring Gods government to completion.9 Gods Kingdom, therefore, will be brought into existence through human cooperation with Gods will, made possible by Gods justification (the forgiveness of sins) which restores right relationship between humans and God. Thereafter, reconciliation is that state in which human beings live out this new relationship, based on forgiveness. As a result, the Kingdom of Godthe culmination of new relationshipis a communal and corporate, never an individual, affair. Ritschl had little to say about the historical Jesus, as he was not particularly
1 McGrath, op. cit., 163. 2 Ibid. 3 Justo Gonlez, A History of Christian Thought, Vol. III: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1975), 375. 4 Gonzlez, op. cit., 375. 5 Albrecht Ritschl, Instruction in the Christian Religion, in Albrecht Ritschl, Three Essays, Philip Hefner, trans., (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 227 [hereafter Instr]. 6 Ritschl, Instr, 226. 7 Ibid. 8 Ritschl, Instr, 227. 9 Ibid.

2 concerned with the person of Jesus Christ. The Christian community must maintain the goals of Christs lifechiefly, love for neighbor. This imperative of the kingdom of God is assigned to Christians, with the capacity for good presupposed according to the revelation of Gods love in Christ and its special effect upon them.10 This idea is far from total depravity or bondage of the will; on the contrary, Ritschl assumes that relationship with God is normative, human beings freely able not to sin (or, at least, capable of overcoming sin), and sin merely a temporary barrier to such relationship with God, easily dismissed through justification and continued onward in the state of reconciliation. But Ritschl does not discount sin altogether: it persists, even as Christians work to bring about the Kingdom of God, which presently still in the process of becoming. However, sin for Ritschl is defined more as temptation than as inevitability: sins are evil volitions, but they are also corresponding intentions, habitual inclinations and dispositions.11 Ritschl describes the possibility and probability of sinning, but never the inevitability of sinning, nor sinfulness as state of being. In the end, Ritschl defines sins universality in terms of an abuse of human freedom, not in terms of the Fall, after which sin is the only choice left available (thus, its inevitability), but in terms of persistently bad choices among many possibly good ones. Thus, the emphasis on the abuse of human freedom is more positively focused: unrestrained freedom is evil, but retrained freedom (meaning freedom used in cooperation and for the sake of the Kingdom) is good. Finally, forgiveness of sin and justification guarantee the existence of the Christian community.12 By this gift of grace, sinners are offered the opportunity to enter into communion with God, since guilt is no longer a barrier, and are given the right to cooperate with Gods final purpose: bringing the Kingdom of God. While Ritschl insists Gods action in this regard are the result of divine free choice, the emphasis on Gods will to help humans out of their sin would appear to limit God to actions with anthropocentric aims in mind. Also, justification and reconciliation, insofar as they are actualized, are individualized with respect to recognition by the justified, appearing at once to be the purpose of God and the result of that purpose, while adding to the person what is necessary for that person to appropriate in faith the final purpose of God, while giving up opposition to God. Furthermore, this occurs only insofar as the believer simultaneously takes an active role in the recognized purpose of Gods kingdom, that is, to give up the pursuit of selfish ends and inclinations, whether intentional or habitualin other words, to cease from sinning, or at least cease from the guilt of sinning. Forgiveness of sin and reconciliation for Ritschl are the way by which the individual appropriates the gifts of God. Such forgiveness of sin or reconciliation is as essential to the community as is the call to recognize the Kingdom of God, with the impulse to this realization contained within the call itself.13 Forgiveness is gained not from the negative concept of forgiving or paying a debt (as in Anselm), but from the positive Christian emphasis on Gods love, linked to Christs work. Redemption, then, is not a promise by Christ, but is linked to his death, which maintains the integrity of the covenant. Christs death is efficacious because in it, Christ willing surrendered to death; the key is Christs obedience to the Fathers will, an obedience which is the result of Christs distinctive vocation and which is expressed in Christs relation to the images of priest and sacrifice, for Christ exemplifies both.14 In short, Ritschls doctrine of justification precludes any notion of sin as inevitability or bondage issue for humankind. On the contrary, the imperative assigned to Christians is cooperation with Gods will to bring about the Kingdom of God. Grace is awareness of Gods essential nature (God is love), which is exemplified in the relationship of the Father to the Son, and thus, of God the loving Father to
10 Ritschl, Instr, 232. 11 Ibid. 12 Ritschl, Instr, 236. 13 Ritschl, Instr, 237. 14 Ritschl, Instr, 238.

3 Gods children, all human beings. Morality becomes the key issue for Christianity in Ritschls understanding, since the Kingdom comes about only through the cooperative effort of Christians on earth with Gods plan. In this regard, God provides for justification for the sins of believers: insofar as guilt for sin is now removed, Christians are freed to go about their business of ushering in the Kingdom of God. Ritschls is a kinder, gentler God, not the harsh Anselmian judge nor the terrorizing Almighty of Luthers experience, but a God concerned above and beyond all else with helping human beings. Relationship between God and humanity is assumed, and insofar as this relationship is unfortunately broken by sin, this is fixed through justification and continues in the fixed state in reconciliation, or the living out by the Christian of that forgiveness.

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