Dave Spotts
Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio: A Brief Reflection
A Paper for the MTS Law and Gospel Course
D. Spotts, April, 2010
The task before me is to provide a brief summary of one of the three disciplines: oratio, meditatio, or tentatio as outlined by Luther most notably in the preface to the 1539 Wittenberg Edition of his works. Following a summary of Luther's view of tentatio I will attempt to place the concept into its proper context in the whole of Lutheran theology. Finally, I will give some brief comments about the theology as applied in experience.
Luther essentially says that our development as theologians takes place as we first pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit, then seek theology as revealed in the Scripture. This constitutes the first two parts of our tripartite task. Counter to mysticism (Kleinig, 263), we would anticipate not an ascent into a divine contemplative life but rather an attack of Satan when we meditate on Scripture appropriately. This attack, which Luther called tentatio or Anfechtung, is not necessarily the kind of attack that modern evangelicals would expect. Luther seems to think of the tentatio as an insidious, frequently internal kind of temptation. He doesn't look at it as a temptation toward overt sin. Luther views Satan as altogether too smart to tempt us that way most of the time. Rather, Satan tempts us to trust in our own intellect, to depend on our own plans, to govern our lives and ministry in the way which would seem wise to our world. We walk in our own power rather than in the power of the Holy Spirit. Our temptation is to take that divine insight the Holy Spirit gave us in prayer, shove it into a drawer, and carry on in our own power. This type of temptation is very deceptive because we can give in to it at the very time we are trying to find the best possible way to minister to our community. We hardly realize we are enduring that temptation before we have succumbed. Luther suggests that the realization that we are undergoing tentatio should drive us to move back to our prayer (oratio) and further study of Scripture (meditatio).
How does this idea of tentatio relate to the whole of Lutheran theology? In a nutshell I observe that throughout the history of Lutheran faith and practice we see many instances of godly people falling prey to this kind of temptation. We may see it in the tendency of the earliest Lutherans to compromise on important doctrines with the Zwinglians and later the Calvinists. Maybe by practicing unity we can increase the kingdom. After all, we are on the same team. What about the numerous lapses into Pietism that we have seen in Lutheran congregations? All these bear, at their heart, a desire to accomplish the things of the Gospel through human means, albeit cloaked in the guise of divine command. We further see liberalism fall to this temptation. This philosophy has reacted against a dependence on the sufficiency of God's self-revelation in Scripture. This in turn leads to all manner of harm, including the embrace of a feminist agenda and human-centered ideas of what will make the church "relevant." Ultimately the Gospel is masked and the Church is no more a biblical church when it succumbs to this temptation.
This road we have laid out is further complicated in our day-to-day life. We see what the Scripture says. We desire to depend on what God has revealed, yet in our desire to do God's will we start to fall into Pietism. We react against Pietism and have a tendency to become antinomian. We see the Scripture talk about effective proclamation of the Gospel, evangelism, and reaching out in works of mercy. So we start to become Pietists again, pursuing our good works. In our reaction to this we end up with a quietism which melts into the woodwork and makes the Gospel we bear disappear from sight. We finally realize that in all this we are depending on our own wisdom, our own devices, our own sense of balance. We are victims of the tentatio of Satan. We desire the kingdom of God to come and the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Sadly, we desire it according to our own plans, on our own timetable, in accordance with our crazy concept of prudence. This must never be! It is what has driven us down the path to destruction. It is what has shackled the Church time after time. It is what has caused the Gospel to be obscured in this world. Rather, let us turn again to our Lord in prayer, asking for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Let us turn our attention to the Scriptures rather than to our ideas about the Scriptures. There we will see how our Lord would have us live and work as His redeemed people. There we will find the forgiveness we so desperately need. There we will be able to look to our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the living Word of God. There we will find the message our world must hear to receive pardon and life from God.
Sources Consulted
Luther, Martin. D. Martin Luthers Werke (Weimar, 1914), 50.657-661
Kleinig, John. "Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio: What Makes a Theologian?" Theological Quarterly 66.3 (July 2002): 225-267
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