"Lex orandi lex credendi": A Phrase That Can Afford To Be Retired

I was reading Rev. Klemet Preus's fine book The Fire and the Staff today, and I was distressed to see him quote favorably the old axiom, "Lex orandi lex credendi." Actually, the axiom isn't that old. It's a fairly recent innovation that contains a pernicious teaching. Rev. Preus attributes it to Prosper of Aquitaine, but what St. Prosper actually said was, "ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi," "that the law of what is to be beseeched in prayer may confirm the law of what is to be believed." That means that because St. Paul commanded prayers on behalf of the secular authorities (a true "lex supplicandi"), and these prayers would naturally include the supplication that pagan rulers would be converted to Christ, the grace of Christ precedes any act of human free will in the miracle of conversion. This fact lends support to the "lex credendi," i.e. the binding article on sola gratia. It does not mean that practice in general reflects doctrine in general (Rev. Preus's point), and it especially doesn't mean that the liturgy independently determines doctrine (what most who say "Lex orandi lex credendi" usually teach).

I'm tired of hearing Lutherans use this axiom. It's a fantasy of those behind the modern liberal liturgical movement, those who find the "beauty of the liturgy" far more compelling than the beauty of pure doctrine as actually taught by our Lord Christ. It's fine to say that doctrine must inform, yea, must determine practice. It's fine to say that good practice can teach pure doctrine. It's fine to say that corrupt practice leads to corrupt doctrine. But when you say, "Lex orandi lex credendi," you're using a "made-up" phrase (it can't be attributed in that form to Prosper of Aquitaine), you're associating yourself with a disgusting trend, and you're tossing around a slogan that's either meaningless or actively pernicious. Pope Pius XII had the sense to invert the axiom (how refreshing!). Why can't Lutherans do the same, as did Hermann Sasse? or, better yet, just not use the phrase at all? Please let's have done with "Lex orandi lex credendi."

Monday Night Christopher Cooking

I've decided to prepare supper on Monday evenings since Monday is my day off. That way I can give Leah a break from worrying about meal preparations and dish clean-up, and develop my own cooking skills. Last Monday was canned soup and frozen french-bread pizza. Tonight was sauteed mushrooms and onions with sea scallops. I suppose I'm getting better as I go. Maybe next time I'll move up to hotdogs.

Where To Find My Sermons

After a month and a half on vicarage, I've finally started working in earnest on keeping the sermons at the frankentrost.org website up-to-date. I post the audio for Pastor Loest's sermons, and I post audio and text for my own. Unfortunately I have no audio for my first sermon (10 August), and some audio is missing for Pastor's sermons over the last few Sundays, but from here on out, the website should stay pretty current. I would welcome any feedback on my own sermons.

A Project: The English Luther Bible

I've been working on a project for a while... It's called "Biblia, that is, the entire Holy Scripture. English. Christopher Neuendorf. Frankentrost." (By the way, Frankentrost, MI is where I am right now, serving as Vicar of Immanuel Lutheran Church, supervising pastor Rev. Mark Loest.) It will be a translation of the Bible from the Greek and Hebrew, but compared with Luther's German version. That means that translational choices will be decided based on Luther's version. For example, did Eve say, "I have acquired a man with the help of the LORD," or "I have acquired a man, the LORD"? In my English Luther Bible she will say the latter, since Eve viewed Cain (wrongly, of course) as the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15 that the woman would give birth to the Seed, viz. the Christ, who would crush the serpent's head.

It also means that specific terms will be somewhat different than they've been in previous English versions. There will be no "gentiles," only heathens (Luther translated "ethnoi" by its German cognate "Heiden," English "heathen," which gets across the idea that "the nations" are pagan--they exist outside of God's blessing until such time as the Christ should come). There will be no "uncircumcision," only the Foreskin (St. Paul's actual term for the mass of uncircumcised heathen). There is very little "justifying," but there is a lot of making/becoming righteous.

It also means that the choice of base original texts will be different, at least for the New Testament. I am using the Byzantine text-type (which I believe to be authentic, unlike the Alexandrian, which is what is typically used in Protestant seminaries, including Lutheran), and where Luther's base text (Erasmus's Greek New Testament) adds something, I will indicate that in my own footnotes.

It also means that there will be no verse divisions (these may be indicated in the margins) and therefore no artificial breaks in the text. There were no verse divisions until after Luther's death. There will be marginal glosses, translated from Luther's own, often helpful, sometimes quaint, always entertaining. My own notes will be presented in the form of footnotes and will alert the reader when Luther's translation differs from what I consider to be sound modern scholarly opinion, or when Luther takes extreme liberties with translation (which he often does, and which I will follow as closely as possible in my translation--hence the need for footnotes).

It also means that the books of the Bible will be presented in the order in which they are found in Luther's Bible, with the Apocrypha between the Old and New Testaments, and Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation relegated to the back, since they are not (in Luther's judgment) apostolic (Hebrews denies the possibility of repentance following post-baptismal apostasy, James contradicts the clear words of St. Paul and fails to center his letter on Christ, Jude quotes from apocryphal texts, and Revelation is too obscure to be Holy Scripture. And they are all antilegomena, so we are free to discuss whether or not they are apostolic). There will be introductions to the Old and New Testaments, translated from Luther, and prefaces to those books and groups of books for which Luther provided prefaces.

All I have so far is Galatians, two chapters of Romans with two thirds of its preface, a few chapters of Genesis (not consecutive), and a Psalm. It's slow going, but I haven't had the opportunity to be imprisoned in the Wartburg for months on end.

This will not be the Lutheran Study Bible (coming soon from CPH!). It will be the English Luther Bible.

What do you think?