Atonement in Confessional Lutheran Theology: Harnack, Thomasius, and Philippi

The atonement theory of Johannes von Hofmann has left a mark on Lutheran theology that persists to this day. He rejected vicarious satisfaction and replaced it with a historical, dispensational theory of Heilsgeschicte (salvation history).

Hofmann claimed to follow Luther better than his opponents and the whole Lutheran tradition since Luther's death. He invoked the tactic of "Luther against the Lutherans." Similarly, he claimed to represent the Lutheran confessions more truly, changing only their form of expression but not their content. His critiques of vicarious satisfaction find sympathy in Gustaf Aulén, Gerhard Forde, the Radical Lutherans, and many others.

Hofmann's theory was immediately critiqued by two of his colleagues at Erlangen University, Theodosius Harnack and Gottfried Thomasius, and Rostock theologian Friedrich Philippi. They contended that Hofmann deviated from Scripture, Luther, and the Lutheran confessions in the Book of Concord. They demonstrated that his deviation ruined forensic justification by faith.

Though the Erlangen school and the great nineteenth century atonement debate still is in the air that many Lutherans breathe, the original material is inaccessible to them if they do not read German. This causes: (1) The need to bring the critiques of Hofmann by Harnack, Thomasius, and Philippi into English; and (2) The need for a competent, contemporary, confessional Lutheran introduction to this debate that sets it into its historical and theological context, engages the material, assimilates the material into a summary that fairly represents it, and serves the reader as a faithful guide to the debate.

These needs now are met in this volume. Translators Matthew Carver, Kyle Richardson, and Susanne Russell bring Harnack, Thomasius, and Philippi to you in English for the first time.

Jack D. Kilcrease achieves a major feat of historico-theological introduction to Hofmann, his theory, and the critiques by Harnack, Thomasius, and Philippi. He adds his own assessments. Among living Lutheran theologians writing primarily in English, no other author has more command of the atonement than Kilcrease. His doctoral dissertation, books, book chapters, articles, lectures, and presentations on the atonement exhibit this stature.