Episode Summary

“We all revert to patterns of trying to be good enough. Trying to earn our way, trying to pull up our bootstraps. This is the Pelagian temptation.”

Recorded at the NALC Clergy Retreat, this week's episode features a lecture from Dr. Alex Pierce of the North American Lutheran Seminary: “Confessions and the Christian Tradition.” Hosts Dr. David Luy and the Rev. Dr. Maurice Lee introduce the lecture and reflect on what makes it worth a pastor's close attention.

Dr. Pierce begins with the relationship between the Lutheran confessions and the whole of the Christian tradition. The confessions, he argues, affirm the catholic tradition and depend on it. Like a pointing finger, they only make sense in light of the things to which they point. At the same time, they leave many rich veins untapped. They tell us what doorbells to ring, and ringing them leads us on a journey of deep theological enrichment.

From that wide view, the lecture moves into a single episode in the church's memory: Augustine and the Pelagian controversy. Dr. Pierce walks through the history, from Pelagius and Caelestius in Rome to the councils and condemnations of the early fifth century, and then draws out three soul-nourishing truths the church inherited from it, each woven into the confessions themselves:

1. Sin exerts a subversive power over human nature, placing us in a position of desperation.
2. In baptism we are united with Jesus Christ, our perfect mediator, who is full of grace and truth.
3. All of our faith and love are gifts of the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Along the way, the lecture considers the dangers of reading the tradition unprepared, including paralysis, getting over one's skis, and losing proportionality. Guided by the confessions, pastors and students can enter these deep waters with confidence, receiving the riches of the tradition as spiritual nourishment for ministry today.

In the coming weeks, David and Maurice sit down with Dr. Pierce to explore the lecture in greater depth.

Referenced in this episode:

• The Book of Concord, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy Wengert
• The Augsburg Confession, Articles 2, 3, and 4
• The Apology of the Augsburg Confession
• The Formula of Concord on original sin and free will
• Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings
• Martin Luther, “A Brief Instruction on What to Look for and Expect in the Gospels”
• Romans 5:12; Galatians 5:6

Cardigan & Collar is a podcast of the North American Lutheran Seminary: theological conversations for the enrichment of pastoral ministry. Learn more at thenals.org.

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